About

I have an innate, natural curiosity to explore and understand the contexts and drivers behind systems (be it cultural, environmental, technological, financial).

Design is the strategic alignment of people, processes and technology to achieve desired outcomes. My strengths pair well with problem solving: strategic, futuristic, curious, ideative, and empathic. Coupled with my capabilities in design thinking, human-centered design, design research, workshop facilitation, UX/UI, and product design, I have become recognized as a specialized generalist.

What I do*

My roles shift based on clients, project needs, and other teaming factors. Most often I am seen as a Product Designer or User Experience Designer given my ability to span from initial research, to framing opportunities and solutions, through the exploration and designing of features for implementation — continuously iterating and testing throughout the process.

If I work on a team with other Designers who will own and handle the UI Design, then I serve the team as a User Experience Researcher or Design Researcher — often helping with UX and Product Strategy. Providing teams with qualitative foundational research, workshops, design sprints, information architecture, journey maps, user flows, collaborative co-creation sessions, users and product testing, and most importantly: shedding light on anything needed to clarify, unblock, or accelerate product management, UI design, and development teams.

*Semantics here are critical as organizational cultures interpret and define roles, terms, and methodologies in different manners given their unique contexts and differences.

Who I've worked with

International Enterprises & Brands

Wayfair
Allē
Herman Miller
Consumers Energy
Gordon Food Service
Caterpillar
Toro

Small-to-Midsize Businesses

Forecast 3D
Balkan Brothers
Triad Behavioral Health
Ferris Coffee & Nut
AOP

Startups

Ecologi
Pitch
Foreshadow
Pogo
Multiple Stealth-Mode Startups

Non-profit Organizations

Mayo Clinic
United Nations Universities
Spectrum Health

VIEW MY WORK

How I work

Driven by a natural ability to navigate ambiguity, backed by an analytical and strategic mindset, and pulling from a diverse toolset of methodologies, I help teams thrive at the intersection of services, systems, products, business, and technology.

Being flexible and adaptive, my strengths are best utilized in nimble, collaborative environments surrounded by diverse subject matter experts, stakeholders, and most importantly: access to real people (a.k.a.: 'users', 'customers', 'stakeholders')!

Boundless curiosity, strong collaboration, deep exploration, and rapid iteration are core principles in my work.

A note on ethics

It is my belief that creators carry the responsibility to respect all living things and their ecosystems — be it social, cultural, environmental, or financial.

Our actions, and inactions, have impact.

With this in mind, I love to work with people and organization who strive to create desirable futures that are equitable and sustainable for all.

Philip-Han-DJing-at-The-Porter-Party-2019-wide-web

Vinyl set at Downtown Greenhouse

INTERESTING FACTS

LANGUAGES

English
German
French
🃏 Meme

LIVED IN

Germany
France
United States
China

TRAVELED TO

🌍 Africa
🌏 Asia
🌍 Europe
🌎 North America
🌏 Australia

26 countries so far, and continuing to explore our vast, diverse planet.

View Airtable →

PLANTS UNDER CARE

🌿 10 Alistamales
🪴 9 Asparagales
☘️ 4 Rosales
🌵 3 Saxifragales
🌺 1 Gentianales
🌱 1 Asterales

I maintain a database for my plants.

Contact me if you'd like to help build realtime H₂O moisture, pH, and light monitoring!

View Airtable →

My interests⁺

▻ Exploring the world and its wonders
▻ Wandering via hike or bike
▻ Camping and spending time disconnected
▻ Cooking, fermenting, and preserving foods
▻ Cultivating plants and microorganisms
▻ Researching technology and personal autonomy
▻ Testing positive alpha investment strategies
▻ Experimenting with multisensory installations
▻ Mixing music and working on live analog sets
▻ Collecting vinyl, prints, and dystopian artifacts

WORKED WITH

VIEW MY WORK

DESIGN PRINCIPLES

CONTEXT

Deep understanding of people, business, and systems is key to creating impactful solutions

FRAMING

Reducing risk by maintaining an informed, evidence-based definition of the problem and opportunity space

ITERATION

Working in an agile manner — frequently testing, continuously refining solutions

DELIVERABLES & ARTIFACTS

UNDERSTAND

User Research
Archetypes & Personas
Journey Maps
Service Blueprints
Systems Maps
User Flows
Audits

User Research
Analysis & Synthesis
Personas
Journeys
Service Blueprints
Systems Maps
User Flows

COLLABORATE

Workshops
Co-creation
Team Facilitation
Presentations

CREATE

Design Strategy
UX Wireframes
Visual UI Mockups
Information Architecture
Interactive Prototypes
Design Systems

Design Strategy
UX Wireframes
Information Architecture
Visual UI Mockups
Interactive Prototypes
Design Systems

TOOLS & METHODS

TOOLS

Figma
Whimsical
Slack
Pen & Paper
Whiteboards
Sticky Notes
AirTable
Notion
Coda
Miro
Mural

METHODOLOGIES

Design Thinking
Human-Centered Design
Collaboration
Co-Creation
User Testing
Agile
Lean UX
Iterative Cycles
Sprints

TEST + MEASURE

User Interviews
Analytics
Experience Data
A/B Testing

User Interviews
User Testing
Analytics
Experience Data
A/B Testing
Questionnaires

RECOGNITION & INVOLVEMENT

Weekend for Good
Pro-bono services for non-profits

Design Week
Facilitating design workshops for K-12

KCAD Collaborative Design
Speaking on HCD and DT methods

Sustainability Champions Award 2016
Service Design & UX for U.N. Conference

Wege Prize 2015
International team – Composting

Wege Prize 2014
Local team – Hydroponics

MWUX13
Scholar — Placemaking

Let's create desirable futures

Let's create desirable futures

Whether you need help to uncover evidence-based insights to reduce risk, frame the right problems, discover actionable opportunities, design and build impactful experiences, or optimize your existing solutions — the time to create desirable futures is now.

Whether you need help to uncover evidence-based insights to reduce risk, frame the right problems, discover actionable opportunities, design and build valuable experiences, or optimize your existing solutions — the time to create desirable futures is now.

Whether you need help to uncover evidence-based insights to reduce risk, frame the right problems, discover actionable opportunities, design and build valuable experiences, or optimize your existing solutions — the time to create desirable futures is now.