I'm Alan!
I'm a UX designer at my core, but I've have worn many hats in my career. I love to sit at the intersection of design, tech, and business functions.
I'm originally from Toronto, Canada. Go Leafs!
I'm a lifelong gamer, and generally love to tinker with technology. As a child I was always looking at gadgets or devices and coming up with ways to make them work better. I didn't really know that there was a career that could support these interests.
My path into a design career has been very non-traditional. I graduated from the University of Waterloo with a degree in Applied Physics, of all things. It took me a few years to understand what I was interested in doing, let alone having the right words to describe the work I wanted to do (interaction design).
I've followed my instincts with respect to pursing opportunities that allow me to grow, as well as make contributions to working on experiences that put a smile on people's faces. In more recent times, I've enjoyed building teams and creating the right environments for design to thrive, but I still like hands-on work, especially with respect to initial ideation through storytelling and prototyping.
Above all, forming long-lasting relationships with people has been the most rewarding part of my career.
Ask for Forgiveness, Not Permission
I'm not really sure where or when I first heard this phrase, but it has stuck with me. I feel it embodies a lot of how I approach my work and my life.
Being completely self-taught, I've often felt more than my fair share of imposter syndrome on teams I've been a part of, but I've always trusted my ability to adapt my role to whatever a team needs to be successful. I've had the right situations and managers that empowered me to follow my gut despite my lack of formal training and experience. I've made lots of mistakes, but having an environment where I could learn from them versus being punished for them has made all the difference in my career.
Creating a trustworthy environment where design is empowered to experiment, collaborate, and excel, is what I strive to do. Designers needs the freedom to build and destroy things in the "sandbox". Design leadership is about defining the sandbox boundaries and providing the shovels and pails for them to create.
Ultimately, the phrase is a bit of shorthand that reminds me not only of how I like to work, but how I believe empowered design teams in organizations can be supported to deliver greatness.