My Bio
As a life-long learner, you typically will find a book in my hand unless I am intensely focused on the next "big idea." When I am not working I am usually chasing after my four kids, trying desperately to finish one of my recent classes, or playing roller derby. Aside from being a book nerd, I love baseball and spend half the year listening to my two oldest sons fight to their death about whether the Giants or Dodgers will make it to the world series this year. Then, when sports season is over, I spend the following 6-8 months enjoying the extremely long snow season we have up here in Montana. I love to snowshoe up to our local ice falls or sit in our hot springs during our negative temperature days.
When it comes to business, I am blessed to say that I rarely find a day where it feels like actual work. I am intentional with the projects I bring into my life, making me immensely passionate about what I do while bringing my best to work every day.
My Passions
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As a creative person, my passion is going through the entire process of turning an idea into a usable product. I love the ideation, strategy, and research phases just as much as I love the design, validating, and beta testing stages.
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As someone with an entrepreneurial spirit, I am passionate about anything business-related! Specifically, I love business strategy, which I utilize heavily in my role as Sr. Director of Product Marketing.
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As a life-long learner, I have an unending passion for creating learning environments in business. Through learning environments, employees can contribute to their organization through shared knowledge while bettering themselves through continuous up-skilling. I am passionate about this because it drastically increases innovation and autonomy while improving connectivity and productivity within the workplace.
My Business Book List
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The Power of Moments Chip & Dan Heath
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7 Habits of Highly Effective People Stephen R. Covey
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Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion Robert B. Caldin, PH. D.
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What Customers Crave: How to Create Relevant and Memorable Experiences at every touchpoint Nicholas Webb
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The Membership Economy Robbie Kellman Baxter
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A World without Email: Reimagining Work in an Age of Communication Overload Cal Newport
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Building Brand Communities: How Organizations Succeed by Creating Belonging Carrie Mellisa Jones and Charles Vogl
My UX Book List
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The User Experience Team of One Leah Buley
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Emotional Design Don Norman
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Nudge Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein
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Mental Models Indie Young
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Designing for Behavioral Stephen Wendel
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Interviewing Users: How to Uncover Compelling Insights Grant McCracken
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Observing the User Experience: A Practitioner's Guide to User Research Goodman, Kuniavsky, Moed
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A Book Apart: Just Enough Research Erika Hall
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Talking to Humans Giff Constable
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A More Beautiful Question: The Power of Inquiry to Spark Breakthrough Ideas Warren Burger
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UX Strategy: How to Devise Innovative Digital Products that People Want Jamie Levy
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Rocket Surgery Made Easy Steve Krug
My Education
Ph.D. in Business Management with a focus in Strategy & Innovation
Capella University Date: 03.2022-Present
Master's of Science in Business Management and Leadership
WGU Graduation Date: 02.2022
Bachelor's of Science in Business Management
WGU Graduation Date: 06.2021
Associates of Arts in Fashion Design
FIDM Graduation Data: 06.2005
Other Certifications
Product Marketing Level 1-4: Pragmatic Institute
Applied Behavioral Design
Digital Behavioral Design
Emotional Design Psychology
UX Deep Dive: Usability Testing
UX Foundations: Informational Architecture
UX Foundations: Research
Sketch for UX Design
Creating a Design System with Sketch
Design Thinking: Understanding the Process
Design Thinking: Implementing the Process
Interaction Design: Interface
Leading like a Futurist
Brand Strategy for Designers
Creating a Culture of Learning
Critical Thinking for Better Judgment and Decision-Making
My Work Experience
Sr. Director of Product Marketing
XY Planning Network | Jan 2022-Present
GTM, Sales Enablement, Journey Mapping, Personas, Launch Strategies, Landing Value
Lead Product Designer + Product Owner of New Revenue
XY Planning Network | June 2020-Jan 2022
Lead design process, create & maintain design system, develop user personas, mapping, wireframes, prototypes, user & market research,
Global Lifestyle Product Line Manager + Head Designer
Caterpillar, Inc. | January 2018-April 2020
Set seasonal design direction, financial forecasting, merchandising and line architecture, competitive analysis, market and consumer research, design 500+ styles per season, oversee global manufacturing and distributorship, present lines at global B2B sales meetings, collaborate cross-functionally with marketing, art, pd and production teams.
Clothing Product Developer, Website Design, and UI/UX Design
Freelance | June 2005-June 2020
Continuous design and business management consulting for start-up clothing companies both domestic and international private labels.
Business Owner (B2B Clothing Manufacturing & Multi-Boutique Owner)
Bootie Patootie, Inc. & Sweet Cheeks, Inc. | Jan 2013-July 2018
Design, development, and manufacturing infant and children products, B2B & B2C sales, order fulfillment, PR and marketing.
Buying and merchandising seasonal clothing lines, marketing, B2C sales
My UI Book List
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Design Elements: Color Fundamentals Aaris Sherin
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The Design of Everyday Things Don Norman
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Don't Make Me Think Steve Krug
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Steal Like an Artist Austin Kleaon
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Atomic Design Brad Frost
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The Psychology of Design Rajeeve Batra, Colleen Seifert, Diann Brei
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100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People Susan Weinschenk
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Thinking with Type Ellen Lupton
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Articulating Design Decisions Tom Greever
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About Face Cooper, Reimann, Cronin, & Noessel
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A Web For Everyone Horton & Quesenbery
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Web Accessibility: Web Standards & Regulatory Compliance Thatcher, Rutter, Heilmann, Waddell, Burks, Henrhy, Kirpatrick, Urbam, Regam, Lawson, and Lauke
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Designing Brand Identity Alina Wheeler
My Leadership Style
My Product Owner Book List
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The Lean Startup Eric Reis
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Sprint: How to Solve Big Problems & Test New Ideas in Just Five Days Knapp & Zeratsky
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Escaping the Build Trap: How Effective Product Management Creates Real Value Melissa Perri
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The Product Book: How to Become a Great Product Manager Josh Anon
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Strategize: Product Strategy and Product Roadmap Practices for the Digital Age Roman Pichler
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Start at the End: How to Build Products that Create Change Matt Wallaer
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The Professional Product Owner: Leveraging Scrum as a Competitive Advantage McGreal & Jocham
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Fifty Quick Ideas to Improve Your User Stories Gojko Adzic and David Evans
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The Phoenix Project: A Novel About IT, DevOps, and Helping Your Business Win Kim, Behr, & Spaafford
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Mapping Experiences Jim Kalhbach
Servant Leadership
Encourages diversity of thought
Creates a culture of trust and empathy
Fosters leadership in others and commits to the growth of people
Provides the tools my team needs to get their tasks completed
Transformational Leadership
Identifies needed change
Creates vision to guide change through influence
Executes change by working with a committed team
Inspires people to perform beyond their perceived capabilities
Give people autonomy and authority to make decisions
Leads with positivity
Provides individualized consideration
Encourages continuous learning
Influences and motivates through connection
My Career & Educational Goals
My general career goal is to utilize my creativity and passion for business within one role. My five-year goal is to move into a VP product role, overseeing the product life cycle of multiple tech products. My 10-year goal is to move into a C-Suite position focusing on business strategy and innovation and creating an organizational learning environment.