I facilitate the creation of useful, delightful services, strategies, and digital products.
SUMMARY
Low-ego, high-empathy, strategic innovation, and design leader in the areas of:
Strategic product development
Facilitating innovation via design thinking and design sprints
Experience design in highly-regulated industries
Multi-team collaboration
Triaging troubled projects
Agile transformation
Building and leading experience design teams
Developing and re-imagining experiences and processes
I am a firm believer in the value of effective meetings, empathy at work, ethnographic research, design thinking methods, agile, analytics, and design sprints.
I have experience with B2B (business-to-business) and B2C (business-to-customer), international, web, and mobile enterprise applications in the financial and utilities sectors, as well as with startups.
>> Full list of public speaking engagements and publications
EXPERIENCE
HCD Practice Area Lead
1904labs, St. Louis, MO. June 2017 - Present
Led internal HCD (human-centered design) professional development for current and future trends. This included:
Assisted in recruiting, interviewing, and hiring of human-centered designers
Developed and led training for story mapping and facilitation
Lead practice-wide design thinking certification effort
Sought out and shared UX/HCD events to the entire team
Co-created an onboarding plan with human resources and the leadership team
HCD consultant work
Gently educated clients about human-centered design and agile
Facilitated story mapping workshops for alignment to prioritize the backlog
Organized and facilitated contextual inquiry research, validation research
Designed CLI and API developer experiences for a major financial industry client
Created visualizations to create a shared understanding of the projects
Design Sprint Facilitator
& Experience Strategist
CoCreate Collective LLC,St. Louis, MO. June 2017 - Present
Case Study (Password required)
Facilitated Design Sprints for a major financial industry client
Facilitated pre-sprint Contextual Inquiry research
Presented findings to Stakeholders and Sponsors
Conducted Expert Reviews of Mobile Enterprise applications
CX Interaction Designer & Researcher
Wells Fargo Advisors, St. Louis, MO. December 2015 - June 2017
I stepped into the first agile development project for Wells Fargo Advisors at an early stage. However, the developers were already ahead of design. As a result, they were delivering coded screens that they had designed. I analyzed and prioritized the backlog with the team. I also worked with the designer who had been on the project to get the design patterns. I began to deliver high-priority backlog items rapidly. Once we were caught up, I collaborated and strategized at a higher level in the UX organization to get the resources (a researcher and another designer) we needed to deliver proven designs. I then collaborated with other teams on the project to organize research activities.
Praise from Jonathan Sidarous, Senior Vice President (SVP), User-Centered Design &
Innovation Manager at Wells Fargo Advisors:
Martha really wore many hats during her time on our team from strategist to user researcher to interaction designer to everything in between and she handled it like a
pro. We are sad to see her leave our team and wished we could have kept her longer.
She really took the time to understand our processes and procedures and get the most
out of her skill-sets to have the biggest impact on our project. I would highly
recommend Martha to anyone looking for a multi-talented UX professional!
Helped lead an agile transformation project
Collaborated with stakeholders, team members, and customers in an agile, user-centered design process
Conducted user research studies including: contextual inquiry, focus groups, surveys, scenarios, task analysis, and validation testing
Prepared and facilitated design thinking workshops
Led sprint backlog meetings
Designed and validated interaction designs for enterprise software for financial transactions
Created wireframes (Adobe InDesign and Adobe Illustrator)
Analyzed and wrote agile stories
Designed for a responsive framework, utilizing universal controls, for long term product viability
Collaborated with developers
Design Sprint Facilitator
XWORX, St. Louis, MO. April 2016 - May 2016
I organized and facilitated a design sprint. The focus of the sprint was around brand strategy, including the website, for a roofing company now known as Hail Hero.
Facilitated Design Sprint
Recruited usability test participants
Designed wireframes
Facilitated user testing
Final result: http://www.hail-hero.com/
User Experience Architect
FederalReserveBank, St. Louis, MO. March 2015 - October 2015
As part of the new usability business analyst team in IT for Treasury Services, I collected, analyzed, and documented business requirements. I also researched, analyzed, and coded user requirements. I then defined and managed these requirements for Agile Scrum development of the U.S. Treasury's Bank Management Service (BMS) application. Finally, I identified project risks to management, and I provided strategies to overcome project obstacles.
