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Clarity

Amy Eastment

Boston, MA

10+ years of UX & Product Design, working primarily with early stage startups across a ton of industries - including cybersecurity, B2B enterprise, ecommerce, IoT, and consumer mobile.

Formerly HubSpot, BitSight Technologies, and CustomMade. Areas of expertise: optimizing user onboarding, data visualization, dashboards, turning ideas into designs/prototypes, and conducting user research.

$3.33/min

5 Calls

3 Reviews

33 minutes
Avg. call

Product Design User Research Start-ups Product Management Data Visualization User Experience User Interface Design Mobile Technology Usability Testing Onboarding

Call me to talk about

Turning Lightbulb Ideas Into Designs

One of the hardest parts of design is that very first step - turning your ideas into something visual to show prospective customers and VCs, let alone start building. I have experience helping founders create those first designs and take them all the way through implementation and first sales - and can speak to things like where to prioritize your efforts, tips for saving time/money, and how to create a process that works for you.

Building & Integrating a Product/Design Team

What kind of PM or designer can best address your issues and meet your dev-team needs? Where do you find this person? How do you screen them to make sure they're awesome?

As a former manager and design consultant, I've got experience building teams at various startups - doing a mix of external recruiting, identifying and nurturing internal talent, managing contractors and external teams, and most importantly, figuring out the optimal configuration and skills in the first place. We'll discuss where you are, where you'd like to be, and identify the experience and skillsets your next hire(s) need to have to best address your needs, not to mention the questions you to ask to screen for them.

I've also got experience tackling design/product/dev friction - a pretty common issue that arises as startups mature, products pivot, and needs change, resulting in a lack of trust, resentment, and stalemates. I'm a good sounding board for issues, provide a diplomatic external perspective that (usually) everyone is willing to hear, and can suggest creative solutions to painful problems.

The reviews on my LinkedIn profile (https://www.linkedin.com/in/amyeastment) demonstrate my history of championing various internal teams and getting them to work better together - and I love helping folks with this particular topic because the end result is more happiness for everyone involved! :D

Designing (Big) Data for Exploration & Visualization

Maybe you're enabling users to explore copious amounts of data. Maybe you're building a sweet new dashboard to make an awesome first impression on your customers. Or maybe you're just trying to visualize your big data in a meaningful way, to help drive decision-making or tell a compelling story.

These are all tough challenges, walking a fine balance between the sheer amount of data, your audiences' levels of technical proficiency, conventional expectations, your technical limitations, and the needs of your sales team for a demo-friendly experience. I've designed for both B2B and B2C audiences - like synthesizing ratings from terabytes of daily data and making huge amounts of records accessible to a broad audience for a cybersecurity company, designing a business-user-friendly node graph visualization (patent pending) to drive risk management decision-making, enabling program management through maps, tables, and reporting for energy efficiency efforts, and reinforcing progress through basic visualizations for an online dating app.

My efforts have contributed to Gartner Cool Vendor ratings, acquisitions for the software platforms, stronger VC pitches (and resulting funding), happier sales teams, and lots of customer satisfaction. I'm a huge nerd about this stuff, and it shows in my results.

I can conduct a quick evaluation of what you're doing today and suggest ways to polish your display or new approaches to make your data more accessible to your audience. If you're still in the earlier design phase, I can also help you figure out where to focus your efforts, the best metrics to hone in on, and the types of visualizations that best fit your needs. (I also usually sketch out some ideas on the spot, which I can send your way after our call.)

When & How to Hire UX Designers

One of the most common conversations I have with colleagues, friends, prospects, and clients is about when and how to hire UX Designers.

When is too early? How much do I pay them? How do I find an affordable one? What skills do we need? Can we get by with a contractor, or do we need a fulltime one? Where do we find someone we like and trust? Can we find one ourselves or do we need to use a recruiter? Who should they report to? What do I put in the job description? How do I evaluate a portfolio? Do I need a UX person or a UI person (and what is the difference)? What does UX even do?

I've got experience as an engineer, product manager, fulltime UX designer, UX hiring manager, as well as experience consulting with companies at all stages and helping them grow their team and product - and can help you figure out the optimal path for YOUR TEAM.

Thinking of Going Freelance?

My friends and colleagues always send their friends my way for advice when those friends are considering switching to freelance/consulting. I've been working on my own for almost 7 years, keeping a light schedule that leaves room for hobbies, and earning as much if not more than I did fulltime. While I personally focus on UX consulting, a lot of my advice is applicable for most fields.

We can discuss:
- Pros/cons of Freelance vs. Fulltime
- How to best position yourself and your skillset when talking to prospective clients
- Alternate ways to build your network and fill your pipeline when you're not keen to start blogging or are an introvert who avoids networking events (like me!)
- How to set your rate & justify it when prospects push back, and also alternate methods of pricing your work besides traditional hourly methods
- Time management & money management skills to make your life easier post-switch
- What specialized niches are and how to find the one that best suits you and your ideal clients
- How to best demonstrate your skills in your portfolio and during preliminary conversations

If finances are tight and you're willing to pay it forward, ping me anyway, and we'll set up a free call.

Answers 0
Reviews 3

Answers

Reviews

Really helpful call and also sent me a nice write-up afterwards :)

Conor Corroon Source: Clarity

Very good call, Amy was very professional and provided excellent input during our dialogue.

Eduardo Araujo Source: Clarity

Very helpful, knowledgeable and laser focused. Gave a great recap and recommendations!

MET ZADE Source: Clarity

Member since March 2015