Jul 2025 – Present · 10 mos · Austin, Texas, United States · Remote

• Curionaut is a Design × AI consultancy helping early-stage teams and founders validate ideas, bring teams into focus, and make smarter decisions before they build.
• We bring:
• UX validation sprints MVPs and prototypes (especially AI-assisted ones)
• We bring strategic alignment to teams as product, design, and engineering converge
• Human-centered AI strategy and ethical guidance
• Fractional design leadership for startups without design co-founders
• Systems design and creative ops for teams scaling fast
• We partner with founders and teams building in the AI era—ensuring what they launch is not just fast, but functional, desirable, and human-centered.
• www.curionaut.co

Apr 2025 – Jul 2025 · 3 mos

• After years of scaling UX in the enterprise world, leading talented teams, and translating complexity into clarity, I’m hitting pause on business as usual to dive into something a little different: designing my life.
• From art classes and crafting experiments to learning AI tools, exploring alternative creative paths, traveling, and prioritizing wellness, this chapter is all about curiosity, joy, and rediscovering the spark that made me fall in love with design in the first place.
• I like to think of it as a personal design sprint, testing new ideas, sketching out what’s possible, and letting creativity lead the way. I’m documenting the journey and sharing real talk for fellow designers, career shifters, and creative explorers.
• Follow along on TikTok, Instagram, Pinterest, or right here: @laureldesignsitall
• And if you’re cooking up something cool (collab, project, podcast, or otherwise) my DMs are open.

Jul 2024 – Mar 2025 · 8 mos · Austin, Texas, United States

• Managed a global UX team of 15 across design, research, accessibility, and technical writing for 10+ products across 3 verticals.
• Drove design strategy and product improvements through user feedback — boosting user sentiment of managed products up to 83%.
• Led VMware-to-Broadcom UX integration, reducing migration tasks by 74% which allowed for reallocation of resources to other strategic initiatives.
• Maintained high team morale and career development through 4 reorgs and ever-shifting priorities ensuring low churn and quality deliverables.

Nov 2023 – Aug 2024 · 9 mos · Austin, Texas, United States

• VMware was acquired by Broadcom in November 2023.
• Setup new UX organization within Business Unit after acquisition into Broadcom split of the central design team for VMware. Tasks included annual operations planning, budgeting, creating, documenting and socializing new processes across organization.
• Established a user research program, integrating customer feedback loops via repositories, in-product surveys, and direct user studies.
• Adopted Technical Documentation team to manage along side the design team. Expanding and improving upon TechDoc processes, challenges, and needs.
• Guided design for VeloCloud and Edge Intelligence AI, launching features such as self-healing network remediations, and proactive notifications that cut resolution time by 87%.

Feb 2023 – Nov 2023 · 9 mos

• Led UX vision for SD-WAN’s transition into SASE, integrating networking and security products into a unified platform redesigned with the VMware Clarity Design System.
• Secured funding and integrated Product-Led Growth (PLG) tools, enabling user analytics, in-app guidance, satisfaction surveying, subscription and beta monitoring.
• Drove accessibility improvements, achieving FedRAMP compliance and publishing SASE’s first VPATs across 6 products.
• Pioneered the launch of the Enterprise Design Podcast from inception, ultimately assuming responsibility for managing VMware Design's social media presence, resulting in enhanced brand visibility and engagement within the design community.
• Led a dedicated team through feature design and rigorous user research and validation, collectively contributing to the achievement of Gartner's leadership recognition in the SASE category for six consecutive years.
• Co-lead the 'Illustrate Your Feedback' art-based research activity at VMware Explore Las Vegas, overseeing the creation of over 80 artifacts and achieving an 80% post-survey completion rate. Recognized as a 'must-see' activity on the CTO's curated list.

Apr 2021 – Feb 2023 · 1 yr 10 mos

• Led the first design team of four technically sound personnel for the business group and effectively coordinated globally to drive UX evolution across 8+ services, including feature development, redesigns, and integrations.
• Managed the complete redesign of the legacy SD-WAN product with VMware's Clarity Design system, despite limited design resources. Established and maintained a component library to boost design efficiency and align efforts with the development team.
• Advocated for the team's integration into the central design organization, realizing the benefits of centralization, including enhanced designer influence, streamlined processes, and efficient strategic utilization.

