UX Research & Product Design

Decades of experience integrating UX Research and Product Design with our core Product Management capabilities.

Unleeshed.me Mobile-first Platform Pioneering “The Sport of Debate”

ROLE: Director of Product Management (Fractional, current)

INNOVATION:

New-to-the world Digital Media App for connecting Leading Digital Creators (pundits) with Targeted Audiences, to pioneer the “Sport of Debate”

SITUATION:

Currently, I am helping to define a new mobile-first media platform to address the perceived need of Content Creators to more effectively reach a targeted audience and expand their reach, while also improving the entertainment experience of fans. Initially, we are starting with Sports.

ACTIONS:

  • UX Research, to identify and prioritize needs of Content Creators

  • UX Research to identify and prioritize needs of Avid Sports Fans in finding, consuming and interacting with Sports Debate

  • Working with Ron Mitchell, Founder and CEO, defining initial Product Concepts, Designs, and Clickable models

PRELIMINARY RESULTS:

  • 100% participation rate from Creators after just one “pitch” video call

  • Clearly defined initial product, with functional clickable model (in Figma)

  • Using the Figma model, Demo video, where the Founder and CEO (Ron Mitchell) articulates what Unleeshed is all about

  • Initial Product Backlog, in the form of a (digital) Story Map

TAGS: Mobile, 0-to-1, Product Discovery, UX Research, Product Leadership, Product Strategy, zero-to-one

Questily Team-based, K-12 Mobile Learning Platform

Questily was live for three years, serving a dozen elementary schools in the US, including four full-scale Pilot programs (of four to ten classrooms each).

ROLE: Founder & CEO (Full Time)

INNOVATION:

Questily was an iPad + web-based + paper learning platform that was the first product to put technology (iPad apps) directly into the hands of students, while enabling Teaches to simply evaluate Common Core-aligned paper-based assessments (Quests). By having students work in small teams of 2 or 3, each team working at its own pace and level of difficulty, Questily addressed the two biggest unmet challenges in the print-to-digital classroom transformation: 1) the Bell Curve, and 2) teacher training and roll-out..

SITUATION:

60% of K12 students in the US are below proficiency in March and Language Arts. Having helped a top school district in its print-to-digital transformation, I saw a way to overcome a major unmet obstacle: long teacher adoption curve.

ACTIONS:

  • Ran multiple paid afterschool math enrichment programs, to refine team-based learning process

  • Hired teachers to run program and create custom K-5 Common Core Math Curriculum

  • Hired Designer and Outsourced Team from GSLab to build Questily App and Teacher Portal

  • Launched Questily in 5 Beta Schools

RESULTS:

  • Over 10,000 student-hours of engaged, self-paced learning

  • In one 7-week Beta, students preferred team-based learning to individual learning 7-to-1.

  • Demonstrated ability to deploy Questily in “any” classroom in less than 2 weeks

  • Demonstrated ability to engage students is self-paced, team-based learning

  • Students learned Match, Teamwork and Independent Learning skills.

  • Questily was a comprehensive classroom (or after-school enrichment) solution, with gamification functionality, a teacher portal to create custom Quest-based curricula (by classroom), individual student portfolio to track progress.

  • The Questily app kept track of digital + print curriculum, and progress, at the teacher, classroom, team and individual student level.

TAGS: Mobile, EdTech, Zero-to-One, B2B2C, Product Leadership, UX Research, Product Design, zero-to-one

ACT K-12 Personalize Learning Platform “icurio”

ROLE: Innovation Product Consultant (Consultant)

INNOVATION:

Icurio was one of the first classroom learning platforms that integrated standards-aligned, teacher-curated content with a Student Workspace and Teacher classroom management and student feedback functionality.

SITUATION:

iCurio’s is the personalized learning platform that was acquired by ACT to “strengthen ACT’s capabilities to supports its transition to a learning, measurement and navigation company”. I was hired to help define the next-gen product to incorporate learnings from working with leading Digital Superintendents, including Mooresville, NC’s Dr. Mark Edwards (Superintendent of the Year in 2013).

ACTIONS:

  • Led new Market Opportunity, New Product Concept, and New Product Definition efforts

  • Coordinated closely with CEO, President, VP of Engineering, Product Management and Design

  • Led large Buyer, User and Influencer Market and UX Research, with n > 300

RESULTS:

  • iCurio was adopted by over 2,000 K-12 School Districts across US, including Mooresville, NC, one to the pioneers in print-to-digital transformation

  • iCurio was a significant factor in the acquisition by ACT of Knovation Learning (the software creators)

  • 15% increase in sales the 12 months after release of iCurio

  • iCurio achieved it product goal of “integrating existing teacher-curated, standards-aligned content into an engaging student workspace, with useful learning tools such as citation, notes and highlighting”

TAGS: EdTech, B2B SaaS, “0 to 1” Product Innovation, UX Research, UX Design, Jobs to Be Done, Story Mapping

Earthlink (acquired OmniSky Wireless) Pioneering the Mobile Internet

ROLE: Director of Product Management (Full Time)

INNOVATION:

OmniSky was, arguably, the first smartphone… without the actual phone. It integrated mobile internet browsing, email, optimized content, shopping, and even included a precursor to Google Maps.

SITUATION:

OmniSky was, arguably, the first fully functional mobile internet device, with email, browsing, optimized content - even location-based services (Google Maps precursor, via acquisition of Israeli-based NomadIQ).

ACTIONS:

  • Overall responsibility for all applications (except for email), including micro-browser, UXUI, sync, optimized content, and OneTap(TM) web-to-device integration

  • Led team of 6 Product Managers

  • Responsible for Cross-functional Launch Team of 40 key employees

  • Owned Applications and UX Roadmap

RESULTS:

  • OmniSKy was loved by early mobile adopters, who could now get stock information, news, local (maps) information on the go. All the things that we take for granted now were new and exciting back in 2001!

  • Successfully launched this product, which is arguably the worlds first “smartphone, without the phone”

  • Successful IPO, which raised $110 million

  • Named on two mobile patents (the first is now owned by Google)

    • US Patent# US20020165932A1, you know when you click on an email or phone number within a text message? Well, we figured out how to launch the app and send email or make the call.

    • US Patent# US20020152332A1, “Systems and methods for integrating information from a database in a handheld internet appliance into a web site”

TAGS: Mobile, B2C, zero-to-one, Product Leadership