United States

Graphic Design

UX Design

UI/ Visual Design

Branding and Identity Design

Product Design

Branding

Adobe Digital Academy Scholar

✊🏿🏳️‍🌈 Diversity & Inclusion

Vanessa Bowen

Principal Product Designer

Portfolio

Usability Testing

Prototyping

Communication

Collaboration

Time management

Customer service

Leadership

Project management

Design systems

Illustration

User research

WordPress

Adobe XD

Figma

Adobe Creative Suite

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

General mentorship

Making remote and globally distributed teams work for you and your needs.

Working remotely

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

Navigating micro-aggression, getting paid what you are worth and finding a community.

Being a woman in tech

Understanding factors that lead to a motivated team - recognition, communication and more.

Keeping team members motivated

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

Learn the tips to successfully manage a team in a remote environment.

Managing a remote team

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 ask for a promotion and negotiate for salary raise?

Negotiating a job offer

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

Design 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

Talk to people who've broken into the tech industry and learn their stories.

Breaking into tech

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

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

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

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

The American Indian Policy Institute (AIPI) signature program Indigenous Leadership Academy works with emerging Indigenous leaders from throughout Arizona and nationally to expand their knowledge, skills, and networks to address long-term issues faced by Indigenous governments, communities, associations, and corporations. The program will inspire and motivate participants to execute strategies and lead change. There is no comparable program in the Nation.

Upon completing this program, participants will be able to:
• Demonstrate an understanding of effective leadership practices that are contextually situated and culturally framed;
• Analyze and reflect on multiple case studies and models of Indigenous leadership;
• Utilize data and leverage resources effectively; 
• Improve communication and representation of self and community;
• Examine strategies for facilitating collaborations, fostering partnerships, and building consensus; 
• Design personalized leadership and project/program action plans.

Arts Hub’s mission is to unleash the power of the arts as a tool to engage the community, create solutions to urgent issues, and drive the creative economy.

We've launched artist professional development, networking fellowships, The Albuquerque Funny Fiesta, and more.

"Design with an Indigenous Perspective”

Bowen Creative LLC is an Indigenous-led UI/UX design and creative agency in New Mexico that utilizes a user-centered, data-driven approach when developing custom-tailored solutions.

Capabilities: User Research, Product Strategy, UI/UX Design, Design System Management, Brand Identity, Interaction Design, Prototyping, User Testing, Analytics and Optimization.

Clients we have worked with: Grand Canyon Trust, First American, Poetry Slam 4 Peace, Changing Woman Initiative, Coffee + Creatives, Arts Hub, Arizona State University, Johns Hopkins University, Harvard University, Radcliffe Institute, Amplifier, Eater, Change Labs, Native Women Lead, NM Local News Fund, AIMES Alliance, Santa Fe Dreamer's Project, Indigenous Wire, Red Planet Books, Generation Titans, IndigiPopX, Ureeka, PBS, and many more clients across Turtle Island.

What do I do at Bowen Creative?

– Operations
– Product strategy
– User experience design direction
– Branding and creative direction

• Solve customer problems by synthesizing behavioral information and imagining things as they might be, not as they are
• Deliver user flow diagrams, interaction patterns, design specs, wireframes, mental models, information architecture, and prototypes using emotional design methods
• Participate in customer research with clear goals, a testable hypothesis, and a learning plan
• Conceptualize a broad spectrum of ideas and then narrow it based on experimentation and customer research
• Collaborate effectively with other designers, engineers, product managers, marketers, and researchers.
• Solicit feedback and contribute constructively to design reviews
• Advance a strong point of view, backed up by personal expertise, design rationale, customer data, and industry trend

◦ Taking a new product/feature idea and developing UI designs based on the requirements and constraints of the product/ feature.
◦ Development of interface design concepts and high fidelity designs while leveraging established design system.
◦ Rapid iteration on multiple solutions to the same problem and present pros and cons of each approach.
◦ Communicating design work and the reasonings for design decisions.
◦ Strong collaboration skills, working directly with product and engineering stakeholders to drive alignment.
◦ Project management skills, with the ability to handle multiple projects simultaneously with or without supervision.

