Cena Pohl Crane

As part of Cognizant Digital Business I lead Customer/User Experience initiatives for our Fortune 500 clients. This includes designing and leading client or customer workshops, UX research, product design and validation.

Brought on after this equity crowd-funding platform bought CoFounders Lab, a community of start-up founders, to oversee product design: meaning all user experience initiatives from brand strategy and customer validation to product planning, research and UI design.

Manage and mentor the UX team on multiple projects across all clients, primarily healthcare and pharmaceutical. Deepen company understanding of UX process and further collaboration with account, strategy, content, design, and dev teams.

Projects/Accomplishments: Lead user experience concepting and design for two successful pitches worth over one million in new business for the company. Oversee design of iPad sales tools for pharma reps to use in interfacing with doctors; Responsive site for proprietary video portal; Outlined CRM experience integrating web property, social broadcasting, email communications, and enterprise CRM database.

This social network for musicians brought me on to establish a UX team, design standards, and design processes to help the company evolve from start-up to a branded, fee-based professional opportunity and licensing marketplace.

Projects/Accomplishments: Develop a unique, professional brand (visual and voice), a scalable information architecture, and pattern library for extensive site relaunch. Hire and manage designers, information architects, and copy writers (both full-time and freelance). In working closely with the CSO and VP of Technology, formalize product design processes integrated with Agile dev. team, resulting in more efficient roll-out of new features and products. Design customizable Facebook app for major label partner promotions increasing our referral traffic 400%. Guide junior marketing team in various initiatives including social media extensions for Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook.

Mentor and give design direction to team of Interaction Designers developing competitive analyses, P.O.V. documentation, sitemaps, and wireframes.

Projects/Accomplishments: Self-service account management functions, such as upgrade equipment and change plan flows, reducing millions of dollars worth of call center traffic annually; Customer-facing, online application UIs for Verizon Business products; Marketing for Verizon Telecom products such as FiOS Internet and TV on Verizon.com. Lead redesign of in-store touch-screen kiosks to engage and inform customers of product offerings, shortening required interaction time with sales reps and decreasing perceived wait-time.

Hire and manage designers and off-shore production artists designing and doing IA for McKinsey.com and international office, practice area, and event/community sub-sites. Collaboration on UI for Interwoven data input templates, and for employee/alumni Intranet.

Projects/Accomplishments: Design local office, client service, and event/community web site templates which leverage features and modules of main site CMS, increasing usability across sites and allowing for more rapid site development. Interaction design for Intranet portal, departmental intranets, and custom applications. Facilitate workshops for PMs and BAs and consult with them on integrating User-Centered design processes into Agile/Scrum development cycles.

Staff and manage creative team in support of major online publishing initiative allowing the company to transfer publication of most of their magazines to an online-only format.

Projects/Accomplishments: Devise front-end template system which facilitates quick implementation resulting in seven new site launches within four months, each with the unique look and feel of its related print publication by utilizing a common Vignette CMS, saving hundreds of development hours per site. Integrate revenue-generating enhancements into previously designed sites: consumer shopping capabilities into P.C. Mag.com; reformat layouts to accept larger banner ads; create micro-sites for print advertisers.

As Usenet-search start-up DejaNews rebrands and redesigns as a consumer shopping recommender, I am brought in as their first Design Director. My team is responsible for site architecture, interaction design, look-and-feel, brand management and content development.

Projects/Accomplishments: Hire and integrate into company operations a newly formed design department eventually leading six designers and 15 content producers. Work closely with branding consultants in rebranding effort. Lead overall site redesign and navigation overhaul. Strategize new site features, data acquisition goals, and sales opportunities, in close collaboration with product management, technology, business development, sales and marketing teams.

Develop navigation, design, branding and marketing integration for a local portal site in close collaboration with sales/marketing team. Work closely with broadcast managers to reinterpret their local TV affiliate brand online and create a site architecture for publishing breaking news and features.

ABCNews.com, Mr. Showbiz, Art Director;
NBA.com, Nascar.com, Designer;
Muppets Inside CD-ROM, Production Artist
Funded by Microsoft founder Paul Allen, Starwave was an early interactive media think-tank and agency. Starting as a production artist for the Muppets Inside CD-ROM, I soon became a designer on the launch teams for the high-profile sites Nascar.com, NBA.com, then Art Director for the initial release of ABCNews.com and their affiliate news sites. Starwave was bought by Disney around the time I left.