Technology Doesn’t Matter

Someone recently asked if I had experience with a specific enterprise platform. My answer sparked an interesting conversation about the role of strategic design, and where I see this discipline heading.

Yes, I've designed for Salesforce, and countless others. But honestly, the technology we’re leveraging has never really mattered that much to me. Don’t get me wrong - I need to understand the unique features and constraints of what we’re working with. However, whether we are building something purely custom or I’m stepping into a well-established ecosystem, my role remains the same…

I'm The Dreamer

Strategic design lives in a fascinating space - bridging business strategy and technical implementation, forever advocating for the customer. Shining a light on the gold that lives between “what customers want,” "what we need to accomplish," and "how we'll build it."

I facilitate collaboration, challenge assumptions, and (on my better days) inspire those around me.

As we discuss challenges and limitations, I hear opportunities and see experiences taking shape in my mind. As conversations deepen, I get into this sort of flow state - dreaming bigger and bigger, sketching on paper and whiteboards, designing in Figma or whatever, pushing beyond what's been done and sometimes what's possible.

My partners in business and technology keep me grounded, bringing me back to today’s reality.

That's where balance lives. I push us into the absolute corners of what's possible by dreaming just a bit further than where folks are comfortable and familiar. This approach doesn't require that I know the nuance of any one piece of technology. In fact, what I don't know empowers me to ask questions about the ways things "have always been done."

This is true of industries too. I didn't know anything about the energy sector before designing for an oil conglomerate and later a regional energy authority. I don't know shit about sports, and still led one of the largest digital transformations of my career for the NBA. I'm not a doctor. Banking? Bro, spreadsheets make my eyes bleed - and yet, fintech is where I'm most experienced.

I'm a professional empath, representing the customer and ignorantly stepping into your environment to ask super obvious questions. It's kind of my superpower. Ask a really dumb question in a very serious manner and suddenly folks are thinking deeply about long-held traditions, assumptions, and biases.

An Artist’s Journey

My path into strategic design came through the art side of the house. My first agency gig was drawing temporary tattoos for a small shop tucked deep in the Florida orange groves. Their "webmaster" discovered I was designing websites just for fun. They offered me a job and 30 years later, here we are.

I knew Photoshop, Illustrator, and could write html. I was doing elaborate table layouts, and some super sweet JavaScript rollovers. Then CSS came out. Suddenly people were telling me to replace my tables with divs, and I was like, “Nah, I’m good.” I really haven’t written much code since then.

But it was at that first agency where I met actual engineers. They were writing C++ and together we created new biometric scanning software. This was the late 90s - scanning thumbprints to open doors. It was awesome, and I had no idea how it worked. They showed me the code, but I really had to trust these folks, these experts, to turn my designs into reality.

This has remained fundamental to my practice: I focus intensely on the human elements - what people need, what we’re trying to accomplish, and how well can we do it. I cultivate, negotiate, advocate, and cheerlead my own dreams and other dreamers. AND I partner with engineering teams who bring the technical expertise that turns dreams into reality.

Power of Partnerships

Three decades across countless technical implementations and nearly every industry has gifted me a unique perspective: pattern recognition. What used to surprise me became recognizable, then instinctual. I know where companies, customers, and teams typically struggle. How to surface obstacles and constraints early. How cutting edge technology can fail spectacularly. How “simple” solutions can launch rockets.

So, while I’m probably new to your tech stack (or more likely returning to it), my expertise will never be your specific technology. It's in exploring, discovering, understanding, and activating experiences on top of it. Being able to discuss, research, learn, and operate within your technical reality while pushing all of us to do more, better.

While I’m coming up with all sorts of ideas, it’s the engineering team that makes dream come true. They know best what’s possible today. And frankly - without their expertise, my designs would never become reality. Together we push the business, challenge each other, and drive toward our shared vision.

And Everything’s Changing

The workflow between vision and implementation is quickly evolving.

Today, I can leverage AI to build functional prototypes that actually work. Not static Figma screens - launchable code. This gives me access to capabilities that I used to lean on a team of engineers to own. The quality isn't production-ready yet. We call it "vibe-coding" for a reason. But it's just a matter of time. At some point, a designer like me will be able to build truly launchable, scalable products through conversations with AI.

Probably sooner than we think.

But, more to the point of enterprise platforms, truly launchable and wholly AI-generated experiences may first be realized at scale in those environments. This is exactly because of the constraints. AI excels at working with frameworks, patterns, templates, and components - established structures and fixed assets. And as it gets better at writing custom code, what exactly is off the table?

I see a very real, not-so-distant future where a person with vision - who understands business and customer strategy - will be empowered to generate production-ready digital experiences of any kind.

What was: Vision → Strategy → Requirements → Design → Engineering → Launch

Is becoming: Vision → Strategy → Launch

The Future of Ideas

This is creating an interesting opportunity for everyone, not just strategic designers.

Anyone with fluency across business, design, and technology will be able to more easily translate dreams into reality, If you can recognize a customer need, dream of a digital solution, and make wise decisions about what to build, you will be able to orchestrate increasingly complex solutions.

Platform-specific expertise becomes less critical. Strategic thinking and broad understanding become more actionable. The gap between vision and reality narrows.

And at the center of it all? The dreamer.