QUINN SIMPSON

QUINN SIMPSON

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Hi! I'm Quinn.

he / him / his

I am a product and interaction designer based in Austin, Texas. I believe every human being has nearly limitless potential, and I create tools to help unlock that potential.

Resume

I didn't plan to become a designer, but there were (literal) warning signs. As a kid, I noticed more efficient ways for my parents and classmates at school to do their daily routines, and I would hang up signs by the dozen with directions for rerouting behavior. I made a lot of friends that way.My passion for systemic thinking and care for improving people’s lives led me to earn a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science from Columbia University. I noticed a pattern in my career experiences during college: I always got annoyed by systems that weren’t treating people well, so I redesigned them to empower their users.After college I took a risk and came onboard a young startup called Lumentee. It's a platform for underrepresented Gen Z students to discover their first internship, and it's designed to deliver a vastly better user experience to first-generation and low-income college students who are breaking into the talent market.Lumentee is where I sharpened my design skills by taking a product from 0 to 1 and discovered my calling to one day become a bonafide product leader...but now I’m getting ahead of myself. Take a look at my resume and feel free to get in touch!

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I interviewed 17 researchers at the Community College Research Center >

MY GUIDING QUESTION

HOW WILL THIS PROJECT MAKE USERS FEEL VALUED?

I believe that my role as a designer is to bridge the gap between what users need and what experience a product actually provides. Here's how I do it:

1. BECOME A USER ADVOCATE

Even the most narrow project brief has an audience. My first step is to focus in on the impacted users and get to know their hopes and dreams.

MY SKILLS

Values-centered

It's most important to me to learn about what users value and how a project component succeeds or fails to embody those values.

Nimble

I always find a way to connect with a project's users, especially if resources are limited and guerilla tactics are required.

Rigorous

I make sure to capture even the most anecdotal evidence in a way that is interpretable and relevant to the full scope of project inputs.

CASE STUDY

2. ALIGN PROJECT OBJECTIVES WITH USER VALUES

Next, I make sure the project's hypothesis is relevant to what users care about, and I establish metrics for what a successful project outcome looks like.

MY SKILLS

Radical

If I think it would serve users better to abandon or reimagine a project, I say so. I always work to strike at the root of user needs.

Contextual

I re-center on the project timeline and speak with all involved team members to find out what is feasible to implement.

Outcomes-oriented

I lay out concrete metrics that make improved user experience outcomes measurable and replicable for future projects.

CASE STUDY

I created an ideal user persona and journey to set objectives for Matriculate recruitment >

3. DEVELOP A DELIGHTFUL PRODUCT SOLUTION

Once the project objectives are clear, I move quickly to prototype and iterate an elegant design solution to achieve the relevant user outcomes.

MY SKILLS

Empathetic

I see users as my direct clients. I feel a deep responsibility to act in users' best interests with each design choice I implement.

Curious

My best design ideas often come from unlikely places. That's why I pay attention to everything and ask more questions than I need to.

Rapid

I follow the data and my intuition to execute the best design I can, test it out, and iterate based on what works and what doesn't.

CASE STUDY

I envisioned and prototyped a new kind of social mentoring network with the Lumentee App >

4. EVALUATE AND AIM TO IMPROVE

Implementation isn't the end of a project story. I close the loop with users and internal stakeholders to make sure we learn the right lessons from the development process.

MY SKILLS

Imperfect

Users will always have valid suggestions for how to make a design more effective. I revise with humility and excitement.

Systemic

I like to review the design process itself and document lessons learned in a way that can be implemented in future projects.

Assertive

If I find that an element of the design process or solution isn't working, I articulate what it is and what needs to change.

CASE STUDY

I improved Lumentee Web after launch by collecting and analyzing data from early users >

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Lumentee Web

I led the development of Lumentee, a delightful online search platform for underrepresented Gen Z students to discover their first career experience. I established the design system, conducted customer discovery, and built the final product.

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My Role

Head of Product

Timeline

Jan 2021 - Present

PROJECT OVERVIEW

User Need

Gen Z students want to start considering career options early on in college, before they feel ready to dive into professional job search platforms for specific careers.

My Solution

I designed a discovery platform that empowers users to take their first steps exploring employers and opportunities that align with their values.

BECOME A USER ADVOCATE

3000+

students canvassed

250+

student surveys

30+

qualitative conversations

1. Identify Target User

Myself and my co-founder knew that we wanted to help underrepresented Gen Z students navigate the college and career process, which formed the foundation of our user persona.

