The Meet Group

Senior Director of Product Design & Animation (April 2022 - Present)

Over 15 years at The Meet Group, I earned four promotions, progressing from UI Designer to Senior Director while helping grow a two-person design function into a multidisciplinary, international in-house studio. I currently lead Product Design, Brand Design, and Animation across MeetMe, Tagged, Skout, and the retired Yapp product. My current organization includes four direct reports: two product designers and two brand designers, plus 12 freelance animators; at peak, the combined team approached 20 people.

I set design vision and quality standards, partner with Product, Engineering, Marketing, Revenue, and other business leaders, shape priorities and roadmaps, and build the operating systems that help creative teams deliver at scale for audiences in the United States, South America, and Europe, particularly Germany. I coordinate collaboration with colleagues across the United States, Europe, and South Africa, designing schedules and operating cadences that keep teams communicating effectively across time zones. Across my tenure, I have hired more than 20 people. I own a $400K animation budget and have retained every designer I directly hired, along with nearly all of my freelance animators, some for more than six years. My participative, servant-led approach emphasizes trust, candid feedback, clear expectations, and career development.

Selected leadership outcomes

• Earned four promotions over 15 years, advancing from UI Designer to Senior Director
• Hired more than 20 people while building and sustaining a multidisciplinary creative organization
• Lead a current operating model of 16 contributors across product, brand, and animation, with a peak organization of nearly 20
• Coordinate distributed collaboration across the United States, Europe, and South Africa, establishing cross-time-zone schedules and communication cadences
• Retained 100% of designers directly hired and nearly all freelance animators, including partnerships lasting more than six years
• Guide product and creative work for global audiences concentrated in the United States, South America, and Europe, particularly Germany
• Led the 2027 Live Design Vision, synthesizing cross-functional research and workshop evidence into an audience strategy, design principles, experience pillars, metrics, and product decision rules
• Led LIVE Video from hackathon concept to a syndicated consumer platform reaching 28 million monthly users
• Helped establish a nearly $50M annualized run rate, approximately 45% ARPU growth, and a shift from majority advertising revenue to majority direct user revenue
• Built the Animation team and a weekly creative operation producing 100+ animations per year
• Led a reusable Lottie character system that cut delivery time by more than 50%, while supporting files under a 1.5 MB performance target
• Established a partner-ready design system with tokens, components, templates, and documentation for consistent cross-app deployment

Additional roles at The Meet Group

• Director of Product Design & Animation (May 2020 - April 2022)