Resume
Experience
Head of UX Design
ChaiOne | March 2022 – Present, Houston, TX | Remote
ChaiOne is an experience consultancy that focuses on creating research-driven user experiences for enterprise and industrial clients. As the Head of UX Design, I lead a team of hybrid UX and UI designers. I am involved in pre-sales activities, provide high-level project oversight, and am involved in strategic initiatives. I also coach and mentor my team and lead DesignOps for the UX practice. I own an implement growth marketing activities and manage all aspects of the corporate website and LinkedIn account.
- As member of company leadership, work closely with other company leaders, such as the CEO, VP of Delivery, and VP of Sales , to create strategic initiatives, company goals, and implementation plans
- Meet with prospective clients, create LOE estimates for projects, and create sales decks for client pitches
- Mentor, lead, and grow the skills and careers of the UX Design team
- Conduct bi-yearly performance reviews, bi-weekly 1-on-1 sessions, and guidance as needed to support UXD team
- Provide high-level oversight over all UXD activities for client projects
- Lead collaborative design and strategy sessions with clients
- Created Expert Review offering and conduct reviews for clients
- Lead Ops for the broader Experience team including creating training materials, implementing process improvements, and conducting learning sessions
- Lead all marketing activities for the organization, including creating new website content, designing decks and collateral, and managing social media accounts
- Own the company website including design, content, and updates within HubSpot
- Accessibility SME, providing guidance to the Experience team and development on accessibility standards, best practices, and implementation
- Introduced the concept of UX QA to the company, a process that helps to ensure that what has been developed matches what was designed, both visually and functionally
- Assist in usability testing activities as a testing facilitator
Corporate Faculty - Human Computer Interaction Design Master's Program
Harrisburg University | August 2022 – Present | Remote
Course development and instruction for:
HCID 540-50: Design Tools and Processes and HCID 518: Deceptive Design
Currently designing a new course about the realities of working in the UX industry.
Freelance UX & Design Consultant
Michelle Pakron Design | December 1998 – Present
I have freelanced and consulted for the entirety of my career on the side. Over the years, I have taken on projects where I have: provided UX strategy and design for clients; conducted expert reviews; redesigned and built website; designed logos and brand identities; created print marketing material; and provided copy writing and content strategy services.
UX Lead
LiquidFrameworks, a ServiceMax Company | September 2021 – March 2022, Houston, TX | Remote
LiquidFrameworks is the leader in Oil Field Services software. As the UX Lead, I oversaw UX, strategy, and design activities for the full suite of LiquidFrameworks SalesForce-based SAAS products. I also worked closely with product and engineering to provide guidance on best practices for product development and Agile Scrum.
User Experience Lead | Product Owner
Memorial Hermann Health System | May 2018 – September 2021, Houston, TX | Remote
Memorial Hermann is one of the largest not-for-profit health care systems in Texas. I served as the UX Lead as well as the Product Owner for the product team I was embedded on. The main product I focused on was Everyday Well, Memorial Hermann's health management portal for patients and health plan members.
- Designed new features and integrations, providing detailed mocks and specifications for development
- Conducted user testing, both in person and remote
- Combined analytics and other data into reporting dashboards using Google Data Studio and Tableau
- Analyzed data to apply insights in creating improvements and new features.
- Involved in vendor integration research and recommendations
- Worked with product managers and business analysts to provide strategic guidance for Digital Engagement projects
- A product owner, wrote and prioritized user stories and assisted QA staff in validation activities
- Worked directly with developers to design solutions, provide story guidance, and accept completed work
- Created new content templates and updated content within SiteCore CMS
- Provided direct to user second-level customer support on a rotational basis for the Everyday Well platform
- As a lead on the product team, provided daily leadership and assitance to other team members as well as acted as a primary representative for the Product team throughout the organization
- Worked closely with Marketing to ensure that all copy and features align to brand and organizational guidelines and goals as well as provided guidance for campaigns and collateral in support of Everyday Well
UX Design Consultant
GobySavvy UX Reviews |
July 2015 – January 2017 | Remote
- Was a Remote consultant after hours and weekends working with global partners and a distributed team
- Conducted expert UX reviews, producing detailed reports for clients that outlined outstanding UX issues and solutions for improvement, and also acted as project manager and UX Designer for projects with clients across the globe
- Conducted expert reviews of a CRM for the mortgage industry and a CMS Page Builder that led to the contracts to redesign both projects; acted as UX Designer and Project manager for both projects
Senior UX Analyst & Designer
Invesco US | October 2014 – February 2018, Houston, TX
Invesco is a leading global asset management financial company. As part of the internal UX team in Digital Marketing, was responsible for conducting strategy, UX and UI activities for Invesco web & mobile properties.
