About Me — Crystal Woodard

“Designing experiences and interfaces, solving challenging problems, getting to know the user...it's what I love to do.”

I am a…

Design Leader

Since joining Lumen, I’ve focused on establishing a UX research center of excellence, evangelizing the importance of experience design, and leading the Enterprise Design Team.

Currently the Enterprise Design Team is focusing on creating a new eCommerce experience that reduces friction in the buying process and makes purchasing digital products much more self-service.

Design Mentor

I host weekly 1-on-1 sessions with members of the ADPList mentor community. During these sessions, I offer up career advice, share experiences from my past, and just lend an ear to designers, both new and experienced.

Mentoring hasn’t been just about me offering advice up to others, I’ve learned a lot as well. It’s a truly rewarding experience.

Design Enthusiast

I belong to several design communities where I’m able to meet with other designers, learn from them, and develop relationships.

Design is a part of my DNA. I like utilize the problem-solving skills I’ve developed and refined over the last 15 years and apply them to my everyday life.

My philosophy:

Lean in and meet people where they are.

As designers, we’re brought in to help solve problems, but we may be working with teams or individuals that have never worked with designers before and don’t fully understand the value we bring.

It’s easy to dig your feet into the sand and demand that folks change their ways, but that rarely works. Instead, I like to approach working with my teammates with openness and understanding.

Lead with the need.

When we’re starting on a project, it’s so crucial to understand what our users need and let that guide what products and features we introduce.

The last thing we want is to release a product with a ton of features that doesn’t solve a real problem or meet our user’s expectations.

It’s okay to make assumptions, but they should be challenged.

As we get more acclimated to a space and work with subject-matter experts, we can start to lean a little too heavily on our ideas and opinions.

It’s okay to make assumptions, because we’ll never know everything, but we need to remain disciplined to push on those assumptions to make sure we are making the most informed design, product, and development decisions that we can.

How I lead:

1. Provide vision and empower my team to soar.

I work to set vision and guidance for my team so it's clear why we should be doing something. Once that guidance is there, they can take it and run with it to bring experiences to life for our end-users.

2. Lead by example.

I’ll never push my team to do something I wouldn’t do. I want them to see the things that I do and use that as guidance for how they can approach similar situations that they may encounter with their partners.

3. Don’t use a “one-size-fits-all” approach.

I like my team to be made up of a group of unique and diverse set of individuals. Since I’m dealing with individuals, I lean in and learn what management style works best for them.

4. Listen more, talk less.

I’ve found that when I listen and try to gain understanding before jumping in and offering advice, I’m able to help individuals arrive to solutions on their own and build confidence.