About Me
I’m a family man, lover of all things burrito, and a superhero movie aficionado. A Midwest native my entire life; I have a bachelor's degree from the Columbus College of Art and Design, and have been working in the central Ohio area for my entire career.
I'm a nerd at heart. I love tinkering with computer parts in my basement, digging through bins at toy conventions, or diving deep into the lore of a new movie. I also have a recently discovered passion for physical fitness, and love exercising with my children at the crack of dawn before they catch their morning school bus.
My journey (so far)
My education in visual design and real-world experience in IT have served me well in the "wear many hats" career of UX and Product Design. Since my core skills lie at the convergence of technology and design, I’m skilled at creating digital products and experiences with an iterative and data-driven approach. I'm equally comfortable amongst a group of developers as I am with designers; and I am ready to dive into challenges whether they are ambiguous, organizational, aesthetic or technical in nature.
I am fueled by being around talented people, and I aim to be equally inspiring to others on their professional development journey. I also am an advocate for design thinking, and love to give workshops introducing the concept and methodologies to stakeholders within organizations.
I pride myself on being a design leader worth following within an organization, and I believe the first step is by establishing a stable culture built on earning, managing and maintaining a team’s trust. The continued ability to mentor other designers, ensure they receive credit for their work, foster an environment of psychological safety, evangelize UX within an organization and mature professionally is something I look for in any role going forward.
How I work
My ideal work methodology is the double diamond, as it provides the framework to iterate on the journey to solving problems. I feel equally comfortable drafting a research plan and interviewing subjects, as I do creating prototypes and building pixel-perfect design systems.
The
Design Council has a great writeup defining the components of the double diamond, but I can share some foundational elements of the approach here.
DiscoveryThis phase focuses on gathering data to fully understand the underlying challenges. Artifacts include interviews, ethnographic observations and research plans.
DefineMakes sense of the data from the discovery phase to help create a focused direction on a potentially reframed challenge. Outputs include personas, journey maps, empathy mapping, etc.
DevelopExplore solutions, new possibilities and test ideas. Work for this phase consists of "How might we..." questions, crazy eights, role playing, storyboards, etc.
DeliverTake the learnings from the testing in the develop phase and focuses on refining the ideas and delivering on solutions.
Competencies
Skills
UX Design
Team Management
Mentorship
Prototyping
Visual Design
Presentations
Design Systems
UX Research
Accessible Design
Workshops
User Interviews
Tools
Figma
Adobe CS
Sketch
Axure RP
Webflow
Optimal Workshop
Typeform
Google Analytics
Technology
HTML
CSS
SASS
jQuery UI
Testimonials
I’ve had the pleasure of working with some very talented folks throughout my career. Here are some of the kind words they shared about their experience working with me.
Jenna Weiss
Senior manager, user experience
As someone who has had the pleasure of working alongside Phil on several projects at Optum, I can attest to Phil's outstanding design skills and refreshing collaborative approach. As co-leads (me research, Phil design), we worked closely together to ensure that our projects were completed on time and within budget, without sacrificing quality.
Phil's passion for UX design shone through every step of the way, from ideation to creating polished prototypes.
In addition, Phil volunteered to teach UX design skills to a group of high school interns on two separate occasions. He patiently and thoroughly explained the principles of UX design, provided guidance, and gave students tangible real world examples. Phil's dedication to sharing his knowledge and passion for design is truly remarkable.
Lastly, on top of Phil's design skills, he is friendly, personable, and a joy to have on a project. If you are looking for a UX designer who is not only skilled but also a great and inspiring leader, look no further than Phil.
Kevin Boueri, PhD
Senior ux researcher
I had the pleasure of working on Phil's team for 9 months at Optum. Phil worked to understand each team member's strengths and weaknesses and made sure that work assignments played to their strengths and that they could get support on things they needed help with. This ensured that our team operated efficiently while maintaining strong team morale. His ability to foster strong collaborative team relationships was central to our success and design artifacts that we delivered.
Jamal Cromity
Senior manager, user experience
For the past year, Phil has been an excellent Principal UX Designer. He has been my lead designer on the United Strategic Partners (USP) platform, designing Polaris Cirrus claims application. In his role he was able to continue the support of the client’s desire to optimize their user interface through designing new and exiting features in the application. This project initiative has been in operation for over 4 years in counting. Working closely with 4 UX Researchers and 3 other UX Designers, the impact of Phil’s designs were measured by time spent to complete task and the potential reduction of full time employee operations. What I appreciated most about Phil’s effort has been his ability to stabilize the team. He was able to establish a UI Library through Figma and divide up the work for the team so that each designer was able to contribute to the fairly large task of supporting the Cirrus application. Phil’s communication and calm demeanor helped during every collaboration session. Both the client and the team enjoyed working with him. We all trusted his leadership.
Amanda Raupple
Design Director
It was a great experience to have Phil on my team at McGraw-Hill. Our group's initiative was unique in that it was the perfect mix of an ambitious but aggressive challenge. Phil undoubtedly rose to the occasion and exceeded expectations. He is a pro at navigating ambiguity, taking a user-centered approach to design, and synthesizing complex project inputs into clear stakeholder presentations. His presentation skills are outstanding! He consistently fostered a shared team understanding and a clear path forward. And most importantly, Phil is a team player that nurtures a positive and productive culture.
David Roe
Product Design Manager
Phil has a great depth of user experience design knowledge. His ability to work independently and with ambiguity was a great asset to our innovation efforts where he continuously brought software design ideas to life through design, prototyping, and research. He has a mastery of design tools and methods that would be an asset to any software design team.
