Director of User Experience

Strategy, Research, and Design + Empathy Driven Culture Builder

Based in Atlanta, Georgia • Raised in Southern California • Global Worker

Updated: January 29, 2024

sheltonjdavis[at]gmail.com

SheltonDavis.com

EmpathyLab.io

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