Arcadia’s mission is to decarbonize the grid by unlocking clean energy for everyone. When I joined, the design team was small, the product surface was rapidly expanding across consumer and B2B platforms, and many foundational systems—processes, research, and design operations—were still in early stages.

Role
Head of Design

Time
2021 - Present

At Arcadia, my focus was on designing for resilience. In a fast-moving environment with shifting priorities and lean resources, I worked to ensure design remained a strong, strategic force. That meant championing high-quality craft, building systems that empowered our team to thrive, and making design an essential part of how we built and shipped products.

Scale research in a B2C environment

When I joined, product decisions—especially on the consumer side—were often made with limited user insight. This led to missed opportunities and usability gaps.

Coming from Wayfair, I had extensive experience conducting user interviews and usability studies. At Arcadia, I applied that experience to make research easier, more accessible, and deeply integrated into the product process.

Here’s what I did:

  • Introduced a scalable research toolkit: templates, recruitment guides, and synthesis frameworks

  • Advocated for foundational and generative research ahead of roadmap planning

  • Trained my designers to conduct their own research confidently and independently. With these tools, they could run studies, synthesize insights, and influence product direction without bottlenecks.

Impact:

  • Made regular user studies a habit—not a one-off

  • Improved usability across key workflows, particularly in Community Solar

Make planning work for a lean team

Arcadia has always been a mission-driven company operating with lean teams. That made planning even more critical—we needed a process that helped us stay focused, move quickly, and align our work with business impact.

Over time, I shaped a planning system that gave the design team clarity without adding overhead. It combined high-level goal setting with day-to-day task tracking, and made it easy to prioritize both roadmap work and incoming design requests.

Here’s how we made it work:

  • Quarterly Planning in Notion:
    We used Notion & Confluence to set quarterly goals, break them into initiatives, and assign ownership. This created visibility across the team and tied our efforts back to product and company strategy.

  • Task Management in Jira:
    From there, we moved into Jira to track design work, keep up with deadlines, and adapt to shifting priorities. This helped us manage work at a more detailed level and collaborate seamlessly with PMs and engineers.

  • Design Support Requests:
    I set up a triage system for incoming requests via Jira. Designers could clearly see which items were urgent vs. backlog, and we could slot them into our existing workload without constant disruption.

Why it has worked

This system worked because it respected the realities of a lean, high-impact team:

  • Clarity without micromanagement:
    Designers had a clear understanding of what needed to be done and why—without being overwhelmed by process. They could prioritize their work with context, not just tickets.

  • Balanced structure and flexibility:
    We kept high-level planning in Notion and execution in Jira, giving us structure where it mattered and flexibility where it counted.

  • Designed for autonomy:
    Designers didn’t have to wait on me or a PM to move forward. The system enabled them to own their work, make decisions, and manage their time effectively.

  • Better cross-functional alignment:
    PMs and engineers could see what design was focused on, understand our capacity, and plan with us—not around us.

  • Space for strategic thinking:
    By reducing chaos in the day-to-day, we freed up time to work on initiatives that actually moved the needle—like redesigning onboarding or piloting new features for commercial clients.

Build culture through rituals & systems

Team culture doesn’t happen by accident. It’s shaped by what we do consistently. At Arcadia, I designed a set of rituals and systems that gave structure to our work and space for our growth.

Weekly Syncs

Our team syncs weren’t just status updates. They were working sessions, problem-solving spaces, and a chance to reconnect.

We used FigJam to collaborate in real time, visually track progress, and co-create solutions.
Everything was documented in Notion—from decisions to action items—creating transparency and follow-through.

Impact
These syncs helped us move faster without burning out. They became a cornerstone of our culture: consistent, collaborative, and human.

Career Growth Conversations

Supporting career growth is not a side project. It’s embedded in how I lead. I created and continuously refined a career growth template to guide our 1:1s and development planning.

  • Centered on strengths, feedback, and long-term goals

  • Adapted to Arcadia’s evolving roles, team structures, and opportunities

  • Prioritized clarity and honest reflection over check-the-box promotions

Outcomes

  • Helped designers step into senior roles and lead major initiatives

  • Fostered a culture of self-awareness, continuous feedback, and purposeful growth

Together, these rituals and systems gave the team what they needed to thrive: clarity, connection, and the confidence to take on what’s next.

Select projects & initiatives (coming soon)

At this stage in my career, I measure success by the impact my team creates—not just what I personally ship. I operate as a player-coach, so while I stay hands-on when needed, my focus is on empowering designers to lead meaningful, high-impact work.

Here are a few key initiatives my team led at Arcadia—with my mentorship, support, and creative direction: