Hi, I'm
Steve
Product Design Leader
I build design organizations. Lately the systems those organizations run on.
My approach
I'm a product design leader with 20+ years simplifying complexity and building teams that ship work people actually want. The problem I keep coming back to is the gap between what a company knows about its customers and what it does with that knowledge. Most companies have the knowledge. It's in a doc somewhere, in a support queue, in the head of whoever last talked to a customer. It just isn't available the moment someone needs it.
I value people over everything.
The success of a team is directly tied to its unity and strength as a group. My leadership philosophy emphasizes curiosity, collaboration, and transparency — environments where diverse perspectives are valued, creative risks are encouraged, and execution stays focused on outcomes. That balance lets teams innovate fearlessly while consistently delivering impact for users and the business.
Speed and rigor aren't opposites.
AI really can compress discovery and validation, and companies are right to push on it. What it doesn't remove is the need to find out whether what you build is right. That typically happens in one of two places: before you build, or after you ship. And "after" only works if you've built something to measure it with. Most teams choosing "after" haven't. The work I care about is making rigor fast enough that nobody has to choose.
My strengths
Design Leadership
I build design teams from zero and scale them. Most recently that meant building a team as the first design hire at the company, then designing the operating model it worked inside, and helping restructure a single product development organization into cross-functional squads with clear areas of ownership. I've also led teams of up to ten designers across distributed orgs. I coach designers toward strategic thinking and give them room to own outcomes, not just screens.
Design Operations
I build the infrastructure that makes good decisions repeatable: design systems, research practices, and the workflows that connect them. That's included a 50+ component design system spanning web and mobile, a customer research practice built from nothing to running 100+ interviews, and an AI-native platform that put synthesized customer evidence into every product brief. When the plumbing works, teams spend their time on the hard problems instead of busy work.
Product Strategy
I connect customer insight to business objectives and stay with it from research through delivery. That means partnering with product, engineering, sales, support, and CX, and being the person willing to say when something isn't ready for customers yet. Good strategy work is mostly about making the evidence available early enough that the decision is obvious.
Hobbies and interests
Pinball
I love building and restoring pinball machines—I even designed and built a fully custom machine from scratch. I documented the whole journey (youtube.com/thepinballroom). I love restoring machines with my kids. I think I actually like working on pinball machines even more than playing them.
Bourbon
Really, this section could just talk about good food & beverages in general. I'm no foodie, but I do appreciate great food made with love. I've been enjoying sipping quality whiskey and bourbon more and more over the last few years.
Pickleball
I recently started playing pickleball with my family and have fallen in love with this sport. My son-in-law and I have really gotten into this and have even started playing in local leagues against really good players to improve our game. Nothing better than getting challenged a bit to help you step up your game.