Cisco

Security and Collaboration, Chief Of Technology Team

Since 2019, I’ve led product design for Cisco’s Security & Collaboration Incubation Team, guiding early stage ideas from initial brainstorms to fully functional proofs of concept and business hand-off. I integrate strategy, user centered research, and design to shape product direction. Additionally, I also conduct planning and facilitating innovation workshops with executives, VPs, and principal/distinguished engineers to align business goals with user needs. To secure executive buy in, I create compelling presentation visuals and storyboards to help break down complex concepts to simpler bits of information. My role also includes leading roadmap sessions and weekly cross functional stand ups to prioritize work and assess impact and effort to ensure project milestones are met. My research process includes items such as qualitative interviews, contextual inquiries, and usability testing to keep solutions anchored in user needs. Drawing on these insights, I design and prototype concepts to influence product direction. Most recently I have drawn on my previous front end coding experience and using front end “vibe coding” and AI assisted development to rapidly bring ideas to life and validate functionality.

Webex Hologram - From Vision to Award Winning Collaboration Tool

Outcome:

Led strategy, user research, and design for Cisco’s first mixed reality collaboration platform, enabling photorealistic holograms and 3D models for real-time teamwork. My contributions resulted in measurable product refinements, executive alignment, and industry recognition (Auggie Awards, 2024).

Project scope and road map

Objective

The goal of this research was to get a pulse on the improvements made, based on prior feedback and determine where we still need to iterate that would provide the most impact.

Initially I conducted stakeholder interviews to refine business objectives. I then followed up with stakeholders and conducted walkthrough sessions of our prototype to gather stakeholder feedback on the latest iteration.

To gather user feedback to further inform our direction, I conducted user interviews and cognitive walkthroughs of our latest prototype with customers who were part of our demo program

Process

During the demo program, customers agreed to set up our prototype onsite and use Webex hologram for meetings for 6 months.

Throughout that timeframe I would touch base weekly with customers in the demo program and their frequent users of the prototype and conduct quick interviews to gather feedback on their experience.

Mid way during the demo program, I conducted a cognitive walkthrough with a prototype that incorporated their previous feedback to identify additional feature refinements and future features to focus on.

I leveraged inductive coding to analyze the results and created a report which I shared with my team and leadership.

From there I conducted a impact / effort matrix exercise with my team and leadership to determine scope and then created user stories and a roadmap. These activities and documentation kept us focused on higher priority items and firmer timelines so we could meet our milestones.

Solution

Webex hologram visual and interaction design

Objective

When I initially started designing for Webex Hologram in 2019, mixed reality mediums were not as commonplace hence design best practices were not fully defined at that time.

My objective for this project was to best understand and identify the design parameters within a mixed reality environment through research via publications and my own studies.

Process

I conducted research reading through different publications, articles, and studies to identify guidelines on items such as distance, motion sickness, haptics, and comfort etc. I would also conduct ad-hoc user testing to further refine my findings and created a agnostic paradigm that worked across different mixed reality devices.

Solution

I created a documentation encompassing the current literature and understanding of mixed reality environments users comfort and experience parameters and detailed my findings.

Additionally I also created a style guide to not only bring cohesiveness to our prototype but to also incorporate my best practices research to ensure an optimal experience for users.

Webex Hologram - Comparative Research study

Comparative study titled “Level of Engagement in Mixed Reality”, collaboration between Boston University and Cisco

Objective

Mixed reality is becoming more ubiquitous in both consumer and enterprise environments, within the latter it is providing the potential for better work processes and can also bridge the gap between remote workers and in person workers to create seamless interactions. As a result, understanding the nuances of the various mixed reality mediums is imperative.

The purpose of this study, was to examine human factors and interaction design elements, to compare and contrast how users interact with each other while completing tasks using virtual models in an augmented reality environment and virtual reality environment, to better understand engagement levels and how to tailor the mixed reality experience optimally for specific tasks that users need to accomplish. 

Process

I reviewed different research papers and publications from different professors at multiple universities. Our team was looking for a specific skill set, a professor who taught human-computer interaction but also had experience with emerging technologies such as augmented and virtual reality.

I then met with various professors but felt that Professor Jim Cummings at Boston University was the perfect fit for a collaborative study.

My role was to represent our team’s specific areas of interests. I collaborated with Professor Cummings on study objectives, methodologies, users tasks, and logistics. We had weekly cadences to review study design and for me provide feedback and direction.

Additionally, I created an SOW, navigated approvals through Cisco and Boston University’s legal departments, and worked with both accounting departments to ensure timely payments.

Solution