Sleeping Bear Dunes as a family of three.
Congrats and welcome!
You have successfully made it to my “about me” page! I sincerely hope the horizontal navigation bar enabled quick discovery; you were able to scan and discern, without much thought, each of the primary categories. And that you were able to complete the task of finding out more about me efficiently and that the interaction met your expectations.
I hope that small introduction gives you a glimpse of how I question and think about product experiences. In general terms, it’s this mindset that has guided me throughout my career in design spanning 10+ years where I have held multiple roles in UX and UI design for several product and service design teams.
My CliftonStrengths, a survey of questions by Gallup that test your reaction to work-based situations, are shared below. They will give you an idea of how I best like to work.
Gallup Clifton Strengths Insights
Relator • Restorative • Analytical • Responsibility • Context
What does this all mean? I wasn’t sure myself but then they sent me this readout for each of the themes listed above. If you like daily horoscopes, this is for you…
Relator -
“Relator describes your attitude toward your relationships. In simple terms, the Relator theme pulls you toward people you already know. You do not necessarily shy away from meeting new people—in fact, you may have other themes that cause you to enjoy the thrill of turning strangers into friends—but you do derive a great deal of pleasure and strength from being around your close friends. You are comfortable with intimacy. Once the initial connection has been made, you deliberately encourage a deepening of the relationship. You want to understand their feelings, their goals, their fears, and their dreams; and you want them to understand yours. You know that this kind of closeness implies a certain amount of risk—you might be taken advantage of—but you are willing to accept that risk. For you a relationship has value only if it is genuine. And the only way to know that is to entrust yourself to the other person. The more you share with each other, the more you risk together. The more you risk together, the more each of you proves your caring is genuine. These are your steps toward real friendship, and you take them willingly.”
Restorative -
“You love to solve problems. Whereas some are dismayed when they encounter yet another breakdown, you can be energized by it. You enjoy the challenge of analyzing the symptoms, identifying what is wrong, and finding the solution. You may prefer practical problems or conceptual ones or personal ones. You may seek out specific kinds of problems that you have met many times before and that you are confident you can fix. Or you may feel the greatest push when faced with complex and unfamiliar problems. Your exact preferences are determined by your other themes and experiences. But what is certain is that you enjoy bringing things back to life. It is a wonderful feeling to identify the undermining factor(s), eradicate them, and restore something to its true glory. Intuitively, you know that without your intervention, this thing—this machine, this technique, this person, this company—might have ceased to function. You fixed it, resuscitated it, rekindled its vitality. Phrasing it the way you might, you saved it.”
Analytical -
“Your Analytical theme challenges other people: “Prove it. Show me why what you are claiming is true.” In the face of this kind of questioning some will find that their brilliant theories wither and die. For you, this is precisely the point. You do not necessarily want to destroy other people’s ideas, but you do insist that their theories be sound. You see yourself as objective and dispassionate. You like data because they are value free. They have no agenda. Armed with these data, you search for patterns and connections. You want to understand how certain patterns affect one another. How do they combine? What is their outcome? Does this outcome fit with the theory being offered or the situation being confronted? These are your questions. You peel the layers back until, gradually, the root cause or causes are revealed. Others see you as logical and rigorous. Over time they will come to you in order to expose someone’s “wishful thinking” or “clumsy thinking” to your refining mind. It is hoped that your analysis is never delivered too harshly. Otherwise, others may avoid you when that “wishful thinking” is their own.”
Responsibility -
“Your Responsibility theme forces you to take psychological ownership for anything you commit to, and whether large or small, you feel emotionally bound to follow it through to completion. Your good name depends on it. If for some reason you cannot deliver, you automatically start to look for ways to make it up to the other person. Apologies are not enough. Excuses and rationalizations are totally unacceptable. You will not quite be able to live with yourself until you have made restitution. This conscientiousness, this near obsession for doing things right, and your impeccable ethics, combine to create your reputation: utterly dependable. When assigning new responsibilities, people will look to you first because they know it will get done. When people come to you for help—and they soon will—you must be selective. Your willingness to volunteer may sometimes lead you to take on more than you should.”
Context -
“You look back. You look back because that is where the answers lie. You look back to understand the present. From your vantage point the present is unstable, a confusing clamor of competing voices. It is only by casting your mind back to an earlier time, a time when the plans were being drawn up, that the present regains its stability. The earlier time was a simpler time. It was a time of blueprints. As you look back, you begin to see these blueprints emerge. You realize what the initial intentions were. These blueprints or intentions have since become so embellished that they are almost unrecognizable, but now this Context theme reveals them again. This understanding brings you confidence. No longer disoriented, you make better decisions because you sense the underlying structure. You become a better partner because you understand how your colleagues came to be who they are. And counterintuitively you become wiser about the future because you saw its seeds being sown in the past. Faced with new people and new situations, it will take you a little time to orient yourself, but you must give yourself this time. You must discipline yourself to ask the questions and allow the blueprints to emerge because no matter what the situation, if you haven’t seen the blueprints, you will have less confidence in your decisions.”
You have made it this far (and must really want to get to know me)…
On a personal level, I am a dad to two (sometimes) outstanding kids and a husband to my (always) wonderful wife. My family and I love and call Metro Detroit home where we live with a supportive system of parents, sisters and brother-in-laws that others could only dream of (yeah, I’m fortunate and lucky).
Prior to settling down, I spent many years traveling all across Asia, primarily China/South Korea, in search of adventure and business opportunities. The highlight of those travels was a harrowing (this was before they had an accurate mapping and, basically, asphalt roads) roadtrip to Lhasa, Tibet back in 2005.
Nomadic Tibetans were extremely friendly and welcoming. Me (right) dealing with extreme altitude sickness and not being able to put down a watermelon without immediately throwing up afterwards… not so much.
To my complete surprise, I survived the journey from Tianjin (north of Beijing) to Lhasa. And, man… it WAS WORTH IT.
Tibetan monks in Lhasa
Sunrise in Lhasa
As I returned and settled back into life in the States (first thing I did was grab some Taco Bell), I experienced quite a bit of (return) culture shock. I was reminded of how life was before I left and how much had changed since I left. My time away had given me a new perspective on life (meaning, relationships, priorities, etc) and I would live my life to the fullest.
While things are vastly different now, I embrace and enjoy spending time with my little family, always striving for fulfillment and happiness - a life well lived.