Praise from Alison Hollowell, Senior IT Project Manager:
Martha is extremely detail-oriented and takes pride in everything she delivers. She is passionate about providing the users with the best experience possible when they step into your "stage". She understands what the customer wants and needs and is a great liaison between the clients, that design they desire, and the developmental discipline that the clients don't quite understand themselves. Martha is also a very hard worker and willing to do whatever it takes to get the job done and we appreciated all her hard work to assist us in reaching our goals.
Analyzed existing application
Observed and interviewed Users
Gathered requirements from users and key stakeholders
Created and maintained personas and use cases
Handled project coordination for UX and BA deliverables
Led and coordinated incremental product demonstrations for key stakeholders
Performed competitive analysis and expert reviews
Conducted usability tests (in-person and remote) and contextual inquiries
Prepared and presented usability study reports
Ensured 508 compliance
Developed front end (HTML5 and CSS using Bootstrap 3, JQuery, DataTables, and Select2)
Managed documentation and code (Word, Excel, Jira, Confluence, Crucible, Eclipse, and SVN)
Vice President/
Sr. User Experience Business Analyst
Citi, O’Fallon, MO. August 2011 - February 2015
Team member on the IT usability team. Acted on behalf of the User to visualize experiences for the Real Estate Lending business and developers. Depending on the project size and scope, conducted research activities such as contextual inquiry, card sorts, user acceptance testing, competitive analysis, surveys, and more. Then created prototypes ranging from paper prototypes and whiteboard wireframes to high fidelity, clickable wireframes.
Prototyping: paper prototyping, rapid prototyping, iRise (high-fidelity) prototyping
Agile & Waterfall methodologies
Facilitated requirements documentation
Developed front end (HTML5 and CSS using Bootstrap 3 and JQuery)
Performed in-person and remote user testing using the think-aloud protocol
Analysis: expert review, heuristic evaluation, competitive analysis, accessibility
Accessibility/508 compliance reviews
Led and assisted in usability labs: card sorts, contextual inquiry, and journey mapping
Created personas, user surveys, use cases, user stories, and usability lab scripts
Created and presented analysis, prototypes, and study readout presentations
Planned and led design thinking session
Managed documentation (Word, Excel, Jira, Confluence, and Eclipse)
President/Owner
Loft73,Ltd., St.Louis, MO. March 2006 - December 2012
Owner of a usability consulting company.
Created paper prototypes, storyboards, user interface design
Led user testing utilizing card sorts, A/B testing, paper prototypes, and the
think-aloud protocol
Product development
Business analysis (gathered, defined, and documented business requirements)
Web site design and development
Agile transformation
Followed RUP, Agile, and SCRUM methodologies
Accessibility/508 compliance
B2B sales
User Interface Designer/Usability/
Senior Business Analyst
MasterCard, O’Fallon, MO November 2007 - August 2011
I led User Experience for MasterCard Integrated Processing Solutions™ (IPS), including Portfolio Viewer. I was the single point of contact for the front end design and usability for this project. I worked with Business Analysts to capture the desired business outcomes. I conducted User testing to determine the needs of the Users. I created wireframes and coded (HTML) front-end solutions. And, I worked with developers to bring the balanced business and user goals to life.
The overall goal of the project was to get MasterCard into the realm of Card Processing via creating a single sign-on, single look and feel product that connected seamlessly to seven back end systems and offered Users their own view into the B2B and B2C products that they were authorized to access. The entire system was designed in such a way that individual financial institutions could re-skin it with their branding.
Quote from Rob Reeg, MasterCard CTO and Interim President of MasterCard Global Technology & Operations in the MasterCard IPS Press Release:
“With MasterCard IPS, we have eliminated the need for banks to dedicate significant time and resources to learning and managing payment portfolio interface systems Portfolio Viewer is a substantial advancement for the industry because it is intuitive and easy for users of any skill level, and it provides banks with an unprecedented ability to customize the processing platform interface while freeing them from interaction with the back-end system mechanics.”