- Worked on multiple cross-functional Agile SCRUM teams in the roles of Product Owner, UX Analyst and UX Designer
- As UX Lead, mentored other UX staff and created training on various UX and web topics for the Digital Marketing team
- Worked with senior leadership to develop road maps and digital strategy presentations
- Created and facilitated usability and user testing, both in person and remote, using paper prototypes, interactive prototypes , and online services, and created detailed analysis reports
- Performed UX strategy and analysis, including user research, competitive audits, analytics analysis, and user interviews
- Created wireframes and structural UX deliverables
- Acted as UI Lead for web and mobile project, which includes creating a new visual language as part of a new design system
- Was the vendor liaison for evaluating products such as Frontify, InVision, and Ceros, organizing demos and training as well as creating reports for senior leadership to evaluate
- Served as the Invesco brand ambassador for the Digital Marketing team, regularly meeting with the Head of Design to assure that all digital products aligned to the overall brand vision for the company
- As the Accessibility and Usability Lead, created guidelines for development and ran accessibility scans for the US site in order to proactively correct any accessibility issues
- Was the technology resource for the UX team as well as provided guidance to the UX development team for responsive design and web production techniques
Major Accomplishments
Invesco US Android App:
- Served as UX Lead for the Invesco US Android app, released in late 2017
- Worked with product owners and developers to determine the functionality and interactions of key components in the app
- Created detailed style guides for the mobile developers to follow as well as all visual assets
Invesco US iPhone & iPad Apps:
- Served as UX lead for the Invesco US iPhone & iPad apps
- Worked with product owners and developers to determine the functionality and interactions of key components in the app
- Created detailed style guides for the mobile developers to follow as well as all visual assets
- Conducted in-person moderated as well as remote un-moderated user testing of the apps
- Designed a new events feature that was added to both the iPad and iPhone apps that allows users to view Invesco events they have been invited to, view the agenda and materials, add notes and create a list of session favorites
Invesco US & Corporate Websites:
- Conducted individual investor + financial professional user tests to uncover user needs and insights regarding college 529 programs, which led to several recommendations for improving the CollegeBound 529 section of the Invesco US website
- UX lead for the redesign and migration of the US site into a new CMS; primary duties were research, testing, UX design, and leading the creation of a design system that is currently being applied to all US digital products
- UX Lead for the redesign of the Invesco corporate website; duties included extensive research and competitive analysis, content strategy, visual design, as well as on-going user testing
Sr. SharePoint Consultant
Particles Collide | July 2013 – October 2013 | Remote
I was an after hours and weekend SharePoint consultant for this interactive agency, focusing on SharePoint branding and ux.
Director of Creative Content, SharePoint Manager & Subject Matter Expert
Mississippi Interactive, subsidiary of NIC, USA | July 2011 – August 2014, Jackson, MS
Mississippi Interactive is an interactive agency that focuses on egov projects for the state of Mississippi. As the director of Creative, was responsible for the overall creative and user experience strategy and vision for all MSI projects.
- Served as mentor and trainer to junior staff members
- Was the In-house SharePoint Subject Matter Expert responsible for providing direction on appropriate uses of SharePoint, designing and building SharePoint sites, training staff on how to use SharePoint, and serving as site collection administrator
- Responsible for the strategy, design and build-out of three iterations of the state portal for Mississippi, ms.gov, as well as served as web master for the portal. Created content and functionality updates based off data received from Google Analytics reports and user surveys
- Managed Google Analytics and Google Custom search
- Responsible for creating and delivering print documentation and in-class training for State Agency partners
- Involved in designing, building, and testing the user experience for various websites and applications for state agencies including mobile applications
- Worked with project managers and operations staff in creating specifications, time estimates and timelines, resource planning, client interaction and product pitches as well as client support
Major Accomplishments
- Led the creation of several award-winning projects, including, ms.gov, MSReady mobile app, and ms.gov mobile app
- Led the redesign of the MS Secretary of State website, which won two design awards in 2015
- Presented at two company tech conferences, one year speaking in regards to using FireWorks for web production tasks, and another year on the science of creativity
Web Development Team Lead, Web Designer, & SharePoint Subject Matter Expert
Stewart Enterprises | September 2001 – June 2011, Jefferson, LA
Stewart was a leading death care company that owned and operated funeral homes and cemeteries across the US. As team lead, was responsible for the company's corporate intranet, as well as all web team projects, including dozens of internal-use web applications.
