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Director of User Experience and Innovation
Strategy, Research, and Design + Empathy Driven Culture Builder
Based in Atlanta, Georgia • Raised in Southern California • Global Worker
Key Expertise
- Team leader focused on safe, empathetic, and collaborative work environments
- Ethnographic design research facilitation, documentation, and strategy development
- Human centered accessibility and usability driven design practice
- Rapid prototyping from sketches and wireframes to basic front end development and manufactured products
- Facilitator, speaker, and lecturer on empathy driven design practices
- Complex experience and systems mapping for innovative opportunity
- Self-care advocate
- Mentor for UX, UI, and industrial designers
Summary
I focus on listening and asking questions in order to gain insights, collaborate, build culture, and innovate the best and most accessible design experiences possible. This focus is the bi-product of over 15 years of practice and learning as an industrial designer and user experiences design professional.
I have pioneered, lead, managed, and built UX design practices for startups, companies, and clients. I have also been a trusted member of UX teams as the champion of user research, accessibility compliance, design systems, informed decision making, rapid prototyping, and innovation strategy. Throughout all of these experiences, my successes have lead to many lucrative product launches, positive company innovations/acquisitions, and most importantly to me; healthy individual relationships and team growth. I have also learned a lot from missteps, failures, frayed emotions, and company closures. These learnings together continue to make me deeply appreciative of how important it is to design experiences with honesty and integrity for as many people as possible.
Tools and Skills
- Research informed custom ChatGPT Creation
- Figma, Adobe, Axure, Balsamiq, Marvel, Proto.io, Invision
- Hand sketching, rapid paper prototyping, live diagramming
- Systems design practices
- 18f guides, 508 references, and numerous human centered design websites
- System design coordination and implementation
- Ethnographic research facilitation, support, analysis, and documentation
- Quantitative survey research analysis
- Basic front end development (HTML5, CSS, Javascript, + ChatGPT help)
- Group research facilitation
- Full UX deliverables (wireframes, journey maps, personas, design language guides, etc.)
Latest Readings
- These Truths
- The Art of Happiness
- The Empathy Diaries
- Connect
- Ruined by Design
- Narnia Series (with my kiddos)
- Aware
- Design Systems
Volunteer
- Avondale Association of Racial Justice
- Center for Compassionate Leadership
WORK
Empathy Lab, Inc. | Founder, CEO, Facilitator, Trainer, UX R&D Director
Jan 2016 – present
Atlanta, Georgia
Remote
Team and individual training to cultivate trusted empowered people and cultures
- Created the Empathy Decathlon® workshop framework to make emotional intelligence skills more accessible and approachable as a business strategy with the goal of improving individual self-confidence, intra-team collaboration + trust, onboarding, and product innovation cycles
- Co-trained six Empathy Decathlon facilitators to coach and run Empathy Decathlon practices and workshops, with two coaches and curriculum in Spanish
- Facilitated over 500 workshops with individuals and teams from 2 to 100 people worldwide and measurably improved common languages, practices, and connection within teams
- Worked with teams/companies focused on software, hardware, banking, developer tooling, rehab, PR, and refereeing basketball in Spanish
- Worked with teams from Atlanta, Boston, Denver, and San Francisco to Bangkok and Berlin
- Guest lecturer at Morehouse College, Georgia Tech, Emory University, and the University of Kentucky with a focus on Empathy in Design Thinking to help students connect self empathy practices to successful business strategy
- Senior UX Consultant and design lead for eight teams at Nationwide Insurance’s Innovation CoOperative (3 years) – created seven different internal startups with two successful market launches, one focused on underserved Americans entering retirement.
Terminus Software, Inc. | Director of Product User Experience
April 2017 – June 2018
Atlanta, GA
On-site
Account-Based Marketing (ABM) Software
- Established the UX practice with a focus on user research, internal team collaboration, design accessibility, and usability leadership
- Coached and utilized Design Thinking methodology and the Double Diamond process for new product development.
