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.

Lead the UX Design practice and oversaw all aspects of UXD projects for large enterprise clients. Generated over $2M annually through effective project proposals and client engagements.
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
Lead collaborative design and strategy sessions with clients
Spearheaded our Expert Review service, conducting UX audits for multiple large organizations and performing an in-depth review of a new AI-enabled chatbot that included multiple collaborative design and roadmap refinement sessions.
Lead Ops for the broader Experience team including creating training materials, implementing process improvements, and conducting learning sessions
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 practice of UX QA to our team, a process that ensures that what was developed matches what was designed. This includes writing useful specs, reviewing coded work, and submitting bug reports
Initiated our internal Voice of the Customer initiative, interviewing key employees, and reporting back to the leadership team on trends, sentiments, and opportunities for improvement.
Manage software and tools used by the team; create processes to increase productivity and quality of design outputs.

Corporate Faculty - Human Computer Interaction Design Master's Program

Harrisburg University | August 2022 – Present | Remote

Corporate faculty member in a STEM-focused UX Master's program; develop new courses and deliver industry-specific instruction in user experience design.

Developed HCID 540: Design Tools & Processes. Course is a survey of multiple UX processes such as information architecture, journey mapping, qual and quant research techniques, and interaction design, as well as the tools available (both analog and digital) to perform these processes.
Developed HCID 518: Deceptive Design. Course covers what deceptive (dark) patterns are, how they are based on and enabled by cognitive biases and logical fallacies, and the emergence of ethical and persuasive design.
Currently developing a course on the fundamentals of design and how they are applied to user interfaces.

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 websites; 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. I wrote epics and feature-level stories and bridged the dev and product teams.

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. As the UX Lead and Product Owner of an Agile Scrum product team for their patient portal, I designed feature enhancements, built interactive prototypes, conducted user testing and user interviews, managed the backlog, and developed product roadmaps.

Designed new features and integrations, providing detailed mocks and specifications for development.
Conducted user testing, both in person and remote.
Synthesized data from multiple sources to develop and maintain comprehensive dashboards, ensuring key stakeholders were informed about patient portal performance metrics.
Involved in vendor integration research and recommendations.
Worked with product managers and business analysts to provide strategic guidance for Digital Engagement projects.
As 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.
Spearheaded the redesign of the 'Find a Doctor' experience, integrating third-party scheduling solutions to enhance user satisfaction and operational efficiency.
Within one month of Covid hitting, led team to design and integrate an experience for remote telehealth visits, allowing patients options for their health care that included video and asynchronous health visits.

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. I provided leadership to the UX team, managed new feature design across three Agile Scrum teams, and led the creation of a new design system and visual language for the US and Corporate sites.

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.
Led the redesign of the corporate and US site; set up working teams to collaboratively overhaul different areas of the site; set up processes and templates for the rest of the UX team to follow.
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.
Championed accessibility and usability best practices by creating guidelines for development while running accessibility scans for the US site to proactively correct 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.
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 Creative Director, I was responsible for the overall user experience strategy and vision for all MSI projects, including SharePoint integration and development.

Completely redesigned and built a new site for the official state website for Mississippi in three months, earning four national design awards.
Took one of the worst Secretary of State websites in the country and completely redesigned, restructured, and rebuilt it to be extremely responsive, easy to update, and more useful for citizens.
Designed a native iOS app for the state website and an Android app that provided natural disaster emergency information.
Designed and built one of the first fully responsive externally facing SharePoint sites for the MS Information Technology Systems agency.
SME for SharePoint both internally and across our state agency partners; created and provided training on maintaining sites within SharePoint for agency partners and their staff.
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.
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.

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 the Web Team Lead, I was the designer, front-end developer, and project manager, handling project discovery phases, writing functional specifications, and overseeing the QC process.

Managed a team of developers and web producers while actively contributing as a UX designer and front-end developer.
Owned the UX strategy, design, and overall implementation of the migration from a custom-coded intranet into a fully customized SharePoint 2007 intranet. • Led the creation of dozens of internal web applications including a document retention solution that saved the company millions in unnecessary legal discovery costs yearly.
Managed the design and development of the corporate website and an application that allowed end-users to detail their end-of-life directives.
SME for design and SharePoint across the organization. Created and delivered training to allow teams to manage their custom SharePoint sites.
Responsible for meeting with stakeholders 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.

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.

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
August 2012, Park City Utah // NIC Tech Conference // Co-presenter, Fireworks for Web Design
October 2011, Louisville, KY // NIC Tech Conference
March 2011, New Orleans, LA // SharePoint Saturday
October 2009, Las Vegas, NV // Microsoft SharePoint Conference 2009
July 2008, Nashville, TN // SharePoint Solutions: InfoPath and Workflows training class
March 2008, Seattle, WA // Microsoft SharePoint Conference 2008
December 2007, Houston, TX // SharePoint Experts Branding Bootcamp
September 2007 Nashville, TN // SharePoint Solutions: Advanced Features of SharePoint training class
June 2007 Nashville, TN // SharePoint Solutions: Extreme Makeover SharePoint Branding training class
October 2004 Cambridge, MA // User Interface Engineering Conference
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
Survey creation and analysis
User interface design
Interaction design
SAAS application design
Responsive and mobile design
Information architecture
Functional specifications/technical writing
User training + demos
Vendor research and relationship management
Google Custom Search Administration
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
Marvin
Axure + UXPin
Miro + Mural
Adobe Creative Cloud
Microsoft Office + Visio
PowerPoint + Keynote + Slides
UsabilityHub.com + UserTesting.com + UserZoom
SnagIt + Camtasia
Rally + Jira + ZenHub + Aha!
Slack + Basecamp + Teams
Google Data Studio + Tableau
SharePoint + Confluence

Learn more

Contact me: mpakron at gmail
Check out my LinkedIn Profile