I spent almost 3 years working in product design for Socrata. It was truly an awesome experience in design and as a member of the Socrata family. I have a deep appreciation and profound respect for the mission-driven company.

I was matched with a great team from the start; we tackled interesting projects where I could contribute and grow. Both the work and the people stretched my abilities and my imagination. Importantly, I had the chance to learn every single day.

I’ve shipped product

I shipped a lot of software and maintained strong human-centered design methods and process.

  • Open Budget - April 2015
  • Open Payroll - June 2015
  • Open Expenditures - July 2015
  • Socrata Open Data Catalog a mobile-first redesign - October 2015
  • Socrata Styleguide - November 2015
  • Socrata Perspectives - February 2016
  • Perspectives-Getty Images Integration - April 2016
  • Socrata Visualization Authoring MVP - October 2016
  • Open Performance legacy product migration - December 2016
  • Visualization Canvas (tech preview) - March 2017

Not to mention, lots of iteration in between those bullet points!

Experience research

I was also able to drive in-depth, discovery, problem space, and experience research.

  • Communication of government finance information - February 2015
  • Collaborating on data in government settings - November 2016
  • Influencing change through government performance management - April 2017

Growth

I experienced a tremendous amount of personal and professional growth at Socrata.

When I started at Socrata, I wanted nothing more than to work with a really great, collaborative, and engaged design team. I got what I wanted and more. Not only were there other designers to collaborate with, but the product management team provided a great deal of opportunities for me to learn and build my thinking.

In early 2016, after shipping 6 major product initiatives, I was moved into a senior designer role, leading design projects across multiple product and business teams.

In July 2016, Socrata underwent a partial company restructuring and I was asked to lead the design team. This was a challenge that wasn’t anywhere on my radar (at the time, I was screening candidates for a design director or design manager position). Perhaps a little reluctantly, I agreed to this under the condition that the rest of the design team give a strong thumbs up on the move. They did.

I recruited and grew the design team to 6 full-time designers.

What next?

I’ve still got a lot of learning to do. I’d like to continue to hone my craft as a designer and product-thinker. I’m always up for challenging myself in driving the definition and execution of product design processes.