education

University of California – Santa Cruz, CA
Masters of Science – Games and Playable Media

University of California – Berkeley, CA
Masters of Information Management Systems/ HCI
Berkeley-Stanford Vertex Innovators Challenge Finalist (funded)

University of Michigan – Ann Arbor, MI
Bachelor of Science in Cognitive Science & Neurosciences

tools and languages

Production/ Workflow Management: Jira, Trello, Asana
Game Engines/ Tool Kits: Unity, UnReal, Microsoft Mesh, ARCore, ARKit, WebXR
Prototyping and Graphics: Blender, Maya (3D model editing), Figma (app/ sites prototyping & wireframing); Standard : Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator
Languages: C++, C#, Java, CSS, JavaScript, JSP, PHP, ASP, XML, XSLT, UNIX

experience

Anita Wilhelm Productions, June, 2019 – present
Product Production and Experience Design Consultant

  • Ryan Specialty – UX Design Pattern Library (40 web properties) – UX Design, Strategy, & Information Architecture (2024-2025)
  • Store No8 (Walmart Ventures & Incubation Lab) – Product Production & Design (2022)
  • Denver Angels – Early Stage Startup Product Manager (2019 – 2021)
  • PixoVR – Designer & Product Manager (2019)

Accenture, August, 2022 – Present – Remote
Technology Innovation Project Delivery Manager

  • Responsible for the planning, development, and delivery of innovation initiatives for internal needs and clients.
  • Maintained product planning, roadmap, and execution for all projects.
  • Provided creative review, as well as design and strategy feedback.
  • Worked with development team(s) of up to fifteen to keep development on track and delivery on time and budget.
  • Maintained client/ partner relationships and reported technical problems back to tech partnerships.
  • Responsible for client and stakeholder relationships, presentations, setting overall product strategy and roadmap, team planning and budget monitoring, running stand-ups, jira tracking, team cohesion for development team(s) including : art, modelers, animators, engineering, designers, and sound talent.
  • Received recognition for innovation and client appreciation for enjoying our team dynamic, vision, and work.

Tornado Tower, January, 2017 – July, 2022 – San Francisco, CA
Sr Producer

  • Internal management of 12-15 person indie production team, including devs, artists, sound engineers, and marketing.
  • Manage sprints, delivery timelines, art asset sheets, and internal team meeting scheduling.
  • Individual contributor for level design, game design, and blueprint development in UnReal for Oculus.
  • Marketing coordination and early buzz promotion in local game conferences and events. Nominated Bit Awards Best XR 2017 by Playcrafting in partnership with Parson’s School of Design. Early launch on Oculus.

Proxi, March, 2018 – Sept, 2018 – Berkeley, CA
Producer

  • Internal production responsibilities of Will Wright (SIMS creator) new mobile AI / neuroscience/ memory based game.
  • Manage & organize agile development process with team of artists, devs, marketing, & leadership. Coordinate play testing.
  • Organized user research studies/ art sessions with Pixar artists from Inside Out. (Pixar movie based game and art concepts.)
  • Game design, ux design, and prototyping in Unity individual contributor. Game design, ux design, and prototyping in Unity individual contributor.
  • Management of budgets, consultants, and strategic relationships – mainly with Unity (partner) and TenCent (investors).

Phase2 Industries – P2UX Prototyping Platform, July, 2016 – April, 2018 – Santa Clara, CA
Product Design Manager

  • Managed new product creation of app prototyping platform for both designers and developers.
  • Extended platform into compatibility with VR simulation for automobile infotainment screen user testing. Built from Unity.
  • Redesigned platform : Managed visual design direction & created ux wires. Managed brand creation with an external agency.
  • AR app design and management for using ARKit.
  • Created product strategy, jira schedules, roadmaps, and involved in investor relations/ pitches.

General Motors – Global Connected Services & Infotainment, December, 2015 – July, 2016 – Detroit, MI
User Experience Strategist

  • Responsible for aligning and creating design strategy to integrate mobile and web experiences.
  • Proposed and guided UX Pattern and Component library bridging hardware (mobile, web, automobile) experiences.
  • Integrated new content management platform to convert all old static .pdfs to live web and mobile pages.
  • Responsible for guiding strategy for 17 designers. Responsible for hiring 2 new designers and 1 strategist in-house.
  • Individual contributor : journey maps, pattern/ component research and framework outline ,wireframes, feedback on designs.
  • Left position to go back to school for gaming development and production.

