I lead design across the boundaries most designers specialize within
Over 20+ years I’ve moved from shaping physical products to directing visual systems to envisioning AI-native work. The common thread throughout has been making sense of emerging technologies by turning ambiguity into forms that can be evaluated, debated, and built.
I also just like making things.
Key Facts (2026 version)
20+ years spanning industrial design, interaction design, visual systems, and UX incubation.
Co-built teams and initiatives at startup ventures, product incubation, future envisioning, and AI strategy.
Repeated focus on helping organizations make sense of new technologies before they are fully understood.
Recently built and hired a multidisciplinary AI envisioning team focused on future productivity UX.
Led formation-stage design efforts during major technology shifts in mixed reality, wearables, visual systems, and now AI
First designer hired at MNML, a leading industrial design and product incubation firm, helping grow the firm’s capabilities, clients, and multidisciplinary practice.
Contributed to products and experiences spanning Xbox, Microsoft 365, Copilot, Beats by Dre, Dell, & Newell Rubbermaid.
Maintain a hands-on maker practice spanning design, prototyping, software, and emerging AI tools
Envisioning AI-native work
I lead a UX team at Microsoft envisioning how people will work once AI is woven into the tools of work themselves, not grafted on as an attachment. As a director running five designers in partnership with applied science, engineering, and research, my job is to wayfind shapes of information work that don’t exist yet and make them concrete enough that product development decisions can be made about them.
Our charter project set direction for M365 Copilot’s personalization and memory features. I am continually interested in the relationship between humans and AI and the role in helping both work better together.
As an incubation team, most of our work is confidential, but I’ve also written publicly about where I think design, information work, and even hardware are heading. And I just started a Github page with some fun personal projects.
Design Director, Copilot UX Incubation
Wayfinding the future of information work
Years
2023-Present
Carrying object-thinking into software
I became interested in software after fifteen years of industrial design and brought the object-maker's instincts with me: proportion, material honesty, the feel of a thing in use…turning physical-design rigor into screen craft and a small team's output into a visual system at scale. After beginning with product illustration, I became creative director of Microsoft's emoji library, where I led a cross-org team that created new emojis, reacted quickly to user feedback, and proposed expansion of the library in new directions, earning a D&AD pencil in the process.
Creative Director, Fluent Emoji
Jason Custer, Aaron Martinez, Sam Cundall, Nando Costa, Claire Murali, Leo Mateus & Tendril
Awards
D&AD Wood Pencil
Years
2022-2023
Principal Designer, Product Expression
With Alexis Copeland, Nando Costa, and Alberto Cerriteño
Year
2021
Disambiguating the future
In the absence of accurate predictions, organizations need enough clarity to at least make better decisions. Through design, future possibilities become tangible enough to explore, debate, and build toward. Throughout my career I’ve repeatedly helped teams investigate emerging technologies, whether in hardware, software, or AI, using design to make uncertain futures concrete enough to evaluate, challenge, and build.
It’s preparation more than prediction. It’s building organizational vocabulary around new possibilities, testing assumptions before competitors do, and creating enough clarity to have better strategic conversations.
Design + Direction, Microsoft Flowspace Pod
With the Microsoft Office Envisioning team
Home cam and smart speaker + projection concepts
Raising standards of craft
I was employee #001 at Scott Wilson's MNML, helping establish the body of work that defined the studio for clients like Dell, Microsoft, Beats by Dre, and Newell, as well as internal startups LunaTik and Uncommon. I wore the hats a young studio needs: architecting the visualization pipeline, directing across design disciplines, building the website. I didn’t start my career at MNML, but being there and being measured against genuinely raised expectations recalibrated my definition of good.
Always making…
As my roles have expanded, I’ve kept my hands busy with side projects to maintain tool competency, experiment with process, socialize ideas with the world, and even win some awards (1, 2, 3). Nowadays my side projects happen in Claude Code too, but 3D form and aesthetic exploration still always lead to flow.