- Recruited, hired, and managed a UX team dedicated to research, design systems, and cross team collaboration.
- Co-hired, supported, and collaborated with the lead UX engineer in the creation of the design language system with component and utility libraries.
- Worked directly with the Chief Product Officer and Chief Technology Officer on a cross team project management process that enhanced team communication, visibility, and trust.
- Coached and mentored my team as well as others in the company.
- Worked alongside project management and engineering to determine platform API needs in order to accomplish experience design objectives.
- Established a longitudinal research cohort of customers that were involved in our continuous innovation cycles.
- Supported partner acquisition onboarding and UX platform alignment.
- Evaluated, recommended, and implemented team collaboration and project management solutions.
Operable, Inc. | Product Designer Lead
August 2015 – March 2017
Raleigh, NC
Remote
Chatbot for DevOps management to decrease human stress
- Established the UX and design practice with a focus on DevOps user research, emerging chatbot understanding, and accessible open-source documentation.
- Managed all team experience design, product roadmapping, community building, social media, external design contractors, and marketing efforts.
- Created a design system and language based on current accessibility and usability standards for all iterative prototyping, research facilitation, and eventual launch of our product, Cog.
- Collaborated with our engineers to create a community editable onboarding, installation, and learning resource called, Cog Book.
Chef Software | User Experience Design – Product Lead
September 2014 – August 2015
Seattle, WA
Remote
DevOps software for infrastructure management
- Lead product user experience research, vision, and implementation for the launch of Chef Analytics, an analytics tool that improved cloud infrastructure management and automation
- Lead the re-creation of a data visualization platform for a continuous code delivery tool, Chef Delivery, that in turn has helped the company solidify relationships with large customers
First Data Corporation – Innovation Lab | User Experience Design Manager
February 2013 – August 2014
Atlanta, Georgia
Onsite
Global payment processing company with 24,000 employees
- Managed and led two to five UX efforts at a time which included design iteration sessions, accessibility research, concept wireframing, intern mentoring, experience flow processes, persona creation, prototype development, and business strategy modeling
- Lead the North American marketing and sales design efforts for the launch of the Clover POS which resulted in national and international recognition
- Researched and designed solutions that helped under banked and financially exploited individuals as well as small businesses. Designs integrated into the Money Network application.
Design Cannon | Founder + Lead Designer
UX Research & Design Agency – Blackberry, Home Depot, The Weather Channel | 2008 – 2017
- All stages of design, research, and prototyping. Sub-contractor management, sales, marketing, contract negotiation, business strategy, and full business operations.
MaxMedia | UX Design Lead
Interaction Design Agency – NFL, NCR, AT&T, Baker Hughes | 2011 – 2012
- All stages of design, research, and prototyping. Cross functional team management and worked directly with executive leaders.
EchoViz | UX Designer
Interaction Design Agency – General Electric, Raymond Corporation, Hewlett Packard | 2010 – 2011
- All stages of design, research, and prototyping. Project scoping.
Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) | Graduate Research Assistant
Accessibility and Usability Testing Lab – Arthritis Simulation Gloves, 100+ products tested | 2006 – 2009
- All stages of design, research, prototyping, and full scale production work. Contributor to industry papers based on research conducted in lab.
Education
- Masters of Industrial Design @ Georgia Institute of Technology
- Masters Thesis Project : Touchscreen Interface Accessibility and Usability
- Industrial Design Night Courses @ Art Center College of Design
- Bachelors of Psychology / Minor in Advertising @ University of Southern California
- Associates in Psychology @ Santa Ana Community College
Links
Portfolio – via Airtable
LinkedIn – Shelton Davis
Personal Website – sheltondavis.com
Thank you for your time!
