Uplight
My journey at Uplight began at its predecessor, Agentis, where I was the first designer hired to shape a core product offering: energy dashboards for utilities and their customers. This foundation prepared me to navigate the complexities of a merger with our largest competitor, ultimately building and integrating robust SaaS solutions for utilities.
Role and Scope: As a Staff Product Designer, I oversaw all residential and non-residential portals, along with widgets and reports delivered via web, PDF, email, and print formats. I managed a team of 1-3 designers and collaborated with 10-12 designers, researchers, and UX copywriters across various projects.
Impact: Delivered cohesive, multi-format solutions that aligned with both user and business needs—and ensured they shipped on schedule.
Impact: Delivered cohesive, multi-format solutions that aligned with both user and business needs—and ensured they shipped on schedule.
Early Contributions: Platform Redesign and Team Formation at Agentis
Redesigning Energy Dashboards: Led a comprehensive redesign of the core dashboard products, creating tools that clarified energy data for both utilities and end users.
Building a Design Organization: Began establishing a product design practice, recruiting my first team member within a year.
Design Leadership and Process Innovation
Product Gallery: One of the highlights of my time was curating a “Product Gallery” during a team offsite, showcasing the breadth of our platform. This visual exhibit helped Product and Engineering teams recognize details that were previously overlooked in other contexts.
Design System Leader: Co-led a design system build-out, balancing design aspirations with engineering realities. Played a leadership role in design operations, directing product design and team processes.
Collaboration and Alignment: Worked closely with Product and Engineering teams to hit release targets and deliver client implementations.
Notable Products and Features
RateCampaign
A tool designed to drive adoption of advanced energy rates like time-of-day pricing.
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Rate Configuration Screen: Simplified rate setup and management for utility administrators.
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End-Use Rate Display Dialog: Enhanced transparency for end users to better understand rate structures, which can be quite complex.
Advisor Portal
A general-purpose dashboard for utility professionals such as contact center agents and energy analysts.
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Main Screen: Delivered actionable insights for energy professionals to assist their customers effectively.
Rate Advisor
A B2C rate simulation and enrollment tool for non-residential utility customers.
• Enabled businesses to explore and adopt rates tailored to their energy usage.
Report Builder
A tool for energy advisors to generate automated or custom energy reports for end users.
Report View: Simplified communication of energy insights through dynamic, easy-to-read reports.
Ongoing Contributions
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Coaching and Mentorship: Guided team members as both a coach and occasional manager, fostering growth and collaboration.
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Cross-Functional Collaboration: Partnered with Product and Engineering to prioritize, test, and refine key features.
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Research and Prototyping: Directed multi-method research campaigns to inform product integration and prototyped concepts for client presentations.
Closing Reflection: My time at Uplight was defined by tackling complex challenges, building impactful tools, and contributing to a growing design culture. By blending hands-on design with leadership, I helped shape and improve a platform that made energy data more actionable and real for users.