Feb 2020 – Apr 2021 · 1 yr 2 mos

• As design lead, played a key role in the transformation of the SD-WAN platform into a unified SASE 'single pane of glass' experience. Leveraged the VMware Clarity Design System to ensure accessibility compliance, while also facilitating modern user interactions and maintaining consistent UI patterns across VMware products. This enabled seamless navigation across multiple services from a single, integrated platform and identity management system.
• Faced the task of integrating two acquired products, Nyansa's Voyance AIOps platform, powered by AI/ML technology, and the VeloCloud SD-WAN solution, into each other as well as aligning them with existing VMware products. This integration was crucial to creating a seamless and robust analytics layer for SD-WAN, enhancing its value for users.
• Leveraged expertise in shaping cohesive design processes, UX roadmaps, and onboarding documentation to improve the BU’s design maturity which led to promotions into management and unification of isolated designers into a single design team.
• (In February 2020, VMware acquired Nyansa, integrating it into the then-recently acquired VeloCloud SD-WAN product, enabling VMware's entry into the Edge Network and Security space.)

Apr 2019 – Feb 2020 · 10 mos · Palo Alto, California

• SaaS startup for network performance and IoT Security. Currently, Leads UX/UI design for all projects from strategy, user research, interactions, and visuals to implementation, feedback sessions, and facilitating workshops with all teams.
• Collaborates closely with product managers, developers, executives, and the customer experience team, establishing consensus from all parties around product flow, technology limitations, design principles, and product goals.
• Executed design system initiatives that increased the speed of front-end development by 83% and have helped shift the company from an engineering-driven to a product-driven model.

Apr 2018 – Apr 2019 · 1 yr · Palo Alto, California

Jan 2017 – Apr 2018 · 1 yr 3 mos · Campbell, CA

• Award-winning design agency that also builds design tools such as Helio, Notable, Enroll and the Foundation Framework.
• Headed a client website redesign, that when A/B tested, had a 3000% lift in free trial engagement and 250% lift in free trial conversion.
• Ran discovery, definition, ideation, prototyping, and testing on projects, which ranged from responsive e-commerce sites to web and mobile applications for internal tooling and consumer products.
• Filmed monthly videos and webinars that went out to more than 50,000 people, teaching the basics of HTML/CSS by utilizing Foundation's front-end framework.

Oct 2016 – Dec 2016 · 2 mos · Sunnyvale, CA

• Contracted as a UX / Visual Designer for the Talent Acquisition & Talent Brand Teams at LinkedIn.
• Expanded on style guidelines to create #LinkedInLife social branding from the internal website to logo and branding for the Instagram and Twitter channels.
• Rebuilt the Talent Acquisition Media internal website, redesigned the information architecture and layout of all pages.
• Created banners ads, blog post images, and infographics along with internal signage for plasma screens.

Jul 2015 – Oct 2016 · 1 yr 3 mos · Palo Alto, California

• Led design for marketing which helped grow the credit union’s consumer base by 10% in one year. Projects included the marketing website, online banking app, in-branch experience, print advertising, promotional material, and Stanford Athletics partnership.
• Played a leadership role in the online banking platform redesign. Being the voice for design in the UX committee while successfully planning, developing, and executing marketing for this multilevel project with cross-functional staff.

Jun 2012 – Jun 2015 · 3 yrs · New York, NY & San Jose, CA

• Freelance Designer on a wide variety of cross-media projects involving branding, illustrations, UX/UI design and web development from large companies to small businesses such as PayPal, FirstTech, The Hired Group, Two Little Byrds, and Noble Cut Distillery.

Jan 2012 – May 2012 · 4 mos · Greater New York City Area

• Managed daily administrative tasks, scheduled auditions, and organized submissions, gaining experience in collaborating in a deadline-driven environment.
• Assisted with taping auditions, uploading files and categorizing appropriately in a database, demonstrating strong technical skills in a variety of media.