Teaching

Teaching philosophy

I believe designers with non-traditional backgrounds are crucial to building inclusive products.

The majority of my students are transitioning into the field of UX, and have countless experiences from prior careers that demonstrate UX skills (such as juggling an audience, label, and artist at a recording studio, similar to juggling the expectations of users, a business, and a product team). Many come from backgrounds traditionally underrepresented in the tech industry.

It’s a huge source of joy to learn each student’s story and serve as an empathetic listener and guide along their journey into the field. Products, experiences, and services are made all the better when they are designed by unique, diverse designers — so it’s crucial that the field be accessible and inviting to all.

I believe learning is easiest in an environment that pulls from analogous inspiration and encourages creative confidence.

Students will often find improv games, clips from The Office, and Dungeons and Dragons-inspired activities in my classes — all used to illustrate UX concepts. It’s important to me to create a classroom experience that is full of rich media, practical examples, and design-adjacent activities, and I thoughtfully design lessons to accommodate multiple learning and communication styles. I translate this spirit to both in-person and remote classes.

My speciality is teaching UX soft skills, which I define as everything part of design and research aside from the craft itself. Topics include identifying and flexing communication styles, cultivating a creative environment, collaborating effectively with cross-functional stakeholders, and articulating design decisions. When done well, these skills transform a designer into a force: one who is able to bring order to chaos, harnessing the collective perspectives of their product team and weave a story that inspires the team towards a shared design goal.