2. Isolate User Needs

I distributed 50 marketing messages to thousands of college students and tracked clickthrough to identify pain points. Career-related messages got the most clickthroughs.

3. Dig for User Values

I conducted in-depth conversations with target users to identify what they valued in their career search that they weren't seeing reflected in the tools available to them.

ALIGN PROJECT OBJECTIVES WITH USER VALUES

User Persona

I synthesized our user research into an even more narrow user persona, which enabled us to empathize and imagine a product that would be highly effective at meeting user needs.

User Journey

We aimed to create a streamlined product that aligned with our target users' values. I mapped a list of value questions across a basic user journey to establish a framework for development.

Creating an Account

User feels: hopeful, at ease, curious

Is user allowed to feel uncertian?

Is user able to add values/interests?

Is user invited to connect with peers?

Is process purposeful and empowering?

Exploring on the Platform

User feels: excited, empowered

Is user able to start from zero?

Is user able to discover based on values?

Is user able to customize what they see?

Is information relevant and accessible?

Finding Opportunities

User feels: in control, oriented

Is it easy to screen job/employer values?

Can user find options from peers?

Is user able to organize on-platform?

Does user feel like coming back again?

DEVELOP A DELIGHTFUL PRODUCT SOLUTION

Development Strategy

We needed to get a product in the market quickly to validate our concept, so after initial sketching, user flow mapping, and feedback, I opted to build the product in a no-code platform called Adalo. This allowed for on-the-fly user testing and revisions.

Product Highlights

Onboarding Flow 1

Big-picture questions set an exploratory tone for the platform.

Onboarding Flow 2

The UX nudges users to connect with peers who share core affinities.

Landing Screen

A minimal visual presentation invites the user to peruse options.

Employer Screen

Labels and conversation prompts enable employers to introduce themselves to users who are screening for a vibe and values match.

Discovery Screens

Search and updates pages allow users to refine by preferences or what's fresh.

EVALUATE AND AIM TO IMPROVE

Individual User Research

I followed five users through the onboarding steps and a series of tasks that I hypothesized would fall on the platform's red routes. Users rated the ease of completing each task, as well as overall ease of navigation. The "5" score meant a task was very easy to complete, and the "1" score meant a task was very difficult to complete.

Finding

Users stayed oriented across screens and appreciated that screens had clear, simple functions.

Buttons for liking posts and following employers confused users about the purpose and outcomes of those actions.

Users didn't understand that they needed to follow employers to see their newest job posts.

Users didn't immediately discover Affinity Spaces as they were buried in the user profile.

Next Step

Be intentional and parsimonious about adding features to the platform in order to maintain a positive UX.

Align contextual and bottom bar buttons for liked posts, and update bookmark icon for employers. Study actual use cases.

Test eliminating the "New For You" tab or adding Discovery/For You paradigm from Inspo Board.

Consider adding "Affinity Feed" tab with relevant updates from spaces in lieu of "New For You" tab.

Instagram Guerilla Research

During our development cycle, I built a following of 50 volunteer test users by sharing updates about our building process on my Instagram story. Once the product was ready, I added the testers to my Instagram Close Friends list and polled the group with usability questions.

User Data Analysis

I analyzed onboarding data from our first 25 users and found that persistence through the onboarding process was high: of users who completed the first question, 84% completed the entire process. However, I was surprised to find that every one of the users who failed to complete the process stopped at the second "Skills" question.

I hypothesized that the question text intimidated users by expecting them to be too definitive about what skills they wanted to gain from a career experience. I softened the language and found that user persistence through the entire onboarding process increased to 96% in a comparable second sample of users who signed up post-intervention.

Before Intervention

After Intervention

WHAT I LEARNED

Overall Reflection

Lumentee is live and growing daily! Ideating and shipping a product that benefits real people was an utter thrill that confirmed for me that I want to pursue product and interaction design.

Go Even Simpler

Designing with the basics in mind kept me from over-investing in irrelevant features, but I still spent a lot of time on things that we'll probably end up cutting based on user feedback.

Love User Data

One of the virtues of getting to market quickly with a basic product was being able to collect user data and make quick iterative decisions. I often wished I had even more to work with.

I Seek Collaboration

I drove a lot of the design process as head of product, but brainstorming ideas and analyzing data with our small team was always impressively generative and energizing for me.

