Intradiem

Intradiem was my first real design job, and it was honestly the only reason I got into product design in the first place. They hired me to join their marketing department, making collateral for tradeshows, ebooks, social media assets, all of that. They'd just rebranded right when I came on board, so it was my job to basically figure out what the brand meant and how to use it.

Part of that rebrand, though, was redoing the website. It was maybe the first month or two on the job, and we had a call with an agency who was bidding on the website for us. I think the estimate came back at $40–60k or something. It was a lot. My boss at the time wasn't thrilled with the quote. We got off the call, and young, naive, never-built-a-website-before me piped up and said "I can build it."

You see, Webflow had just launched. I'd tried it. It was magic. So I planted my new reputation in the soil and said that I would build it.

And I did. And it was good. And I learned a ton. Webflow still to this day has a special place in my heart for that opportunity and chance to build something. I even got a bonus for the site, something I'd never had before, and used it to put a down payment on a house. Crazy, crazy times.

An iPad app for Sprint

But that web work, and the success of the launch, didn't stop there. After I designed the site, Sprint came knocking and was looking for a new iPad app for their retail stores to help manage their workforce. The product team came knocking to me and said "you can do a website... so can you design an app?"

Yes. Yes I could. (No, I absolutely could not.)

Designed the whole thing in Illustrator. Crazy times. Terrible design.

But it worked, and it launched, and Sprint somehow loved it.

Becoming a UX designer

After that, I lobbied for "more education in UX", got them to pay for my General Assembly courses, and pretty soon I was a Graphic Designer no more. I was a UX Design Manager.

Then came more apps, and better ones. A totally new desktop experience for contact centers. Another mobile app, this time for mobile workforce management. I learned so much. And I will say, looking back, that the interaction work and ideas I had were kinda great for such little experience.

Were they easy to build? No. Feasible and elegant from an engineering perspective? Not a chance. Those lessons would come later.

But I was a UX designer. And now I still am.