United States

Business Transformation

Design Operations

Service Design

Customer Experience (CX)

UX Research

Service Design Research

B.S.

Caroline KyungAe Smith

Chief Transformation Officer

Usability Testing

Product strategy

Qualitative research

Communication

Collaboration

Problem-solving

Critical-thinking

Empathy

Conflict resolution

Stakeholder management

Leadership

Project management

Campaign execution & analysis

Content research

User research

Product roadmap

Miro

Presentation skills

Introduce yourself, define mentoring expectations and goals. Learn and grow together.

General mentorship

Learn essential burnout prevention techniques and replenish physical and emotional energy.

Managing burnout

Talk to people who have learned to manage their imposter syndrome.

Dealing with imposter syndrome

Understand the process of training, motivating and directing your team members.

Managing people

How to create a positive workplace culture that drives collaboration and productivity?

Fostering a good team culture

Steps to building and maintaining a strong, cohesive and effective team.

Building an effective team

How to maintain trust, commitment, accountability deliver results while handling conflict

Avoiding common dysfunctions

Decision making as a software engineer or lead - how to become better at making the right choices

Making better tech choices

Tips for transitioning into a new role or company.

Changing roles

How to successfully prepare and position yourself for a job promotion?

How to get promoted

How to think about design career paths and what progression looks like for designers?

Design career path

Learn the career path and progression for product managers.

Product management career path

Get actionable feedback on your resume or portfolio.

Resume and portfolio review

Practice HR, technical and behavioural interviews with mentors.

Practice mock interviews

How to define and execute a successful launch and managing stakeholders expectations. (eg. MVP)

Launching new products or features

Identify and define potential product problems and generating possible solutions.

Identifying problems vs solutions

Learn how to properly present your work and share ideas and opinions.

Presenting your work with impact

How to work with team members with different skill sets but towards a common goal?

Working cross-functionally

Managing being the only designer at your company and working with non-designers.

Being the only designer

Explore different generative and evaluative research techniques. User research synthesis and presentation.

Conducting good user research

Navigating the working relationship with PM's and engineers as a designer.

Working with product and engineering

How to set up product analytics and metrics to track success?

Leveraging Product Analytics

Ways to provide constructive feedback to team members.

Giving effective feedback

How to define an ambitious product vision and how to best communicate it to stakeholders?

Creating a product vision

Tips on how to work and collaborate with engineers and developers.

Working with engineers

How to conduct interviews, what to ask, and how to analyze your results? (eg. user interview)

Conducting effective customer interviews

I manage a team of mid- to senior-level Design Strategists. When I joined the Experience Center, my remit was to:
- Advocate and drive a set of standardized processes, methods, and tools that supported Design Strategy and allowed the team to deliver fit-for-purpose solutions
- Deliver allocation of team resources/budget management
- Lead, guide and manage a team of 13
- Evangelize, equip, and ensure consistent adoption and understanding of Design Strategy principles, processes, and methodologies across Humana

I was part of a multi-year effort to modernize the Medicare Payment System for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid. In my role, I analyze both the existing IT system as well as business operations in order to transform Technology, Operations and People processes. 

Other efforts I supported: 
- First multi-agency effort to hire Customer Experience talent into government (2020)
- Co-chair for the UX Summit, a summit for civil servants from all levels of government to connect and learn from their peers and leaders in the industry (2021)
- Implementation of the No Surprises Act (2021)

There's a variety of design work at USDS - User Research, Service Design, Product Design, Content Strategy - and at an incredible scale.

Sign up for a tour of civic service at https://www.usds.gov/apply.

I taught the UX Design bootcamp, taking students from beginner to job-ready in six months.

I was part of the Center of Excellence, helping the organization’s Global Digital Transformation. I oversaw the German and UK markets. I drove alignment and buy-in from senior leadership for a more patient-focused user experience strategy. I developed a Research and Testing operating model and coached teams on the new ways of working. I also facilitated workshops to help teams identify strategic interventions and prioritize their Project Roadmaps and Backlogs, ultimately leading them into their first Design Sprint. Finally, I worked with HR and Compliance to hire new talent and vendors.

I conducted user research and competitive analysis in the US, UK and DE in order to re-design the Business Center, a digital tool for restaurant managers.

I conducted user research and competitive analysis in the US to design the first prototype for a new employee performance review SaaS.

I launched the first product innovation lab for Vodafone Germany. I worked directly with the Chief Digital Officer and senior management to design the lab’s business operations and performance metrics. In 2018, leadership asked me to support the organisation’s larger Digital Transformation within the Digital and Marketing business units.

I was the first user researcher the start up brought on. I set up ResearchOps and DesignOps for the small company, as well as conducted user and market research in the US and UK in order to make the Web and mobile product internationally ready.

I taught junior- and senior-level professionals in the UX Research & Strategy course. I coached their professional growth, delivered skills training and reviewed their performance.

Select student feedback:
"Caroline was always very understanding and would give a lot of feedback on my assignments. She did an outstanding job on helping me think more about the problems of doing UI/UX research and how to approach them. I wish I had more sessions with her."

"Caroline immediately made me feel at ease and has been great in guiding and challenging thinking/approach. She has a great deal of experience and expertise that has been valuable in thinking about applying key principles to my current job. Really enjoyed working with Caroline!"

"Caroline has been so supportive and fantastic with the advice. She is taking an active interest in not just my work on the course but on my application of the course lessons at work as well. Thanks Caroline for the encouragement and support. I really appreciate it."

Drove digital strategy and business innovation for German automaker by leading Vision Workshops and Design Sprints.

Drove digital strategy and business innovation for a range of clients by conducting market and user research. Deliverables include:
- Usability reports of digital assets for German banks 
- Omnichannel marketing campaign for Slovenian appliance company

Drove digital strategy and business innovation for an array of clients spanning government agencies to Fortune 500 firms in the US. Deliverables include:
- Proof of Concepts for digital products
- Omnichannel Customer Experience strategies
- Digital campaigns

Identified business and product innovation opportunities for Microsoft and Mozilla Firefox by conducting ethnographic research.

I was in charge of editing broadcast packages as well as writing and revising stories. I also managed our social media channels and worked closely with our marketing department to build our followers and increase engagement.

I was a reporter, writer, copy editor, Web producer and photo editor. During my time there, I broke a nationwide story about a slain police officer. I also worked with the graphics and web teams to develop my design and multimedia skills.

- Worked as a mobile journalist on Capitol Hill using multi-media (audio, video, photography, print)
- Served as a Web producer and editor

Caroline KyungAe Smith🇺🇸

About Caroline KyungAe Smith

Expertise

What mentees say