I’m a collaborative design leader who empowers teams through clarity and coaching, balancing creative vision with execution to deliver impact.
With 15+ years product experience and 10+ years in management roles, I specialize in building high-performing teams, shaping product strategy, and delivering scalable, user-centered design solutions across fintech, higher education, and beyond. I've worked in various industries and verticals to create products that customers love.
I’ve had the pleasure of leading design teams big and small throughout my career. I enjoy building things and driving complex design initiatives almost as much as I love typography. My work experience can be broken down by decades. The first 10 years, I worked in higher education (CSU Sacramento & UC Berkeley), publication, various design agencies and studios. The last decade I’ve been in Fintech (Intuit), embedded in product & platform teams.
I currently live in sunny San Diego, with my amazing wife, two wonderful daughters, and two derpy Frenchies. I’m an avid collector of Aloha shirts (new and old), vintage Hawaiian artifacts, and various vinyl that bridges from Motown to Classic Rock (especially vintage Hawaiian & Christmas records). In my free time, I enjoy spending way too much time and money on plants and designing/landscaping a tropical oasis in my backyard.
Experience
D.R. Horton / The War on Mars (2025 – Present)
Design Lead
Through my design business, The War on Mars, I support a new client D.R. Horton in their digital transformation initiative, serving as their Lead Product Designer. I own end-to-end design for consumer-facing transactional workflows, including home search, appointment scheduling, and loan qualification, as well as the internal tools behind them: a CMS platform migration spanning millions of data points across web and native experiences, and an agent-facing CRM for sales tracking. Since its inception, I have built a design system that creates cohesion and speed, while designing a Native app from the ground up. I introduced AI-assisted prototyping, automated interface generation, and LLM-powered design workflows that speed ideation, raise design quality, and shorten delivery cycles. In addition, I instituted design frameworks that help guide junior designers and lead design critiques with the Product Designers on the team.
Intuit (2015 - 2024)
Principal Product Designer / Group Design Manager
I was the design lead for the Identity Platform organization, owning critical capabilities across Authentication, Authorization, Privacy, Consent, and Account Management for 100M+ customers under complex regulatory and compliance requirements. As my scope grew to ten core capabilities, I moved into a manager role to scale my impact, building and coaching a globally distributed design team across the US and India while staying close to the work. I defined long-term platform strategy with executive leadership and partnered with UX Research on qualitative studies and analytics to shape roadmaps.
Throughout, I led the platform's flagship initiatives, such as the One Intuit Account, replacing bespoke account experiences that drove 3M annual support calls ($44M cost) with a unified experience across TurboTax, QuickBooks, and other products, increasing engagement 18% and reducing contacts 5%. Additionally, I led the design of Identity's first AI/ML model, replacing hard-coded, repetitive task prompts for 21M annual visitors with recommendations learned from account activity, which lifted engagement 5% and established principles of trust, timing, and clarity for AI recommendations. For the Intuit Enterprise Suite mid-market launch, I led identity design, unifying account switching and user management across QuickBooks through research-driven stepped flows, and scalable data grids.
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UC Berkeley (2014 - 2015)
Design Lead
Introduced early design systems to modernize the department's digital presence, partnering with cross-functional stakeholders to align design decisions with institutional goals.
Redesigned the donor experience in direct support of the Campaign for Berkeley, which raised $3.13 billion from over 281,000 donors, one of the most successful campaigns in the university's history.
The War on Mars (2010 - 2017)
Art Director
At The War on Mars, a multi-disciplinary design firm, I served as Art Director guiding the company's creative vision and client experience strategy. My responsibilities included crafting compelling brand narratives, elevating visual and interaction design quality, ensuring project requirements were met within established parameters, and continually pushing creative boundaries to keep our work innovative and impactful in a competitive marketplace. Above all, our primary mission was ensuring client satisfaction and customer delight.
Jacob Tyler Creative Group (2007 - 2010)
Art Director
At Jacob Tyler, a full-service brand communication agency specializing in traditional to digital design, I served as the creative lead responsible for dictating the style and tone across all client work. I directed a team of six designers, overseeing projects from conception to completion while ensuring artistic vision and aesthetic direction drove business growth and customer loyalty. My role encompassed art direction and brand strategy across diverse sectors—from advertising and publications to film and websites—where I elevated UI quality, approved designs, managed timelines, mentored team members, and stayed current with industry trends to deliver innovative, engaging brand experiences.
Modern Luxury (2005 - 2006)
Art Director
As Art Director at Modern Luxury, I led visual storytelling across their 65+ luxury brands in 22 markets, creating connections between affluent audiences and premium partners. I directed editorial content and photography while redesigning their FrontDesk concierge guidebook. My creative direction delivered cohesive visual experiences that reinforced Modern Luxury's position as the nation's largest luxury media company, helping world-class brands connect with consumers through award-winning design.
The University Union (2002 - 2005)
Graphic Designer
During my time at CSU Sacramento, I was the primary designer for all promotional materials hosted at The University Union, the campus's student center. Additionally, I provided mentorship to student interns, guiding their professional development while fostering creativity and collaboration.