Presenting in the Quickbase Empower 2025 opening keynote
About me
I started my career as a professionally trained software engineer at the tail end of the last millennium. My passion for front end development turned into a pivot to design 10 years later. I spent the next 15 years mastering product design principles, leading teams, modernizing enterprise platforms, and driving measurable outcomes for hundreds of thousands of users.
With the dawn of AI-powered development tools, my past and present have reunited, providing me with a clear new focus on a radically efficient future, where design and development are merged into a single practice.
Today, as a design engineering leader, I combine 15 years of design and leadership wisdom with the ability to personally build and ship real working code at a 10x pace and cost savings for the organizations I work with.
Core expertise
- Team leadership & talent development
- AI-powered design & Development
- Design systems & DesignOps
- Interaction design & visual design
- User research & testing
Tools & technologies
Case studies
A track record of transforming products and design teams at startups, studios, and enterprises
Skillcraft
2025 - Present
Head of Design
AI-enhanced assessment authoring at Skillcraft
How I designed an AI-accelerated authoring platform that removed the founder bottleneck at a bootstrapped skill assessment startup—delivering a 10x efficiency gain in assessment creation.
Quickbase
2020 - 2025
Product Design Manager
Leading design transformation at Quickbase
How I transformed both a 20-year-old platform and its design team—building collaboration, driving efficiency, and proving design's strategic value in an engineering-led company.
Forrester
2014 - 2019
Manager, Principal UX Designer
Reimagining Forrester's client portal & native mobile experience
How I led the modernization of Forrester's flagship client portal and launched their first native mobile research apps—turning a dated desktop-first experience into a mobile-first ecosystem that tripled weekly active users.
Harmonix Music Systems
2008 - 2011
Web Director
RockBand.com and beyond: Leading the web team for a legendary game studio
My origin story as a manager—learn how I built and led a multi-disciplinary team to create boundary-smashing websites for one of the most successful video game franchises of all time.
Solo projects
AI-powered design and development tools like Lovable and Claude Code have reignited my lifelong passion for building web and mobile apps on my own. All of these projects were completely envisioned, designed, and built singlehandedly as I've learned and explored the potential of these revolutionary tools.
Trésora
2026
Cross-platform Native App
Trésora: Lifestyle app for antique and vintage collectors
A native iOS and Android app for antique and thrift collectors — an end-to-end product spanning shop discovery, AI-powered identification, and collection management.
Sympheo
2025
Web-based learning platform
Sympheo: A classical music appreciation app
A 90-lesson classical music appreciation app — built solo as an experiment in learning to design and build in a new way.
Experience
Two decades of design and development leadership at startups, studios, and enterprises
Hired to lead design at this two-person psychometric skill assessment startup, I designed an AI-accelerated authoring platform that removed the founder bottleneck—cutting assessment creation from roughly two weeks to less than a day and helping unlock $100K+ in advance customer funding.
In a whirlwind nine months, I played key roles in nearly a dozen major agency projects for clients like Liberty Mutual, TJX, and Museum of Fine Arts Boston – as Digital Technology Director, a critical member of the agency's then fledgling Interactive team.
Groove Networks(acquired by Microsoft)
Senior Web Developer
December 1999 - April 2006
Recommendations
“As a manager, he strikes the perfect balance between being involved and giving autonomy—offering guidance when needed, advocating for his team's decisions to leadership, and creating space for independent ownership. He's great at providing high-level career and process advice, as well as diving into the smallest visual design details.”
Aarohi Shah
Former direct report, Quickbase
“Jeff brings a blend of great leadership, design expertise, and a keen eye for detail. He guided our team through major initiatives, and personally collaborated and guided me through projects like Quickbase AI with his vision and clarity. As an experienced designer himself, Jeff's feedback was always insightful and practical, helping us deliver truly user-centered solutions.”
Anton Kharboush
Former direct report, Quickbase
“Jeff has both an eye for talent and a gift for putting team members into roles where they excel. He has the humility to let his team run with their ideas and the insight to know when to chime in with timely and important design considerations along the way.”
Fish McGill
Former direct report, Harmonix
Get in touch
Looking for a strategic design leader who brings deep expertise in SaaS design, team development, and emerging technologies? Let's connect.
Based in the suburbs outside Boston, MA