I love creating meaningful, human experiences. I studied English literature in undergrad because I loved stories that revealed something deep and true about what it means to be human. After I moved to New York City, I went to acting school and acted in downtown plays and short films for the same reason.

Eventually, I found myself working in digital advertising as a copywriter, crafting experiences on websites and for ad campaigns that spoke to the human needs and desires our clients’ products addressed. While doing this, I realized that it was actually the design side of the work that appealed to me the most—I always liked art growing up—and I started a night class to learn the foundations of graphic design.

Next, I worked as a designer and art director at a digital agency focused on hospitality clients. I was lucky enough to work under an extremely talented creative director, who showed me the ropes and helped train my eye. After a few years, I decided to freelance for clients on my own for a bit, and gained confidence that I could bring my skills into new contexts.

I heard about an opportunity to go in-house for a workplace coaching startup and was intrigued because coaching has the potential to make people’s work experiences more meaningful. I got the job and joined the brand and marketing team. I had a ton of autonomy and the opportunity to refresh the entire brand three times. I also got exposed to product design because we had a digital coaching platform.

At a certain point, we no longer had a product designer on staff, so I jumped in, eager to help push the product forward. Again, I took some classes to bone up on the basics of product design, and I started working with our project manager and CEO on new initiatives. To be honest, it was a bit of a bumpy road at first, and I still had brand and marketing responsibilities to attend to, but I learned quickly, and I realized that I loved talking to users and trying to solve their problems. It felt like something that I had been missing in my design work up to that point, and it was so satisfying.

Hearing whether what I had made was useful “from the horse’s mouth” made the work feel more meaningful. The problems were complex and challenging, even overwhelming at times, but never boring. They required talking to people in other disciplines, too, which was interesting. And I still got to do the visual work that had drawn me to design in the first place. The field felt so rich, like it ticked all of my boxes.

The product design process became even more satisfying when we brought onboard a seasoned VP Product with experience in agile best practices. He had great insights and always pushed me to be more strategic and take the work to the next level. He also made our lean product team a more cohesive unit. We were all in the loop without being weighed down by meetings, and we were stronger than the sum of our parts.

I am now actively looking for my next role, and I am hoping to find another amazing team to work with, ideally one with other product designers on it who I can collaborate with and learn from (I’ve been flying solo for quite some time now). I’m eager to use my skills and passion to solve new complex problems, ideally with ones social impact, and create meaningful, useful, and human experiences for more people.