Case study
UX as a Product
I treat UX the way engineering treats a codebase: never finished, always monitored, always maintained. It has its own strategy, metrics, operating rhythms, and prioritization — which shifts UX from a service that responds to requests into a strategic partner that helps drive outcomes.
Strategy
I treat UX like a pet, not homework
Most UX work gets treated like homework: research, design, hand off to engineering, move on. I treat it like a pet — something you keep alive, not something you turn in.
AI is accelerating execution, which frees UX up for more ownership and strategic thinking — for my team, that's closer to 80% strategy, 20% execution. That shift is what let me put UX in a product position, which is where I've always believed it belonged. User Advocates own the user experience, maintain it, and are held accountable for how it performs. Product is a team sport — a company only works when everyone plays their position as best they can.
Execution
How I win at UX
I'm a competitive person — four seasons of professional women's football, seven years to a black belt in Shidokan karate. I love the grind as much as the win, and that drive carries into how I approach UX: I compete to win.*
I turn UX into a game. To do that, I need to know what game we're playing, who else is playing, how it's scored, and what the prize is — then repeat at the next level, and the next, and the next.
Step 01
Discover the Users
Treat stakeholders as users, internal and external. Our job is to make them the hero of their story — that's why we listen.
Step 02
Define the Metrics
Define the metrics that meaningfully represent users and that stakeholders care about — then let those become the team's OKRs.
Step 03
Own the Data
Turn scattered research, sentiment, and feedback into something the team can act on, not just something we archive — and keep measuring and acting on it, evolving every time we learn something new.
Step 04
Ruthless Prioritization
Focus on the goal, then use impact, dependency, and speed to figure out how to get there — what gets done, and how.
Step 05
Tell the Story
The work doesn't matter if it dies quietly in a brief nobody reads. I tell stories that show users the value of what we built, and bring UX into strategic conversations, not just execution ones.
*Win as a team. Competing against your own team is toxic, and kills the trust that actually gets things shipped.
Metrics
I hold myself accountable
Shipping isn't the finish line. Engineers monitor uptime; product managers watch KPIs. I hold UX to the same standard — a live system I maintain, not a deliverable I hand off. It all comes down to the bottom line: is the product experience making the company money, or costing it money?
Adoption & Retention
Are people actually using what we build, and do they stick around?
Aha Moments
How quickly someone reaches the point where they actually get the value.
Support Deflection
Whether a clearer flow or a better warning saves support hours — a UX win that shows up on a balance sheet.
Sentiment
What people feel about the product, even when they aren't telling us directly.
Results
- UX went from being looped in late to the first invite on every roadmap conversation.
- Metrics ownership became the standard across teams, not a one-off ask.
- Retained 100% of my design talent over four years by giving people ownership of outcomes.
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