Research becomes usable infrastructure.
Insights, customer evidence, business rules, requirements, and decision history are structured so they can inform every downstream artifact.
Principal UX / Product, Strategy, ResearchAtlanta, GA — working globally
Innovation
beyond borders.
I bring principal UX and fractional design leadership to product strategy, research, and AI-native design systems — aligning design and engineering so teams can validate the right direction and ship with confidence.
15+years shaping
complex products
complex products
Principal-level perspective for enterprise products, ambitious teams, and the moments when “good enough” is not a strategy.
Design est. 2002Scroll for the receipts
AI-native designsystems thinking at scalestrategy, validation + deliveryengineering-informed leadership
My Experience
A Handful of Companies & Brands I’ve worked with.
Where strategy becomes product.
01 / Selected workThoughtful design, meaningful impact
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02 / The principal difference
15+
Principal practice is knowing which decisions will matter later.
Nikki works across research, strategy, execution, and leadership — seeing the dependencies, risks, and organizational signals that individual workstreams often miss.
She has witnessed what makes complex programs hold together and what causes them to fracture: unclear ownership, untested assumptions, disconnected systems, and handoffs without shared intent. Her role is to make those decisions visible early, align leaders around the evidence, and create a path design and engineering can execute together.
01Researchfind the signal beneath the request
02Leadershipalign decisions, owners, and outcomes
03Executioncarry intent through the build
Design Operating Systems
for AI-native delivery.
03 / Enhanced infrastructureThe quality of an AI output has everything to do with the quality of its orchestrator. This is not vibe coding. It is the deliberate construction of context, constraints, evidence, and feedback.
Nikki has developed enhanced Design Operating Systems that connect research, business logic, PRDs, design.md files, tokens, repositories, governance, and validation loops. The system gives AI and human teams the same source of truth — accelerating production without lowering the standard of the work.
research → business-logic → prd.md → design.md → tokens → repository → feedback-loop → production