Hello! I'm Jackson.
Experienced product design leader with 20 years in interactive design and 12 years in managing cross-functional teams. I am dedicated to creating design value, driving data-driven decisions, and validating design through UX research.
2022-2024 | Head of UX Design
As the UX lead, I focused on customer activation which leads them through onboarding: creating fitness goals, learning about the physical and digital product, and reaching their a-ha moment in their fitness journey.
With a small design team, I streamlined our design process, keeping the team focused on KPIs, and making design decisions informed by user research. During my tenure, FightCamp launched the 2nd generation of their connected boxing product.
2020-2022 | Studio Director of UX
At Jam City, I managed the UX teams for three franchise games: Harry Potter, Panda Pop, and Vineyard Valley. The design teams and I worked on user retention and onboarding challenges, utilizing interactive storytelling, new feature releases, and world expansion.
Under my leadership, cross-functional collaboration between art, engineering, and design was improved, resulting in faster delivery, improved usability, and less wasted effort.
2018-2020 | Global Head of UX
As the Global Head of UX for Mattel Digital Games, I hired a global team from zero to 20 made up of UX designers, UI artists, and UX researchers at NetEase (Hangzhou) and Mattel (Los Angeles). Driving creative design and UX, revenue grew by 600% between 2018-2020.
As a manager, I developed lean and cost-effective methods for conducting user research, personas development, playtesting, and insight workshops that drove player retention and revenue opportunities.
2011-2014 | Lead UX Designer
2016-2018 | Studio UX Director
I started my career in gaming at Zynga in 2011 from being a Lead UX Designer to Studio UX Director. My leadership role and team grew as Zynga created more games and adopted a cross-platform strategy for playing games on mobile and web.
Under my tenure, Zynga Poker went through a significant overhaul on mobile and web, impacting our development pipeline from art to engineering. The team efforts led the game to be the dominant free-to-play poker game for 10 years.
2015-2016 | Senior Manager, Advanced UX Design
I led a 15-person team in developing advanced automotive concepts in telematics, connected devices, and future transportation. Along with the Stuttgart UX team, the advanced team worked on the creative vision and development of the highly lauded next-generation MB infotainment system. MBUX launched in 2018 and received rave press reviews for its touchscreen, UI design, and intuitive navigation.
ADVISOR and CONSULTANT
Over the years, I was fortunate to work on opportunities and organizations (large and small) that helped me grow as a designer and leader. Being a hands-on designer, I value the process of craftsmanship and can evaluate how to optimize the process. As a consultant, I understand being efficient and getting stakeholder buy-in is also part of the designer’s job. And most importantly, as a leader, I learned to communicate design strategies that increased business value.
I am currently an advisory board member at the iXD program at Santa Monica College and an active ADP list mentor for UX design.