👋🏽 Hi, I’m Silas!
I’m a product and design leader passionate about developer experiences, distributed work, and systems thinking.
Currently, Head of Product Experience at DataStax
I didn’t go to a fancy college, I wasn’t writing code when I was a kid, and I haven’t received any design awards.
Throughout my career, I’ve succeeded at some things and failed at others. It’s taught me a lot about myself, but there is still plenty for me to learn. Over the years, my skillset has been shaped into a few key areas.
Design Leadership
My leadership approach is broken down into a few core principles. Provide a safe working environment, define clear and meaningful direction, foster a culture of trust and support, and nurture the growth of the individuals and the team.
Workshop Facilitation
Operational excellence is at the core of any high performing team. Providing teams with a collaborative environment to quickly explore and define the problem space, identify the riskiest assumptions, and test their hypothesis with real people is how I bring teams together to achieve business outcomes.
Business Design
Research shows design is instrumental in creating business value. Promoting a culture of customer centricity, being disciplined and intentional about measuring success, and practicing continuous discovery and iteration are key to leveraging design in building a successful business.