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Matriculate Recruitment

I was hired to support and later direct the Columbia University operations for Matriculate, a national nonprofit that recruits college students to volunteer as college application advisors to underrepresented high school students. My design interventions in the applicant recruitment and onboarding system quadrupled campus recruitment yield in two cycles.

My Roles

Columbia Program Lead
Columbia Recruiter
Volunteer

Timeline

November 2017 - July 2021

PROJECT OVERVIEW

User Need

Elite college students are looking to make the education system that benefits them more equitable, but they don't see a way that they can make a meaningful personal impact.

My Solution

I designed a recruitment system where each step grows applicants' confidence in their ability to make a personal impact on educational equity by joining Matriculate.

BECOME A USER ADVOCATE

Being A User

I interacted with the Matriculate program as a user, a recruiter of users, and ultimately as a leader of both users and recruiters. My ability to design an effective recruitment system stemmed from my ground-level involvement and ability to analyze the UX from the bottom up.

My User Journey

I joined Matriculate as a volunteer during my first semester of college. I ended up becoming a committed member who stayed engaged through the whole program cycle, but mapping out my recruitment, onboarding and training journey helped me isolate my personal attributes and uncover the fact that I stayed involved in spite of, not because of, my user experience.

My Recruiter Journey

After I'd volunteered with Matriculate for a year, I was hired to join the leadership team recruiting the next cohort of volunteers. I wanted to improve the user experience for our recruits, so I payed close attention to pain points in my ability to impact the recruitment process, as well as my overall energy and engagement. These findings were instrumental in my later redesign.

ALIGN PROJECT OBJECTIVES WITH USER VALUES

Imagining User-Centric Recruitment

I was hired to lead Matriculate at Columbia in my third year with the program. As I prepared to recruit new volunteers, I analyzed my previous user experience and realized that my journey was rocky because no part of the Matriculate recruitment process was user-centric.I theorized that if I could build an accurate user persona, I could imagine a recruitment journey that centered users. Then, I could redesign the process around that journey.

Ideal User Persona

I created a Matriculate user persona by compiling data from my own personal profile as well as anecdotal and demographic data from the 100+ other volunteers I'd either worked with or recruited in my time with the program. I also incorporated insights from my interactions with Columbia students generally because I wanted to broaden our potential userbase.

Ideal User Journey

Next, I thought through a user journey for Sarah. I noticed that users historically had high retention if they made it through training, so the recruitment process needed to focus on building users up and giving them reasons to stick with Matriculate in each stage until they were advising actual students—we didn't have the luxury to leave applicants hanging at any point.

Project Scoping

After I imagined a user-centric Matriculate recruitment process, I concluded that I would need to design and implement an entirely new system to deliver a positive user experience. I identified three core values that would keep the system design aligned to users' best interests:

Inclusivity

The onus falls on us recruiters to open space for applicants and make them feel welcome in Matriculate. If we provide a great user experience, every Columbia student is a potential recruit.

Radical Candor

Our applicants are busy and protective of their time and attention. We respect our applicants by going out of our way to keep them looped in and being available as sources of information.

Individual Relationships

A user-centric recruitment system serves the user. Every process in our system should empower each individual applicant and strengthen their relationship to Matriculate.

DEVELOP A DELIGHTFUL PRODUCT SOLUTION

Development Strategy

I was responsible for a multi-threaded logistical operation that involved managing my five person recruitment team, the existing 70 member corps of Matriculate volunteers, and new applicants.I went back to basics by walking through the core user flow of a Matriculate applicant. I designed and sequenced interactive elements at each stage of the process to align the user flow with the ideal user journey I'd mapped. Then, I designed tools, trainings, and systems to empower all other stakeholders to support the core user flow.

User Experience Highlights

I created dozens of discrete products in the course of redesigning the Matriculate recruitment process. These are five representative highlights.

1 - Initial Engagement

I drew from our ideal user persona to target a suite of recruitment materials to freshmen who had not yet arrived on campus. My team emphasized the new admits' amazing success and presented Matriculate as the next step.

2 - Assign Guide

I developed a guide system that paired each potential applicant who submitted a Matriculate interest form with a guide from my team who would shepherd them through the application process. I created a relationship management system using an Airtable base to ensure each applicant was being contacted by the correct person at the correct time.

3 - Coffee Chat

I implemented a protocol where potential applicants' assigned guides immediately scheduled a coffee chat to put a human face on Matriculate and explain the application process. I designed a curriculum to train my team on how to interact with applicants before, during, and after coffee chats.

