Hi, I'm Jon! Over the last 15 years, I've guided businesses in creating products, building design teams, and scaling platforms. I thrive as an individual contributor, where I develop visionary prototypes for novel revenue streams.
Case studies
Mobile-first customer support app
Research, scoping, workflows, mockups
Design sprint tackles customer attrition
Facilitation, product scoping, prototyping
Envisioning a new visual brand
Research, Creative direction, Project management
Design sprint to keynote in 72 hours
Facilitation, hi-fi mockups, keynote presentation
Articles
10 reasons why the search for your first product design job is the absolute pits
If you’re making a career transition, landing that first role can be rough. Here are all the things stacked against you:
Oct 26, 2022 / Read More
Interviewing? Here are 5 surprising behaviors that will catapult you to the next round
At every level, interviewing is about presence. Going into an interview in a depressed, down or even neutral mindset will decrease the ch...
Sep 30, 2022 / Read More
How to become a sr. designer, in a single chart
There’s lots of resources out there for people looking to make a career transition into product or UX design.
Sep 28, 2022 / Read More
Are you interview-rich but offer-poor? Here’s why, designers
You build your portfolio. Maybe it’s taken years of projects. At the very least it takes months to get one that starts landing you interv...
Sep 26, 2022 / Read More
Take a breath, designers— the Figma acquisition is the biggest event in the design world since the…
Figma’s announcement that it was being acquired by Adobe in a deal worth $20 billion exploded across the design community. It also ripple...
Sep 23, 2022 / Read More
Joining a company as a designer is a high-wire act. Here’s a 7-step checklist so you don’t fall.
In a previous article, I described a framework for assessing the risks inherent when you join a new company. In this article, we’ll be lo...
Sep 22, 2022 / Read More
4 ways to manage yourself during a design interview–and why this is a vital skill
Interviewing can elicit feelings of anxiety or nervousness — an energetic response to stress that can feel overwhelming or unpleasant.
Sep 21, 2022 / Read More
3 ways managers can thrive in flat organizations by being ‘the guide on the side’
I know overbearing, hierarchical managers still exist. But no one really wants to work for them. And I hope no one wants to be them. Thei...
Sep 20, 2022 / Read More
Just got a design offer? Here’s the biggest risk to your exciting new role.
Joining a new company is an exciting time! Don’t let the title of this article get you down. It’s an accomplishment to have gotten an off...
Sep 19, 2022 / Read More
Teaching will supercharge your design career — just not how you think
IE, do you take an SAT-like test to get a promotion? Is there an objective AI that can measure your level of merit? As much as we’d like ...
Sep 16, 2022 / Read More
Customer journey mapping at SXSW
I was invited by SXSW and General Assembly to present as part of the official conference in 2019. During the previous year, I developed and taught a course on customer jounrey mapping for General Assembly. I used a condensed version of the course as the content for the presentation.
During my 90-minute presentation, I detailed my approach to mapping customer journeys across time, touchpoints, emotions and more.
Reading list, last 6 months
Non-fiction
How to Make Sense of Any Mess
The Gap and the Gain
Dead in the Water
Service Design
Four Thousand Weeks
Org Design for Design Orgs
The Advantage
Jean-Paul Sartre
Negotiation Genius
So You Think You Know T-Rex
Alien Oceans
Obsessed - Building a Brand People Love from Day One
Fiction
Project Hail Mary
Gold Fame Citrus
The Fall of Koli
Firebreak
Podcasts
eCommerce Fuel
Business Made Simple with Donald Miller
Ecommerce Playbook
The Tim Ferriss Show