At the start of my career, I worked at a company where our processes were established from decades ago and had remained unchanged. There was plenty of frustrations following those archaic processes that were inefficient, ineffective, and not user-friendly. So I thought — why don't I eliminate the redundant steps and make our processes better?

In my subsequent roles, I continued to create, improve, and streamline front-office and back-office internal processes from the perspectives of users and non-users.

This is what the Human-Centered Design (HCD) is about. I just had no idea I was already problem-solving with this mindset.

Though some of my job titles don’t suggest customer-facing opportunities, my responsibilities included working and engaging the front line in different situations and settings, from brick-and-mortars, to trade shows and events.

I gained user insights first-hand to better anticipate user needs, and to help iterate and improve for better experiences and services. Ultimately, adding more value to users.