My craft is my discernment. I change altitude often — I'm as comfortable in the strategy as I am in the execution. I’m skilled at framing the real problem, choosing direction, building momentum, and enjoy collaborating with teams to de-risk the path.
Fifteen years across enterprise platforms, agency work, and 0→1 products have taught me that judgment—my ability to influence and the depth and breadth of my experience, not speed—is what separates good outcomes from expensive guessing.
I design for coherence.
Impact Areas
Over 15 years across distinct industries, domains, and scenarios. Different companies, constraints, and contexts. Each one taught me something the others couldn't.
Enterprise Platforms
Learned to hold complexity together at scale, where the system is the product. Articulating a clear vision, creating the conditions for alignment, influence, and building momentum toward it are key.
Consulting
Learned to solve a breadth of other businesses’ problems on their timeline. Gained the experience to wear many hats, move fast and lean, and build close and trusting cross-functional relationships to ensure successful delivery of experiences that create the best possible outcomes.
0→1 Products
Learned to build from nothing — no roadmap, a fuzzy problem, high ambiguity. Sharpened research, experimentation, facilitation, and product thinking until discernment did the heavy lifting: knowing what's worth building and cutting risk before it compounds.
AI & Emerging Tech
I've been designing AI products since 2016. What always mattered — and matters even more now — is designing for trust. AI is a tool; design is a relationship.
What I Do
Sometimes no one knows what to build yet. Sometimes everyone agrees on the vision, but no one has built the path to get there. I show up for both.
Make business strategy coherent for the teams building the product
Remove design as a bottleneck by reframing how decisions flow
Make design a roadmap input, not a roadmap output
Coach teams to think better, not just build faster
Design AI products people actually trust, in streamlined ways
Bridge the seams between design and the rest of the org
My Approach in Practice
1
I'm energized by complexity and flexible in how I design for it. I'm passionate about process, not for its own sake, but as a tool to achieve the greatest alignment and the best outcomes.
Impact-First, Pragmatic & Adaptive
2
Design is a team sport, and I coach teams, not just build the artifacts. My approach is dynamic and creative: I build frameworks and share stories that people want to contribute to and be part of. I drive the strategy, then build the systems that make it coherent. In the age of AI, the best work still happens when you empower people to be part of the process with the right ways of working.
Collaborative, Craft-forward & Human-Centered
3
Data-Informed & Operations-Minded — End-to-End
I seek feedback early and often, and iterate quickly to explore possibilities within real-world constraints. I'm detail-oriented, research-forward, and take calculated risks based on the trade-offs.
What Partners Have Said
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“Jillian contributed significantly to the business by leading with her expertise in research, prototyping, and design. She offers tremendous value and is directly responsible for the design and creation of first-of-a-kind experience in the AR Technology domain.”
Mark Yeandle, Mobile Product Lead, Apple+IBM
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“Jillian led the team to be creative and flexible. She provided coaching and mentoring on research and design best practices and partnered extremely well with our multi-studio team. The client was extremely happy with IBM's work, and we received praise at the AT&T executive levels.”
Mike McLeod, Partner, IBM Consulting
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“Jillian demonstrated outstanding subject matter expertise and empathy for our iX Designer population. Without her expertise and thoughtful contributions to course design, L&K could not have achieved the excellent outcome.”
Jonathan Bales, Global L&K Lead, IBM Consulting
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“Jillian showed leadership, provided valuable feedback, and performed at a high level. Her enthusiasm and willingness to learn and grow is unsurpassed.”
Catherine Adams, Global Delivery Lead, IBM Consulting
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"Jillian is a tenacious leader and UX expert. We were very lucky to have her for the short time on this project."
Logan Daniel, Senior Product Manager, Kaiser Permanente
Trusted by these Brands
Speaking & Teaching
AI: The Future is Still Human | IBM Spark Design Festival (2024)
A talk on why "AI" isn't intelligence, where the hype breaks down, and where the real value is — for designers and researchers deciding what's actually worth building.
Dysfunctional Teams Create Dysfunctional Products | IBM Spark Design Festival (2024)
A behavioral design talk on psychological safety, grounded in Lencioni's Five Dysfunctions of a Team and backed by research showing that 75% of cross-functional teams are dysfunctional (Tabrizi, 2015).
Making a Usable Assistant with WatsonX.ai Orchestrate | IBM HCAI Research Excellence Talks (2024)
Knowledge Graph Induction Enabling Recommending and Trend Analysis: A Corporate Research Community Use Case | International Semantic Web Conference (2022)
Advanced iOS Design Essentials | IBM Global Knowledge & Learning (2020)
Well Aware: Belong | AIGA Chicago (2019)
Well Aware | AIGA Chicago (2019)
Hexagon UX Mentorship Program | Hexagon UX Chicago (2019 - 2020)
Design for Social Good | AIGA Chicago (2019)
Finding Your Voice | Hexagon UX for Women Talk Design (2019)
Design for Social Impact | Hexagon UX for Chicago Design Week (2018)
Personal Impact Metrics
300+
hours education content developed
50%
dev velocity increase
15+
years experience
300K+
users & customers impacted
15
coachees & mentees
40+
projects delivered
8
teams led
30%
more bugs resolved
30+
workshops facilitated
5
design systems improved
Experience
Jun - Aug 2025 (Contract)
Staff Experience Designer, Acrobat Studio - GenAI
2021 - 2025
Senior Designer, IBM Research
2022 - 2023 (Volunteer Role)
DesignOps Lead, IBM Spark Design Festival
2021
Lead Experience Designer
2020 - 2021
Associate Design Director, IBM Consulting
2018 - 2022 (Volunteer Role)
Chicago Founder & Co-Lead
2018 - 2020 (Volunteer Role)
Community Engagement Chair
2016 - 2020
Senior iOS UX Designer
2015 - 2016
Surface Designer, Home Products
2010 - 2015
Lead Designer, Digital Innovations
Education
Kellogg|Northwestern Executive Education
Advanced Certificate in Product Strategy
Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design
BFA Communication Design & Printmaking
Bauhaus University, Weimar Germany
(MIAD Exchange Program)
Visual Communication & Fine Art
University Wisconsin - Washington County
Psychology & Anthropology
Beyond Work
As Hexagon UX Chicago's founder and former AIGA Chicago Community Engagement Chair, I’m passionate about building inclusive design communities. I explore backroads with my adventure dog Panda, restore my dad's Kawasaki, and hand-draw vintage-inspired moto art as a solopreneur for Brappy Gals, a creative studio celebrating color, character, and adventure on two wheels.