4 - Send Onboarding

After applicants were accepted, I engaged a five-pronged welcome protocol that ensured new recruits felt individually invited and distributed information in different formats to increase the chance that candidates would remain engaged during onboarding.

5 - Train Peer Leaders

I designed and implemented a peer leader recruitment and training program that layered on top of the primary onboarding protocol and succeeded in getting 40 new recruits to volunteer to take on additional management responsibilities for our large fellowship of advisors.

EVALUATE AND AIM TO IMPROVE

Key Outcomes

98%

user satisfaction

4x

increased yield

1/2

retention increased by

Strengthening Internal Systems

A design process should produce an effective design outcome, but it should also produce a body of institutional knowledge that can be frameworked to improve future design processes. I made sure that my team took the perspective of future recruiters in reviewing and archiving our work product.

Preserve The Paper Trail

We downloaded dozens of inbound and outbound communications, meeting agendas, and brainstorm documents and bucketed them by recruitment stage.

Create Standard Materials

We turned certain custom artifacts that were highly effective in our process into replicable templates that future teams could copy or modify for their own use.

Create Training Resources

We summarized our key learnings into a curriculum, and created a recorded webinar course that walked future recruiters through the full recruitment process stage-by-stage.

WHAT I LEARNED

Overall Reflection

My Matriculate recruitment redesign was a passion project that taught me design can literally change lives. Because of my interventions, hundreds more underrepresented students ended up receiving free college advising. I consider it my greatest achievement in life so far.

Be The User

My design interventions were highly effective as a direct result of my closeness to frontline users. That's why I strive to absorb and embody users' experience before I design.

Focus On The Core

I felt overwhelmed by all the recruitment processes I had to juggle. Focusing on supporting a flawless core user flow radically simplified my management decisions.

Build Habits

Wrangling a bunch of distracted college students taught me that designing systems to support habitual and instinctive acts was the best way to deliver a positive user experience.

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Community College Research Center

I was hired by the Community College Research Center to complete a comprehensive study of its research development process user experience in order to identify high-level solution areas to orient the Center to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.

My Role

Equity Intern

Timeline

Jun 2020 - Sep 2020

PROJECT MATERIALS

Final Report

General Interview Protocol

Scoping Interview Protocol

PROJECT SUMMARY

User Need

The lack of an intentional design for the Center's research development UX keeps users from prioritizing Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) both in the process and the product of its research pipeline.

My Solution

After conducting 17 user research interviews in two phases, I outlined a proposal for the Center to reimagine its research process. I identified three solution areas with 12 accompanying design recommendations.

WHAT I LEARNED

Overall Reflection

I was deeply honored that one of the preeminent education research institutions in the country trusted me to execute this project. This was a formative opportunity for me to conduct UX research and develop UX design proposals in a professional setting.

Know Your Position

I leveraged my position as a young outsider to earn the trust of the experienced researchers I interviewed. Even so, this positionality limited my influence in implementing solutions.

Language Matters

So much of my design in this project involved shaping precise language to get useful answers from interviews and to assemble a report that was clear and compelling to outside readers.

Scope Carefully

I was constrained in this context by other past, present, and parallel projects, so I spent a lot of time scoping my project to make sure it fit in the overall system.

Thanks for visiting.

BECOME A USER ADVOCATE

1. Identify target user

Myself and my co-founder knew that we wanted to help underrepresented gen Z students navigate the college and career process, which formed the foundation of our user persona.

2. Isolate user needs

I distributed 50 marketing messages to thousands of college students and tracked clickthrough to identify pain points. Career-related messages got the most clickthroughs.

3. Dig for user values

I conducted in-depth conversations with target users to identify what they valued in their career search that they weren't seeing reflected in the tools available to them.

ALIGN PROJECT OBJECTIVES WITH USER VALUES

User persona

I synthesized our user research into an even more narrow user persona, which enabled us to empathize and imagine a product that would be highly effective at meeting user needs.

DEVELOP A DELIGHTFUL PRODUCT SOLUTION

Strategy

We needed to get a product in the market quickly to validate our concept, so after initial sketching and user flow mapping I opted to build the initial product in a no-code platform called Adalo. This allowed for on-the-fly user testing and modifications.

EVALUATE AND AIM TO IMPROVE

User validation journey

User satisfaction numbers
% completing account creation
% finding it enjoyable
Instagram ninja feedback

Results

User satisfaction numbers
% completing account creation
% finding it enjoyable
Instagram ninja feedback

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