Recommendations

“I have had the distinct pleasure of collaborating with Maile on a several high-stakes federal government projects where she served as our Experience Architect. In the world of UX, it is rare to find someone who possesses the technical rigor of a practitioner, the thoughtfulness of an academic, and the vision of a true architect, but here we are and that’s why we keep working together. On each program, her contributions were not just instrumental to our success; they were the driving force behind of our design process.

She’s not just a blackbox of a UX guru, though: she’s great with clients at all levels and totally transparent about her design process, too – really humanizing stuff. She led our co-creation workshops with executive stakeholders with impressive grace and skill. She doesn’t just facilitate a canned workshop; she pushes on all the soft spots and lights up all the dark corners to drive engagement and rally around a shared purpose. Under her guidance, stakeholders don’t just align on a vision—they are made to understand what she sees: a deeply human experience at the center of every digital one. She has a special knack for bringing structure and clarity to the “fog” of a project, and empowering everyone around her to be part of the creative solution.

What really sets Maile apart in the world of UX is the bridge she builds between strategy and execution. She is a “big picture” thinker who isn’t afraid to get her hands dirty in the details. One moment, she is shaping a high-level design strategy and the next, she is meticulously refining all of the microscopic details that make an experience meaningful, based on (thoroughly-validated) stakeholder feedback, of course. Every artifact she produces—from a simple wireframe to a max-complexity research report—is thoughtful, professional, and deeply respectful of the human experience.

Ultimately, Maile is a collaborative and talented practitioner who brings a genuine, infectious passion to her work. She creates because she cares about serving real human needs, and that intention is apparent in everything she does. She is the kind of professional who elevates not just the work product, but the entire team. I give Maile my highest recommendation for any organization that values innovation, heart, rigor, and excellence.“

“I was lucky enough to have Maile as my partner-in-crime while I was XD Lead for a global Fortune 500 beverage leader and premier specialty retailer. We spent 2022 and 2023 reimagining their Experience Cloud Licensee Store Portal, and I can honestly say she’s one of the most thorough, user-obsessed designers I’ve ever worked with.

Maile was the driving force behind turning a clunky, outdated document repository system into something store managers actually wanted to use. She handled the full design lifecycle like a total pro.

– A major turning point in our work together was when she successfully pushed for deep-dive user interviews despite heavy resistance from stakeholders. When told that speaking to users was “pointless”, Maile didn’t back down. She presented a mix of analytics and qualitative feedback to prove that staff were actually avoiding the site because it was so broken. She made the case that research wasn’t just a “nice to have,” but critical to the project’s success.•

– Once the team got the green light, we led interviews with everyone from Regional Directors to front-line store partners. Maile spotted critical insights that led to design solutions. Her Miro boards and research synthesis became the source of truth for our entire strategy.

– She didn’t just build great Figma prototypes; she was savvy about the tech. When we hit a massive curveball mid-project and realized the client’s platform was still running on a legacy framework, Maile immediately pivoted her design roadmap to ensure our recommendations were actually buildable.

– Whether we were doing on-site store visits, running workshops with stakeholders, or troubleshooting a testing platform at the eleventh hour, Maile made the work fun. She even jumped in to help with SOW development for the next phase, showing a level of business sense you don’t always see in design.

The client feedback says it all: one stakeholder told leadership, “It’s clear these folks are the experts.” After a demo of the new capabilities, a Regional Director told us, “You’re going to blow minds with this.” Maile is a resilient, sharp strategist who genuinely cares about the people she’s designing for. I’d jump at the chance to have her on my team again.

“I worked with Maile when we were staffed together on a large CRM transformation program for a major cultural institution. One of the aspects was the design and rollout of Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud and Experience Cloud (B2C portal).

Maile was the Lead UX Designer on the project. I was consistently impressed by how she could take messy, complicated problems and turn them into clear, elegant solutions...

One of Maile’s superpowers is synthesis. She ran stakeholder workshops and user research sessions, then translated all of that into design frameworks that actually made sense to everyone—not just designers. Her prototypes gave our whole team and the client something concrete to react to and rally around, which made decision-making so much easier.

What I really appreciated about working with Maile was her balance. She’s a strong advocate for users and great design, but she’s also practical about constraints and timelines. She knows when to push and when to collaborate toward the best possible solution. That made her a joy to partner with, even when things got complicated. Maile brings a rare combination of research depth, design skill, and strategic thinking to her work. She makes projects better and teams stronger. I’d jump at the chance to work with her again.”

“I first worked with Maile in 2022 on a Licensee Portal project for a Fortune 500 global beverage leader. Her UX research and design stood out immediately – she led user interviews, created Figma prototypes, and drove usability testing that earned strong client feedback.

When a high-stakes Social Determinants of Health (SDOH) initiative launched for a Fortune 10 global retailer, Maile was the first person I recruited to lead UX design and strategy. She served as UX lead on a complex Salesforce Health Cloud implementation supporting Community Health Workers serving Medicare and Medicaid members. Her Jobs-to-Be-Done frameworks became a stakeholder standard, and her Figma prototypes served as the north star for the delivery team – bridging UX research and technical execution across CRM and Marketing Cloud.

Maile thrives in ambiguity. Whether facilitating executive workshops, coordinating across teams, or navigating complex delivery challenges, she consistently brought a calm, solutions-oriented mindset. Her impact was so strong that client leadership personally advocated to extend her role five times-what began as a short engagement ultimately lasted over a year.

Maile is a rare blend of deep UX expertise, strong business acumen, and genuine empathy for end users. I would recommend her without hesitation, and any team would be lucky to have her.“