A bit about me

I'm a Senior Staff Content Designer with 10+ years of experience making complex, high-stakes software clearer, easier to use, and more trustworthy.

My work spans content architecture, design systems, and AI-powered workflows. I've built content design practices from the ground up at 4 companies, creating the standards and systems that help teams deliver better experiences at scale.

I untangle complexity, solve ambiguous problems, and build systems that make good design repeatable.

Outside of tech, I’m an artist whose work has been featured by HGTV, Sherwin-Williams, and others.

Core focus

  • Content systems: taxonomy, terminology, and models that scale across products

  • Product clarity: language that reduces cognitive load and improves decisions

  • AI integration: agent and prompt design, automated review, and governance

  • Cross-functional alignment: product, design, and engineering operating from shared language

How I work

I operate as a strategic IC, embedded in product and design and influencing at the org level to:

  • Prioritize systems over surface-level fixes, clarity over cleverness, and decisions that are durable, not just correct in the moment.

  • Build cross-functional alignment across engineering, PM, legal, and documentation that survives team changes and roadmap pivots.

  • Scale content infrastructure that works without me in the room.

Domain depth

My deepest experience is in cybersecurity and AI-native products. I understand the mental models, the user anxiety, and the terminology stakes in these domains in ways that take years to develop. That fluency lets me move fast without sacrificing precision.

Impact

  • 4× first content designer hired

  • 70+ products designed

  • #1 most used AI agent (content creation and review)

  • 30% navigation findability improvement

  • 20% increase in engagement and downloads through content strategy

From colleagues

"Dez is such an amazing employee, I hired her twice. She not only did the job asked of her — she set up systems and processes to improve the content, the creation process, and the review process. I hope to eventually hire her for a third time."

— Rhyne Armstrong, Sr. Manager, Pisco (Visa)

"Her attention to detail and ability to identify user behavior patterns were impressive. Her ability to suggest actionable plans for making iterative changes to test our assumptions was incredibly valuable."

— Jiefang Zhang, Senior Product Manager, SimplePractice