Richard Image

Hey, let's build

I'm a senior product designer with 11+ years of experience and a few exits. Beyond design I get into product management, marketing and dev. I just like helping startups grow.

Process

My Approach to Product Design

TBH I'll adjust my process based on the company's stage, resources and team. I don't expect every company to have a perfect or "textbook" process. I try to stick with the 4 core steps below.

Goals icon

Define Goals

I like to first write 3 primary goals. At least 1 primary goal should be a user goal. Each goal should have 1-3 reasons why it's a goal.

Research icon

Research

Research supports goals and reveals problems.

In general, I try to find:

  • Product/market fit
  • User motivations
  • User pain points

Facts and feedback gathered using:

  • User interviews + testing
  • Surveys
  • Competitive analyses
  • App reviews
  • Analytics platforms
  • Talking to clients, sales, client services
* Most of my experience has been at start-ups, so I have little experience in formal and comprehensive user research.
Goals icon

Draft

Start visualizing the experience. Generally I’ll do this loop:

  1. List and/or map use cases
  2. (if necessary) Put together a flow
  3. Mock the UI for each step on the flow
  4. Share the flow with mocks AND/OR share a prototype of the flows
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Learn & Reiterate

This step is the reality check. Quick summary:

  1. Gather internal and external feedback
  2. Verify the flow and UI meets the goals and requirements
  3. Digest feedback, make changes
  4. Repeat

Case Studies

Check Out My Work

See if I fit your team's needs.

Preview of Scratchers feature

Scratchers Game

B2C Native Mobile

New feature for improving retention.

Roles: Design, Marketing, FE Dev
Preview of COVID platform

COVID Platform

B2B & B2B2C Responsive Web App

New product launch for COVID assessment and testing.

Roles: Design, Product Management
Preview of waitlist feature

Waitlisting Users

B2C Native Mobile

Restricting new users to align with business goals.

Roles: Design
Preview of job search platform

Job Search Platform

B2B2C Responsive Web App

A core product rebuild and relaunch.

Roles: Design, FE Dev, Product Management

Other Stuff

FAQ and Credits

What's your ideal role?

I prefer to focus on product design. I'm happy to help with PM stuff such as writing tickets and requirements. At a smaller startup I'll wear more hats to drive growth.

What type of company are you interested in?

At the moment I'm aiming for startups between seed and Series B. I'm open to larger companies if they actively validate products and features in the wild or through testing.

Do you wireframe?

Yep I'll wireframe in a few cases:

  1. The product is very new and without an established UI and component set.
  2. We've no idea how a feature will work.
  3. I have a lot of enough time / there are sprints to explore a feature requirements and functionality.
What are you going to ask about during an interview?

I'll probably ask about:

  • User base (e.g. size, personas)
  • Existing product(s) + product/market fit
  • Market (e.g. competition)
  • Agile process, examples of stories and requirements
  • What you actually need from a designer
Credits

AOS animations by michalsnik. Nice animation library.

MK Lightbox by marcuskirschen.

Light-tooltip by GTLWEB.

Bootstrap 4 is my foundational CSS.

Digital Ocean Decent prices and simple plans.