Independent Research & Practice

After four intensive years building customer experience infrastructure at Grau through a pandemic and a generational transition — and nearly two decades of working since age fifteen — I took a deliberate pause. The first in my career. Used it to formalize the methodology I'd been practicing instinctively, invest in credentials, and map the global design landscape before beginning an Executive MBA. 872-hour UX Design certification (CareerFoundry) — translating diagnostic instincts built in the ICU and refined at Grau into formal, structured research frameworks. Seven international design conferences in one year: Design Matters Tokyo, Interaction 23 (IxDA Zürich), Hatch Conference Berlin, SDN Global Conference, SDN Next Gen, ADC Festival, DDX Munich. Extensive independent travel across multiple continents — studying spatial behavior, service culture, and urban infrastructure across cities including Tokyo, Copenhagen, Lisbon, Istanbul, and Amsterdam. Not tourism — ongoing ethnographic practice that feeds how I read environments, organizations, and systems. McKinsey Forward Program. IBM Enterprise Design Thinking. Royal College of Art — Ethical Practices to Guide Innovation. IxDF Membership. Not a gap year. A pivot year. Formalizing what I knew, building the credentials, mapping the field, and sharpening the observational practice that underpins everything I do.