I was at AWS for about 5 years. Upon joining, I led the Security UX team, then added the Commerce UX team, I grew headcount under management from 3 to 40 in my first 18 months. We did many cool things together and grew many careers. I helped two designers reach Principal level (L7), Tiphaine in Commerce and Erica in Security, and helped many others reach senior level.

My most visible and measurable improvement came when we redesigned and streamlined AWS Billing Console ($88B+ ARR, ~8M monthly active users at the time) and improved customer satisfaction by +2000bps (from 35% to 55% highly satisfied). When I arrived, the team was in total disarray. Two managers had just left and there were zero managers on the team. I trained Kristen as a manager, attracted Tiphaine back to Commerce from another team, and managed several people directly. After stabilizing things, we got to work. Designers on the team could see many of the upside opportunities but not how to convince others. I catalyzed several efforts by injecting evidence-based narrative documents into the “OP1” annual planning cycle. To obtain evidence, I did a secondary literature review of all prior research and wrote a research summary that included an initial catalog of about 75 outcome statements (using Outcome Driven Innovation (ODI) methodology). Some of that source data came via Idon Shaman (UX) and Liam Greenamyre (PM), who then also reviewed the outcomes and refined them into a final list. I trained Sheel Shah on the general approach for ODI surveys, then he ran a survey with 250 customers. After he ranked the outcome statements by opportunity score (highest importance, lowest customer satisfaction), we focused on the highest opportunity outcomes. Idon led the hands-on design of a new streamlined experience, Liam led planning and coordination, and Steve's eng team built it.

We ran similar efforts in the Security team: workshops for outcome definition, followed by prioritization, then design prototyping. The largest project culminated in the launch of a totally new Security Hub focused on resource-based risk analytics — in December 2025, after I left AWS! But what was the origin story? It started during my first weeks on the job in Q1 2021 in discussions with Luke who had been envisioning a more coherent security experience to replace disparate ones. I ignited action by writing a UX OP1 document and injecting that into our formal annual planning cycle. Dan (retired VP) and Michael and Ely (PM) were early advocates who pushed me to improve it, then supported me and secured headcount commitment. Luke continued on the project full time, eventually building incredibly indepth and accurate prototypes. Fran joined me from Google Cloud to manage the whole team. Erica followed me from IBM and embraced my preferred outcome driven innovation approach, clarifying the goals of the project while raising the bar for curiosity and craft across the team. Bridget turned down a competing offer to be curious with us and then eventually took the lead role. Many great people joined us during that time: one standout entry level hire was Vera, who joined us fresh from a master's program in HCI and became incredibly active on pattern work, rising to senior designer in just a few years.

Scrapbook

Savings plan recommendations were one of many projects my team worked on. This visualization designed by Greg helped people right-size their spending by showing them their current compute savings plan commitment, the additional amount we recommend, and their burst usage that would likely not benefit from a savings plan commitment.