Anita Wilhelm Designs, August, 2011 – July, 2016 – San Francisco, CAProject Specifics
Director – UX Strategy, Research, and Design

  • RepairPal – UX Strategist (2015)
  • LiteBrite Immersive – Unity UX Designer (2014)
  • Urban Airship – Technical Product Manager/ New Product R & D (2014)
  • DocuSign – Mobile UX Lead (2013)
  • Fig Mobile – UX Director (2012)
  • HP/ Palm – UX Strategist (2011)

Samsung UX Innovations Lab, Aug, 2011 – June, 2012 – San Jose, CA,
UX Lead Strategist : Infotainment

  • Conceptualized new cloud ­based home infotainment platform which spans phones, tablets, TV, desktop, and scanners.
  • Prototyped new mobile apps/ TV remote controls for smart TVs.
  • Designed first games and apps for TV platform : Children’s Chore Game, Family Emergency Locator, Family Calendar.
  • Product specifications and game logic, business strategy, and UX wires.
  • Managed design and worked with user researchers, business strategist, visual designer to define service concepts.
  • Family mobile wallet patent drafting and research.

Fjord GmBH, October, 2008 – October, 2010 – Berlin, Germany
Service Design Manager

  • Service Design Manager for Fjord GmBH. New products for clients: Nokia Social Location Services, Volkswagen R & D, and Deutsches Telekom R & D. Managed teams (up to 12) for client project creative production.
  • Product Manager (within Nokia) : Designed developers API toolkit and building blocks and managed internal social location development team.
  • Internally responsible for both project creative direction as well as project management and budgeting.
  • Involved in hiring/ growing agency, new business pitches, deep market research dives, and creative design patterns.
  • Deliverables: product definition, roadmaps and backlogs, strategic presentations, pattern visualizations, ux wires and specifications, project reports, performance reviews of team members.
    Bought by Accenture Interactive.

scanR, May, 2005 – Jan, 2008 – Palo Alto, CA
Mobile Product Manager/ UX Designer

  • Product Manager Jan, 2007 – Jan, 2008; UX Designer May, 2005 – Jan, 2007
  • Responsible for design and development of all mobile clients for new mobile photo based service, including BREW (Verizon and Kddi, Japan), Java (ATT and open-ware), Mobile Web, Symbian (Nokia), and Windows Mobile.
  • Create interaction and visual designs of all mobile products.
  • Develop prototypes and conduct user testing of handset clients.
  • Managed app store submission processes. Coordination of engineering and QA progress to ensure on-time client delivery.

Caterpillar Mobile, Sept, 2004 – Jan, 2007
Co-founder – Product Design & Strategy

  • Designed and created Caterpillar Mobile, with technical partner Jeff Towle, based on mobile social research conducted at UC Berkeley.
  • Drafted all business strategy and product roadmaps for mobile social media sharing and gaming platform.
  • Presented business plans and lead all interactions with outside parties and investors.
  • Created all product design documentation: personas, competitive analysis, information architectures, screen and widget designs for mobile consulting clients.

Graduate Student Researcher, May, 2003 – May, 2004  Old Work Portfolio
UX Design Lead 

  • Lead UX Designer for Garage Cinema Research : Mobile Media Metadata Project.
  • Designed system interface and researched image sharing and meaningful image metadata acquisition based on social network effects and image processing technology on first multimedia smart phones (Symbian – Nokia 3650).
  • Yahoo! – Berkeley Labs and Caterpillar Mobile spun off from this work.

publications/ talks/ advisory/ teaching

San Francisco State University – School of Design 2019-2024. Lecturing Professor for UX and Game Design – Design School. Taught studio course teaching fundamentals of UX and Game Design. Helped create industry link project in Equity and Inclusion.

Metaverse Worlds Winner 2022. Art gallery and event space in NoWhere was selected as winner in world building competition.

Vice Games 2018. Interviewed as part of Vice documentary on game creators and game making process. Watch Video

Each, Inc – Design Advisor. Creating a system for connecting orphaned children to homes in third world countries. Working with gvm’t agencies and VeryNice Designs.

Mindtoon Labs – Product Advisor. Teaching meditation practices through games and meaningful play. Available in iTunes.

March 7-11, 2008 – SXSW Interactive Advisory Board (Mobile vertical) – Advisory board member for SXSW Interactive Conference. Involved in speaker/ panel selection process for Mobile/ Wireless area.

More Early Mobile Talks and Research Publications