- Managed a web development team consisting of web developers and content producers and functioned as the SharePoint Site Administrator for our company intranet
- Responsible for meeting with clients and collecting business needs, creating functional documentation, wireframes and information architecture, designing and producing web sites and applications, and QA testing
- Managed second-level help desk support that group provided for all webs sites and applications
- Responsible for all interface design, SharePoint configuration, customizations, search administration, and site usage analysis
- Managed large web projects utilizing members from multiple groups and departments
- Functioned as web master for company intranet. Utilized analytics and customer feedback to create actionable plans to constantly improve the intranet and all related sites and applications
Major Accomplishments
SEnet, the Stewart Intranet: For nearly a decade, I was the lead for the company's intranet. Working with developers and web production staff, I designed and maintained a custom-built intranet for over five years. In 2006, I led the complete rebuild of the intranet utilizing SharePoint 2007. We were able to recreate the majority of all custom-built functionality using the features inside SharePoint, reducing the need for development assets significantly. As part of the redesign, a new architecture was created that was task-based versus department-based, increasing the usability of the intranet in the process. Dozens of Best Bets were created within the SharePoint search feature to further aid users in finding content.
Retention Solution: In 2010, the company decided to move away from a file-system based company to an asset management solution. Initially working with hired consultants, I teamed up with our SharePoint farm admin to redesign the solution created by the consultants due to numerous technical inadequacies in their solution. We utilized SharePoint to create department sites that had custom libraries that used the built-in information management features to assign every file a specific retention period, from 1 week to 10 years, and wrote custom workflows to generate the delete times that the information management policy used to automatically delete the items. Each department site utilized a custom site template allowing each team to collaborate internally.
>> Read more about the retention solution that I helped create
Web Designer
Vi-Comm | March 2001 – September 2001
Led a team in designing web and interactive projects for this design firm.
Web Producer
Active Pixel | June 2000 – February 2001
Built web and interactive projects for this web design firm.
Web and Print Designer
Cynthia Hutchinson Communications | December 1998 – March 2000
Worked as a freelance web and print designer for this communications firm.
Education
Texas A&M University - Corpus Christi | 2020-2022 | MBA
I completed a Masters in Business Administration.
Lamar University | 2019-2020 | BAAS
Completed my Bachelor's in Applied Arts and Sciences.
University of New Orleans | 1994 - 2000
I completed the graphic design program as well as minors in psychology and studio art.
Certifications
- Customer Experience Certificate // University of South Florida // August 2022
- March 2016, UX certified, Nielsen Norman Group, License UXC 1012024
- April 2015, Certified Usability Analyst, Human Factors International, License 2015-5485
Training
- Rosenfeld Media DesignOps Summit // September 2022
- December 2018, Houston, TX // Tableau
- March 2016, Houston, TX // NNG UX Week; UXC certified
- September 2013, San Antonio, TX //
NIC Tech Conference //
Presenter, Creativity
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August 2012, Park City Utah //
NIC Tech Conference //
Co-presenter, Fireworks for Web Design
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October 2011, Louisville, KY //
NIC Tech Conference
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March 2011, New Orleans, LA //
SharePoint Saturday
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October 2009, Las Vegas, NV //
Microsoft SharePoint Conference 2009
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July 2008, Nashville, TN //
SharePoint Solutions: InfoPath and Workflows training class
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March 2008, Seattle, WA //
Microsoft SharePoint Conference 2008
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December 2007, Houston, TX //
SharePoint Experts Branding Bootcamp
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September 2007 Nashville, TN //
SharePoint Solutions: Advanced Features of SharePoint training class
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June 2007 Nashville, TN //
SharePoint Solutions: Extreme Makeover SharePoint Branding training class
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October 2004 Cambridge, MA //
User Interface Engineering Conference
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October 2002 Orlando, FL //
Macromedia Developers Conference
Skills
- Team leadership + product management
- UX mentorship
- Strategy + business analysis
- Agile Scrum + waterfall
- UX Expert Reviews + Heuristic Analysis
- UX analysis + design; user centered design methodology
- Usability testing - remote & in-person, moderated/unmoderated
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Survey creation and analysis
- User interface design
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Interaction design
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SAAS application design
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Responsive and mobile design
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Information architecture
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Functional specifications/technical writing
- User training + demos
- Vendor research and relationship management
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Google Custom Search Administration
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Google Analytics Analysis & Reports
- Tableau and Google Data Studio
- Working knowledge of Content Management Systems: HubSpot, Sitecore, Sharepoint, and Wordpress
- HTML + CSS
Software
- Sketch + Figma
- Axure + UXPin
- Miro + Mural
- Adobe Creative Cloud
- Microsoft Office + Visio
- PowerPoint + Keynote
- UsabilityHub.com + UserTesting.com + UserZoom
- SnagIt + Camtasia
- Rally + Jira + ZenHub + Aha!
- Slack + Basecamp + Teams
- Google Data Studio + Tableau
- SharePoint + Confleunce
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