Hi I'm Whitney,
A Vision Builder

For 15 years, I have made significant contributions through my leadership roles, notably in building a cross-functional organization of over 150 people. My experience includes rapidly scaling a startup team from 1 to 8 members in just one year, and expanding a design organization from 6 to 20 members. Additionally, I've been an active proponent of user research and accessibility design, advocating for best practices in these areas. My journey has also involved shaping several new flagship product experiences, demonstrating a consistent impact across various aspects of organizational growth and product development.

I believe that user experience design is about more than design...it's a way to impact and serve people by being inclusive, equitable, sustainable, and inspirational.

I’m Whitney — a seasoned product design leader 15 years of experience. I care a lot about building strong foundational design and using design for positive impact. Currently Leading Product Design & Research @ Slingshot Aerospace and based in Rancho Cucamonga, California.

I'm a senior design leader who has 15 years of experience in UX design and research. Eight of those years I've supported innovative product experiences at a large geospatial environmental agency (Esri) and then a 3D manufacturing/engineering startup (Matterport) and recently a career matching tech startup (Sonara).

Throughout my career, I have built more than 10 customer-facing products, attracting millions of users, and managed a team of over 10 user-centric professionals. I played a pivotal role in growing a startup's design and research team from 1 to 8 members and contributed significantly to expanding its design organization from 6 to 20 members, covering areas like product, service, brand, motion, research, and content. Additionally, I have led a global cross-functional team of over 150 people, focusing on building data visualization products, and have spearheaded several UX research and accessibility initiatives.

My passion is in the B2B market; working with AI, cloud, spatial and tabular data, on mobile, desktop and web applications.

I hold 2 masters degrees in HCI and Informatics and a PhD in Information Systems and Technology. My research involves AI, data visualization, fake news, perception, race (racism), racial justice, social justice and social media.

My design leadership style is grounded on people first: building up people is foundational to the success in all that I do. With people at the center, I operate using my own framework called The CORE Framework of Design Leadership, which focuses on collaboration, outcomes, resilience, and empowerment. My style is backed by results and I've grown my leadership approach over many years of experience in various tech sectors, company sizes, and scenarios.