UX leader · 15 years in UX
I build UX teams that move the business.
Most recently Director, UX & Human Factors Engineering at GoTo, where I led a UX organization of up to 20 designers and researchers across 5 countries and 3 continents, and grew UX from a service team into a business driver.
designers and researchers led at GoTo, across 5 countries and 3 continents
Team sizebetter retention for Insiders customers than customers outside the program
MeasuredAI Receptionist hit its numbers in its launch quarter, GoTo's fastest launch to target
Company-reportedAdmin checkout conversion rate, in three months
MeasuredFeatured work
- 01
Build the System Before the AI
AILeadershipResearchBefore any AI shipped, I built the foundation: customer research, defined workflows, and success metrics. Then I took AI from governed exploration to product, designing for trust, transparency, and control.
#1launch in GoTo history by speed to target
Company-reported - 02
From Keep-the-Lights-On to the All-Hands Stage
LeadershipResearchA legacy small-business product the company had let slide. I rebuilt the UX team, brought research into a ticket-taker culture, and found the real problem was fragmented workflows, not missing features.
10–15%gains in NPS, CSAT, and OSAT; beat revenue and growth goals
Measured - 03
Building a Customer Insight Flywheel
LeadershipResearchGoTo had no research function and no structured way to reach customers. I built the Insiders Program from zero: a three-tier customer ecosystem wired into product decisions.
2,000+members; Insiders customers retained 30–60% better
Measured
From a product partner
Don't hire Ren. That is, don't hire him if you're looking for a UX leader who phones it in, avoids hard problems, ignores the customer, or somehow makes cross-functional work even more painful than it already is. Unfortunately, Ren is none of those things.
Consulting
Need a UX leader for a season, not a year?
I also work as an interim or fractional UX leader, or as a hands-on principal on a single high-stakes product. Most recently I redesigned a dealer analytics platform for Dave Cantin Group / JumpIQ.