With energy,
Shelton
name + contact
Shelton Davis
714.420.2715 | sheltonjdavis@gmail.com | sheltondavis.com | atlanta, georgia
vision
Driven to cultivate empathetic and innovative design cultures, I utilize my expertise in UX and design strategy to craft thoughtful experiences for both my team and the users I joyfully serve.
volunteer
- Center for Compassionate Leadership, Advisor
- Avondale Alliance for Racial Justice, Advisor
- Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA), 2021-2022 Design Juror
experience
Empathy Lab, Inc. | Founder + CEO + Listener
Individual empowerment + team collaboration training + UX R&D | Atlanta, Georgia | January 2016 – present
- Developed the Empathy Decathlon® to enhance people skills as a strategic business tool, focusing on boosting self-confidence, team trust, effective onboarding, and innovation.
- Trained six facilitators, including two for Spanish-speaking coaches, to lead Empathy Decathlon workshops globally.
- Led over 500 workshops worldwide, achieving significant enhancements in team trust, communication, and connection.
- Served as a guest lecturer at Morehouse College, Georgia Tech, Emory University and the University of Kentucky, emphasizing empathy in design thinking for business innovation.
- Consulted for Nationwide Insurance’s Innovation CoOperative, guiding UX design for eight teams, launching six internal startups with two successful market entries, notably aiding underserved Americans entering retirement.
Terminus Software, Inc. | Director of Product User Experience (on-site)
Account-Based Marketing Software | Atlanta, GA | April 2017 – June 2018
- Built, scaled, and managed the UX and UI Engineering team from 0 to 5 people and eventually integrated designers from a software acquisition
- Managed the inventory of old UI systems and co-created a UI design language and system that was used across the platform which expedited deployment from weeks to days
- Delivered a LinkedIn targeting integration that allowed our enterprise customers to better pinpoint the advertising spend and increase ROI
- Collaborated with the c-suite, customer success, and engineering with the use of qualitative metrics in order to drive data driven decisions and strategy
Operable, Inc. (Shut down in 2017) | Lead Product Designer (remote)
Chatbot for DevOps management to decrease human stress | Durham, NC | August 2015 – March 2017
- Managed and lead all product design, user research, consultant support, and developer community engagement
- Significantly improvement customers transparency and auditability; chat history became a natural teaching tool to document day-to-day infrastructure management
- Collaborated with c-suite and senior leadership customers who use Cog as an enterprise solution in order to deepen relationships and gather product feedback
Chef Software | User Experience Design – Product Lead (remote)
DevOps software for infrastructure management | Seattle, WA | September 2014 – August 2015
- Lead product user experience research, vision, and implementation for the launch of Chef Analytics, a tool that improved enterprise cloud infrastructure management and automation
- Lead the re-creation of a data visualization platform for a continuous code delivery tool, Chef Delivery, which in turn helped the company solidify relationships with large customers
First Data Corporation – Innovation Lab | User Experience Design Manager (on-site)
Innovation group within a global payment processing company | Atlanta, GA | February 2013 – August 2014
- Managed and led two to five UX efforts at a time which included design iteration sessions, accessibility research, concept wireframing, intern mentoring, experience flow processes, persona creation, prototype development, and business strategy modeling.
- Lead the North American marketing design efforts for the launch of the Clover POS which resulted in national and international recognition
- Collaborated and lead design efforts with multiple internal and external enterprise teams
Design Cannon | Founder + Lead Designer
UX Research & Design Agency – Blackberry, The Home Depot, The Weather Channel | 2008 – 2017
MaxMedia | UX Design Lead
Interaction Design Agency – The Home Depot, NFL, NCR, AT&T, Baker Hughes | 2011 – 2012
EchoViz | UX Designer
Interaction Design Agency – General Electric, Raymond Corporation, Hewlett Packard | 2010 – 2011
Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) | Graduate Research Assistant
Accessibility and Usability Testing Lab – Arthritis Simulation Gloves, 100+ products tested | 2006 – 2009
education
- Masters of Industrial Design, May 2009
- Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia
- Industrial Design Night Courses 2005Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, California
- Bachelors of Psychology, May 2003University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California
- Associates in Psychology, 2000Santa Ana Community College, Santa Ana, California
Hello, I am Shelton. 