Thrive is a fast-growing software company based outside of Philadelphia with about a third of its employees distributed throughout the US. Our mission is to make hiring for executive leadership positions easier, faster, and more equitable. Thrive’s clients include some of the world’s largest search firms, venture capital/private equity firms, and corporate executive recruitment teams.

Indigenous evaluator building capacity to strengthen and inform public health evaluation efforts through indigenous indicators, research, and data collection presented by the University of New Mexico Center for Participatory Research (UNM-CPR) and funded by W.K. Kellogg Foundation. 

◦ Indigenous Data Sovereignty & Methodologies
◦ River of Life & Logic Model Development
◦ Indigenous Qualitative Methods
◦ Qualitative Methods & Code Books
◦ Qualitative Coding & Analysis
◦ Quantitative Methods & Analysis
◦ Survey Development
◦ Epi Info™ & T-test
◦ Reporting, Dissemination, & DataVisualization

Completed an onboarding redesign project for a location-sharing app utilizing a wide range of UX design methodologies and tools.

◦ Integrally involved in the successful redesign and proposed launch of new onboarding for Havanote.
◦ The process begins at the initial load screen through the Sign Up process and a Nickel Tour of onboarding.
◦ A major highlight of the project is that several onboarding features have been relocated to different areas of Havanote to reduce the number of onboarding screens from 20 to 3.
◦ Collaborated to develop the strategy and method for presenting group research and solutions to the CEO upon project completion.
◦ Assumed the lead role in art direction, design, prototyping, and layout.
◦ Delivered the final presentation and consulted with the CEO, not just to deliver high quality research and prototype, but for the overall project framework.
◦ The new process was received well by the CEO with the option to be released in the next version update.
◦ Tools utilized: Figma, Miro, Dropbox Paper, Adobe Photoshop, and Canva Presentation for all work performed and presented.

12-week immersive UX design program, receiving professional training and working on a variety of UX projects.

Full-time immersive User Experience Design program that included over 500 hours of professional training over twelve weeks. Utilized a hands-on approach to practice user-centered design methods, design thinking skills, team collaboration, and client relations.

"Smart Marketing for Realtors."

◦ Determine and define the SaaS project scope and objectives.
◦ Predict resources needed to reach objectives and manage resources in an effective and efficient manner.
◦ Develop and manage a detailed project schedule and work plan.
◦ Provide project updates on a consistent basis to various stakeholders about strategy, adjustments, and progress.
◦ Manage client commitments with the team by assigning tasks and communicating expected deliverables.
◦ Utilize industry best practices, techniques, and standards throughout the entire project execution
◦ Monitor progress and make adjustments as needed.
◦ Measure project performance to identify areas for improvement.

"Design with an Indigenous Perspective”

Bowen Creative LLC is an Indigenous-led UI/UX design and creative agency in New Mexico utilizing a user-centered, data-driven approach when developing custom-tailored solutions.

BWNC is firmly rooted in Indigenous knowledge and research methodologies.

KALEIDOSPOKE is a bicycle-themed art and film exhibition. As of 2014, Kaleidospoke has opened 5 successful exhibitions in Santa Fe and Gallup, NM.

2011: Center for Contemporary Arts, Santa Fe, NM.
2012: Center for Contemporary Arts, Santa Fe, NM. 
2013: ART123, Gallup, NM and  Eggman & Walrus, Santa Fe, NM.
2014: Outside Bike & Brew Festival at the Railyard Plaza, Santa Fe, NM.

Duties include marketing, advertising, promotional design, fundraising, budgeting, bookkeeping, non-profit knowledge, interpersonal connections, social networking, web design, web maintenance, curating, and event coordination.

Vanessa Bowen🇺🇸