Judgment Built Through Making
The boundaries between design, product, and engineering are dissolving. The most valuable work now lives at their intersection — choosing the right problems, making tradeoffs visible, and building the systems that help teams make better decisions over time. That intersection is where I've spent my career.
I've delivered 4+ products from zero to one as a design leader, across complex B2B environments in real estate, architecture, engineering, construction, financial services, and the non-profit sector. SaaS products across Web, Mobile, and Desktop. But the throughline has never been the artifacts — it's been the decisions those artifacts enabled.
I've spent years designing how teams think together. Over fifty LUMA Institute workshops taught. Countless alignment sessions, scenario planning exercises, and competitive war games facilitated at the executive level. Not as rituals — as decision-making infrastructure. The kind that helps organizations commit to a direction and move with confidence.
What drives me is the combination: deep customer engagement that reveals problems worth solving, the strategic framing to evaluate which bets matter, and the hands-on craft to bring clarity to ambiguity. I love the moment a team stops debating in circles and starts moving together because the tradeoffs are finally visible.
I've led design teams, design managers, senior architects, and researchers. I've built programs that deepen connections with end users and made customer engagement easy for teams that had never done it. I take pride in the deep relationships I've built with engineers and product managers at every level — because the best decisions come from people who trust each other enough to disagree.
Taste opens doors. Judgment keeps you in the room. My career has been built on both — using design as leverage for better products, better decisions, and better outcomes.
Certified instructor and facilitator of the LUMA Institute system of human-centered design. Over fifty workshops taught across thirty-six methods — combining and recombining them to address the outcomes required by any situation.
What People Say
“Eric is a designer’s designer and a leader through and through. In my time working with Eric at Autodesk, I was always amazed at how much A) he got done; and B) time he devoted to really listening and working directly with customers. Eric always brings a fresh perspective and the customer voice to the table. He is a great manager to the people he leads and always pushes for excellence. Most of all, Eric is a terrific communicator and teammate who always works to build something better than what’s been built before - whether that’s process, product, or relationships.”
Justin Lokitz
Author, Professor & Chair of the MBA in Design Strategy Program
“I have worked very closely with Eric on several large-scale projects. His wisdom, objectivity and dedication make him one of the best designers I’ve ever worked with. His generosity, patience and dedication make him the best leader I’ve ever had. His guidance and enthusiasm inspire excellence in those around him. Within his teams, he nourishes a sense of experimentation and earnest communication.”
Ben Kerslake
Creative Director
“Eric is an extraordinary Design Leader and Manager, that encourages business strategy, design excellence, learning culture, and human-centered design, as well as reusable and scalable processes.”
Renato Ferro
Design Director
“Eric is an exceptional design leader. He applies his vast experience, creativity, and passion for designing experiences that delight customers to transform businesses large and small. Eric has a thoughtful and collaborative leadership style which gives him a broad influence, helping teams and organizations embrace the change necessary to be truly customer-focused.”
Amy Hedrick
VP, Product Design
“Eric did a fantastic job facilitating two workshops that I attended recently - the Product Data workshop and the Cloud Ops Standards workshop. Not only was he a top-notch facilitator, but he was able to think on his feet and pivot the workshops based on how the discussions were going. By being adaptable, he was able to drive both workshops to have successful outcomes. That’s a big deal for all of the participants because it made our time worthwhile.”
— Distinguished Architect
“Thank you for all your help during FDX workstream effort in the last few weeks. You stepped in at the last minute to help and provided vital facilitation support before and during the sessions. Your help during the intermediate and final deck preparation was also invaluable.”
— VP Data Platform