United States

Derek Mei

Senior Product Designer

How to set up the team for success by defining and measuring team's performance.

Choosing metrics and team goals

Best practices for running productive design critiques.

Running effective design critiques

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

Launching new products or features

Methods of prototyping and solution validation. When to use which kind of prototype (eg. Webflow, Notion, etc)

Prototyping methods and tips

Manage team expectations and get the most out of your meetings.

Running effective meetings

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

Tips on how to work and collaborate with designers.

Working with designers

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

Working cross-functionally

Methods and models of exploring, deciding and delivering design.

Building a design process

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

Ways and resources to improve your design skills.

Improving design skills

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

How to create personas, and leverage them in design.

Creating and leveraging user personas

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

What is a successful user onboarding flow and how to achieve it?

Onboarding new users

Best practices for documenting projects, epics, and stories

Writing product requirement documents

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

Conducting effective customer interviews

In July, I founded a design agency called Umeita Design. Umeita is a design firm that sits at the intersection of user-centered design, business, and technology. Our focus is on helping small to mid-sized business hit the ground running through quick and rapid wireframing, which extends into high-fidelity prototyping and well-written code.

Since starting at Putnam in the summer of 2017, I have focused primarily on building an internal CRM and sales platform for web using Angular 2+ and the Salesforce API. I assume the role of part-time ScrumMaster for my Agile team of five, actively maintaining the JIRA board and leading key Agile ceremonies. In addition, I also conduct user research and am a supporting point of contact with our business users.

As a software engineering intern for Putnam, I worked in an Agile team of seven interns and specifically used the Scrum framework to develop enterprise software for their web platforms. I primarily developed applications using two Javascript frameworks and libraries - Ext JS and D3.js, and programmed in Javascript and HTML/CSS. Projects I worked on include enterprise search (using Lucidworks Fusion), data visualizations, and Atlassian JIRA metrics. Additionally, I was responsible for architecting and implementing scatterplots, sunbursts, and other visualizations after identifying the needs of business users and analyzing financial data. In addition, I used Sketch to prototype and create mockups of potential designs that other developers would implement.

As a web development intern, I worked with Adobe Illustrator, Sketch, GIMP, HTML, CSS, Bootstrap, and PHP to redesign and code all pages for http://www.nextgengolf.org, which uses Wordpress as its CMS. I worked in conjunction with the CTO to optimize SEO, analyze web traffic, and improve user experience and usability through the deployment of designs that applied modern web practices and standards.

During the summer of 2014, I developed and taught a programming curriculum to 18 elementary and middle school students through the Brookline Adult Ed Summer Program. Topics included HTML, CSS, Javascript, design, flash animation, Dreamweaver, basic programming concepts, and entrepreneurship.

I supervised and directly managed six student groups (5-13 members) to create websites free-of-charge for local non-profits in the Boston area. Additionally, I was the principal correspondent who communicated with CEOs and directors for each non-profit, ensuring that any websites or content Open Web produces is of the highest caliber.

As a work study student for the health sector management program at the Boston University Questrom School of Business, I was responsible for consolidating a central database of more than 3000 alumni using Salesforce, Excel, and Access. In addition, I helped expedite the speed of Questrom's legacy workflows by implementing automation of code and creating scripts to speed up the process of repetitive tasks. Lastly, I designed and marketed seminars and information sessions to more than 500 undergraduate and graduate students using Sketch and the Adobe Creative Suite.

Derek Mei🇺🇸

About Derek Mei

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