Managed usability/front-end team
Managed team workload
Sourced, interviewed, and hired the team
Coordinated with other project teams (including Business and Development)
Performed competitive analysis
Organized and facilitated user research
Created and maintained UI for globally utilized web application with both business-to-business and public-facing portals from the ground up
Developed front-end (HTML, CSS, Dreamweaver, JQuery, Dojo, JavaScript, GWT UiBinder)
Led Internationalization work for the web application (usability analysis and design)
Created Prototypes
Paper prototypes
Balsamiq prototypes
High-fidelity, clickable HTML prototype
Created HTML click-through demos that were leveraged
To onboard people to the project
By Marketing to sell the product
As a communication method with offshore development team
Branded the application to suit business-to-business customers.
Agile methodology (wrote user stories, worked in Jira and Confluence)
Web/Graphic Designer
Weintraub Advertising, St. Louis, MO February 2002 - March 2006
Designed and developed web sites and web applications (HTML, CSS, Fireworks, QuarkXpress, Photoshop, Illustrator, and Dreamweaver)
Facilitated requirements gathering sessions
Created use cases, wireframes, and user interface designs
Designed user interfaces
Created test cases and performed QA testing
Designed logos, advertisements, design standards guides, and newsletters
Interface Designer/
National Sales Marketing Manager
Housing Central, Inc., St. Louis, MO. July 2001 - February 2002
Developed concept for national conference booth, giveaways, and materials
Sold software products nationally via phone and in-person
Created marketing materials
Designed corporate ID
Designed & developed company website
Designed software user interfaces for custom, HUD management software
Created and implemented a national conference marketing strategy
Web Designer
Purina (via Aquent Partners), St. Louis, MO January 2001 - February 2002
Maintained Purina Web sites doglitter.com and begginstrips.com
Managed the begginstrips.com site during a Stupid Dog Tricks summer tour.
Won an award for the number of impressions we reached
Designed user interface for Purina veterinary software
Designed custom PowerPoint Presentations
Creative Manager
Morris Communications/The Florida Times-Union, Jacksonville, FL. January 1996 - August 1999
In addition to my role as Creative Manager, I acted as Interim Sales Manager for several months. During that time I developed a sales strategy and product which increased annual revenue from $400,000 to $1.2 million in one year.
Managed a team of eight artists for all single sheet insert design
Assisted with sales calls/interacted with clients to determine their needs
Coordinated all single sheet projects
Designed Print ads (1, 2, and 4-color process; special sizes and folds)
Print vendor sourcing and management (local and national)
Print ad production/preparation
EDUCATION
IBM, Online. 2020
Enterprise Design Thinking - Practitioner Certificate
IBM, Online. 2020
Enterprise Design Thinking - Co-Creator Certificate
IBM, Online. 2020
Enterprise Design Thinking - Team Essentials for Artificial Intelligence Certificate
Columbia University - Columbia Business School, Online. 2016
Design Thinking for Innovation CertificateWebster University, St. Louis, MO. 2004-2007
B.A., Business Management, Marketing MinorUniversity of Missouri, St. Louis, MO. 2003-2004
Chancellor's Certificate, Web DesignWestlake Professional Training, Boston, MA. 2000
Springboard: Web Development and DesignSt. Louis Community College at Meramec, St.Louis, MO. 1994 - 1996
A.A.S., Graphic Communications
HIGHLIGHTED PROJECT
Dandelion, aka Fork+Kids
Mobile App Concept
This is a project I worked on independently because of my own desire for an app that helped parents of small children or folks with additional needs find the right restaurant. Sadly, I didn’t have the connections and wasn’t able to commit the time to get it developed. So, it’s vaporware. Still, there is an interaction I designed into this based on the User research that I’m proud of — the dandelion. Check out the project to learn more.
