Design work I've done in UX, visual design and UI development at realtor.com (RDC) from early 2017 through 2019.
Everything I know about managing teams I learned & applied in the last two years. You can read all about it in My Playbook, watch this brief 60 second video or keep scrolling...
Pieced together some of the highlights of this time at RDC. Special thanks to everyone who supported our team, believed in the mission and helped us make something special.
Final day for my team and I amidst widespread layoffs. Until next time <3
Organise and host a new event to celebrate our people, their work and impact.
Team day out including Ten Pin Bowling, a visit the Winchester Mystery House and Korean BBQ.
Design and build our end of year site for all things house porn and news for 2019
Another valiant effort to be crowned Ugly Sweater champ, falling to RDC superstar Woody.
Spend the day at the NAR conference in SF with our incredible events team.
Halloween pumpkin carving and team dress ups.
Run our first Hack it Forward @ RDC.
Team day out in Santa Cruz riding crazy scary rides.
Promoted to Director of Design. Team of 7 designers focused on our core web and app experiences.
Launch the Summer of Cricket in the backyard. Well, the basketball court out back.
Design an RDC Pride Badge for Pride Month. <3
Launch 'Design Playground': a whole day to nerd out on design, experiment with new tools or learn something.
Random comp I designed winds up on ABC's The View promoting our Price Perfect experience.
Tiger team celebrates their victorious leads mission on the high seas.
Entire design team gathers in Santa Clara for a workshop and then VinoArt: painting and wine.
Design team take a day trip to SF: MOMA, Escape Room and Japanese degustation.
Angie and I rock the 80's theme holiday party with clothes we had lying around the house.
Democracy grill for voters: much like back home we BBQ on election day. You vote? You eat.
Fervent campaign to rename the 'general' slack channel to 'announcements' finally prevails.
Speak at Girl Geek Dinner (very self aware being male and speaking at this event).
Really pushing this democracy thing at work. I also stole 3 TVs in the office and started showing designs.
First design demo showcase with pizza, modelled on the Hackers Marketplace.
Organise a private lunch for the team with our then CEO Ryan O'Hara to give them a little face time with the boss.
'Shovel People' becomes a thing.
Introduce first physical kanban wall at RDC.
Promoted to Senior Manager, lead a team of 8 designers. Memorable team lunch at Sizzler and the infamous Shrimpgate.
A taste of all the screens I've designed and hosted on TV displays in the office celebrating impact, effort and people.
Introduce the Hackathon Marketplace to RDC. Our friends from REA join the event and naturally we won.
Shoot first edition of Mean Tweets but based on actual consumer feedback. It's hilarious!
Spend a day on the phones with Libby in Scottsdale, AZ.
Organise Lean Coffee sessions: we would go on to have four in total and some great conversations.
Dress as SAMta Claus and hand out candy in the office.
Organise legendary holiday party at local fancy car showroom.
Inspirational women at RDC event as we push for greater diversity.
Pretty solid Halloween in 2017.
Volunteer for the day in Sonoma following the devasting wildfires in NorCal.
Pair with legendary engineer Barry at the pub to design, code and ship our onboarding quiz for My Home.
Employee of the quarter award (AKA the Gorilla). Incidentally has anyone seen the gorilla?
Organise event to build kids' treehouses for Habitat for Humanity.
That time we got on the roof LOL.
It was over 40, er 100 degrees in Santa Clara so we fetched ice creams from the supermarket and handed them out.
Attend Stanford D-School for the day. Amazing!
Setup first distribution celebration of shipping across four offices.
Run first team design sprint.
My first RDC Hackathon, incredible!
Flout company sponsorship of the Warriors and wear a Cavs jersey to Oracle for NBA Finals Game One. Yes, I travelled to Oakland *by myself* wearing enemy colours. One of the best nights out ever.
Lead Employee Engagement Committee to focus on building company morale and team events.
Coin the phrase 'Local Expert' well ahead of time.
Theme the Tech Blog in browser mostly by tweaking css.
First day in the Santa Clara office.
First day at realtor.com (RDC).
It has been the honor and privilege of a lifetime to be part of this group, to watch you work, to witness the camaraderie and care for your craft. You never quit on me, always worked hard to put users at the center of everything we do and made me a better leader, teammate and person.
Old Digital Agent Product (DAP) was desktop only, disruptive and visually inconsistent. As part of our mantra for native, premium advertising, I conceptualised and coined the name "Local Expert", a new profile and branded product for customers. Whilst I wasn't involved in the final designs, the essence of a listing product would launch in 2019 and become a hit.*
Redesigned our premium, native placements across RDC to be more customisable and integrated. Units perform % better than programmatic ads and generate millions in revenue annually. Wrote the code for a single responsive template replacing 6 different files previously to reduce overhead and legacy code.
Often an afterthought, we aligned the team around improving accessibility by dogfooding the site without a mouse and using the funkify chrome plugin. We chipped away at the code to lift our lighthouse scores from the 40's up to 90+ with work still remaining.