I’m a human-centered design, research, & strategy leader with over a decade of experience addressing challenges in complex digital products.

(I believe in taking my work seriously, not myself.)

Engage fearlessly.
Advocate clearly.
Create intentionally.

Have fun.

These are the principles I follow every day to consistently bring success to every one of the diverse industries, teams, and projects I have the pleasure of working with.

World-class outcomes are achieved by setting aside our egos and doing the hard, sometimes messy, often unpredictable work of uncovering real problems so we can design real solutions.

The power of design rests in our desire to make the world an authentically safer, easier, better place for everyone to live in.

How can I make your world better?

  • Ellie is the real deal – a true UX unicorn who humbly wields her human-centric, multi-skilled talents to solve her stakeholders most challenging problems.

    Arin LoPrete, Executive Director of Product Design

  • Ellie not only brings all the essential hard skills you'd expect from top-tier talent, but she also fosters a collaborative and psychologically safe environment wherever she goes.

    Letícia Machiavelli, Senior Product Manager

  • Ellie is one of the most supportive partners and highly skilled product design leads I've ever had the pleasure of collaborating with. I'd kill to work with her again!

    Suzy Bowen, Product Manager

  • Ellie led one of the most effective strategic workshops I've ever had the pleasure of participating in, ensuring we kicked off with full alignment. She became an invaluable platform design and strategy partner and was critical to the success of our MVP launch.

    Ashley Phillips, Head of Programs

Experience

Staff Product Designer
Traive, AI Credit Risk Analysis Platform, 2024

I lead discovery and product design for a new pillar of the business that had been key to the long-term strategic vision since the company’s inception. I developed an adaptive guerrilla research strategy, managed cross-cultural stakeholders, and created unique processes to effectively synthesize and iterate to keep forward momentum under challenging conditions.

Learn more about how we took this amorphous, infinitely complex, first of its kind AI-driven agricultural credit marketplace from idea to technical proof of concept in less than six months.

Product Strategy, Facilitation, & Design Consultant
Independent, 2023-2024

As an independent contractor, my services included hosting facilitated collaboration sessions, evaluating and driving product strategy, and executing platform design and development projects in collaboration with in-house teams for a diverse range of clients.

Learn more about my time creating a digital tool to collect citizen feedback on nonpartisan, common sense legislation proposals designed to address divisive issues at the state level.

Lead Product Designer & Manager
Candy Digital, Digital Collectibles Platform, 2022 - 2023

As platform experience lead for the new Entertainment division of this blockchain-backed digital collectibles company, my role spanned both the strategic development of holistic new partnership experiences with clients such as Netflix and Getty Images, and managing designers focused on related large and small scale platform enhancements.

Learn more about the Webby-award winning augmented reality game we created for the launch of our Netflix x Candy partnership and Season 4 of Stranger Things.

Principal UX Researcher & Manager,
eko, Interactive Video Agency, 2021 – 2022

I applied my multidisciplinary expertise in a fast-paced startup environment to build and manage the small research team supporting interactive, consumer-facing e-commerce video experiences. As well, I advocated for user research best practices across the organization and collaborated on strategy, ideation, and wireframes for an in-development SaaS solution to democratize interactive video creation.

Principal UX Design & Research Consultant
Capco, Finance Consultancy, 2018 - 2021

As a subject matter expert working with clients in financial services, I managed cross-functional teams on projects spanning all stages of product design and strategy in highly constrained and complex environments.

Learn more about my time leading an interdisciplinary team of five to add dozens of new features and quality of life improvements to portfolio reporting software used by wealth managers at one of the largest banks in the world.

Learn more about the design-jam-winning app concept I lead an internal team of four to develop in just four weeks, focused on supporting people with volatile income safely and effectively save for retirement.

Lead User Experience Designer
ES99, Digital Branding Agency, 2017-2018

As the sole UX designer collaborating with a large team of visual, graphic, and web designers and developers, I conducted domain and competitive discovery research, presented findings & recommendations to clients and key stakeholders, and converted research output to wireframes and other UX documentation to support best-in-class digital brand experiences.

Learn more about the surprising industry I conducted market and brand research in, and one of the most entertaining and informative final presentations I’d given to date.

Can you believe there’s more?

For the deep lore, check out my full work history on LinkedIn.