I was the principal designer for Truss (and then program manager at the IRS) to create the IRS’ free tax filing solution Direct File in a massive and extremely fast-paced delivery for the 2024 tax season. In less than a year, we turned a memo into a highly anticipated product with exemplary accessibility. Initially, I was […]
I led design and research for Truss with the Department of Labor to deliver a pilot project to transform the unemployment insurance (UI) experience. Our work led to a 48-minute reduction in the time to apply for benefits (and probably helped NJ’s DOL commissioner keep his job). I also conducted design and accessibility reviews of […]
I led research for a $4.5M DevSecOps contract at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). This allowed four critical infrastructure teams to increase adoption of devops tools and processes, better monitor their policy compliance, and respond faster to issues that previously took them much longer (if at all) to respond to. I also […]
I led research for and co-designed critical new functionality to the Department of Energy’s Systems Biology Knowledgebase (KBase), allowing biologists and bioinformaticians in national labs, universities, and companies to better upload and analyze data for genomics and bio-energy research, especially for metagenome analysis. Truss was hired primarily to improve product management, design, and agile software […]
When COVID-19 closures started in early 2020, San Francisco was unable to accommodate emergency construction for housing. In just four weeks, we put their building permitting process online! San Francisco’s permitting office was in the midst of transforming processing applications from a paper-based workflow to a digital-based workflow. A critical piece of this effort was […]
Research and design a blockchain-based logistics service at IBM
What’s a better way for folks to get involved in civic hacking?
Aligned our design, business, and user research to create an experience as innovative as it is delightfully effective.
Creating the UI for a secret blockchain service at IBM
I currently lead design research and contribute to interaction and interface design with IBM Blockchain Solutions for food safety applications.
Cross-portfolio research, design, and development
Leading the design and research on a new offering for infrastructure monitoring.
Design and research for a new key management service for IBM Cloud
In mid-2016, my team of five worked with IBM Q to design the in-person experience, then called the Quantum Experience, for visitors to the quantum computing facilities at the TJ Watson Research Center.
In 2015 I worked on a project we called Personalized Learning on the Cloud, which eventually found its way into the then-new offering Watson Education.
I wanted to create things to more easily start doing research with or reference for communicating research in a valuable way outside of the design researchers’ domain.
Part of being a design researcher is helping folks articulate their thoughts and sharing them with their team and stakeholders.
When I moved to NYC four months ago, I already sorely missed my civic hacking community I left behind in Austin. I only knew a few folks here, and there was a lot to get acquainted with. I did know at least one thing might be familiar: the local civic tech hack night. But I couldn’t find it.
We need to overhaul our project management. To get there, and to work in the open, let’s start by clearly defining the problem, the fundamental challenges, and our circumstances. At Open Austin, our projects are for public good and made in the open. Compared to many open source projects that are often for developers, by […]
When I joined the Open Austin leadership team, one of my first goals was to identify specific problems in our project management that might impact members’ ability or motivation to contribute. Early on we defined that problem to be that most project ideas are never completed. However, recently we took a good look at what we […]
Community empowerment centered around permanently affordable housing
Modeling the design space of gleaning in order to better inform design decisions for food security and other civic services
Repackaging a rapid prototyping curriculum for new audiences
Helping communities in need of healthier food options to gain access
Increase and improve the transparency and fairness of democratic processes and institutions at home and abroad
A mobile app for United Way members to help facilitate the process of achieving their goals
A system model for more effective mobilization of resources and services for homelessness
How to make ad-hoc event coordination and individual assistance for attendees to be convenient and comfortable