UX Research & Design Leader
KENYON CONGDON
Building teams that discover and design innovations to deliver UX vision
Welcome!
I am a veteran UX leader who builds teams to discover new product opportunities and deliver ambitious UX vision by:
Creating high-performance teams that love working together and elevating each other's skills
Relentlessly pursuing generative user research
Patiently and thoughtfully iterating on design
Maximizing user adoption through evaluative testing
Embedding accessibility, diversity, equity and inclusion into the process and the product
Leveraging Artificial Intelligence to optimize internal productivity AND provide improved, unique customer experiences
Recent projects I have led include a citizen portal for building permitting that leverages AI and persuasive design to incentivize users to complete permit applications thoroughly before submission thereby saving permitting departments thousands of man-hours per year on application reviews. See the Case Study
I am an innovator. I push the boundaries of what product and development teams think they are capable of to make a comprehensive UX vision come to life. Building products that smash the competition motivates me! World-class user experience is the vehicle that delivers that fix. I communicate fluently with C-suite leadership and execute on business objectives. I am looking for a position at a company that is equally motivated to disrupt and take over their market space.
Portfolio
I will bring over 20 years of digital product design and team leadership to your organization. From touch-screen TV broadcast automation tools, to modern responsive websites to ERP applications, no project is too complex to create a usable platform for user interaction.
No one can be a great leader unless they genuinely care about the success of every person on their team.
Core Competencies & Skills
Generative Research
Evaluative Research
Software Design Standards and Practices
Design Systems
Mentoring and Leadership Development
Team Building and Employee Engagement
Agile Work Delivery in Tiered Governance
Human-Centered Design
Accessibility a11y
Cross-Division Communication and Collaboration
Strategic Planning
Analytical Thinking
Data Driven Analysis
Risk Management
Problem Solving
Stakeholder Engagement
Conflict Resolution
Public Speaking
Methodologies
User Research
Generative research builds understanding and empathy and defines acute UX goals. Evaluative research ensures designs achieve known goals.
> Do your product teams plan for UX research?
> Is UX research built into road maps and delivery timelines?
> Sometimes research reveals you are moving in the wrong direction. Are you ready to listen to the data?
UX Design
From workflows to wireframes, UX design sets up UI design for success. UX Design requires a broad skillset including project management.
> Are your UX designers engaged in both research and UI design?
> Do your UX designers own the project from start to finish?
> Are your personas known and documented?
UI Design
From design system to high fidelity mockups, UI design bring UX to life and provides opportunities for delightful micro-experiences.
> Are your UI standards and patterns documented and evolving?
> Do you have a web component library that delivers your design system into development?
> Is there enough collaboration across designers and teams to deliver consistency?
Accessibility Compliance
Accessibility compliance starts with a compliant design system and doesn't stop until development output is tested for compliance.
> Does your company culture acknowledge accessibility as a key to success?
> Do your design artifacts include accessibility specifications?
> Do your engineers include accessibility in code reviews?
> Do your QA use assistive tools & compliance checkers during testing?
UX Operations
Robust and repeatable UX operations are key to building an efficient, mature product design team.
> Do you have the right tools in place?
> Do your researchers and designers know how to use them?
> How do your teams communicate with stakeholders?
> Are your teams practicing Agile methodologies?
> Is every research and design project visible to stakeholders?
> Are metrics accurate, informative and relevant?
People Management
UX leaders are people managers, too. Effectively managing designers and their relationships with stakeholders is critical to delivering successful products.
> Is your design team just a team or is it a family?
> Are all opinions valid and open for discussion?
> Is everyone empowered to deliver their best work?
> Does everyone feel comfortable discussing problems?
Software Proficiencies
Research
- UserTesting,com
- Dovetail
- Genway.ai
- Qualtrics
- Survey Monkey
- Airtable
Design
Figma
Lottiefiles
Rive
Play
Bravo
No-Code
Framer
FlutterFlow
Code
VS Code
Visual Studio
Android Studio
Git
Azure DevOps
Accessibility
Level Access
Deque
Lighthouse
AXE
WCAG 2.2
Documentation
Zoomin
Coveo
Madcap Flare
Collaboration
FigJam
Teams
Miro
Confluence
Office 365
Slack
Productivity
Aha!
Azure DevOps
Sharepoint
Office 365
Certifications & Training History
Certifications
Interaction Design Foundation
- UX Management Strategy & Tactics
- Design for the 21st Century with Don Norman
- Emotional Design - Making Products People Love
- Information Visualization: Getting Dashboards Right
- User Research Methods & Best Practices
- Gestalt Psychology and Web Design
- Master of Mobile UX Design
- Accessibility: Designing for All
- Data Driven Design: Quantitative Research in UX
Level Access
- Certified System Administrator
Leading Agile
- Certified Agile Practitioner
- Certified Scrum Master
Master Classes
- Behavioral Design
- Design Patterns for AI User Experience
- The Importance of Emotional Intelligence in UX
- How to Fix UX Fails with Object Oriented UX
- Human-Centered Design for AI
- How to Make Your AI Project a Success
- Design KPIs: From Insight to Impact
- User Stories Don't Help Users: Introducing Persona Stories
- How to Design for Neurodiversity: Inclusive Content and UX
- How to Create Actionable User Journey Maps
- How to Design for Civic Life
- How to Manage Personal UX Maturity
- AI-Powered UX Design
- How to Design for User Trust
- Complex UI Design: Practical Techniques
- Introduction to Digital Accessibility
- How to Differentiate Your Mobile UX
- Evaluating Your UX Maturity: Limits and Opportunities
- The Tone of Typography: A Visual Communication Guide
- How to Design for an Aging Population