Derek Arrington

New York, NY  |  910.231.4077  |  derek.arrington@justbeahuman.com  |  View Portfolio  |  View LinkedIn

Head of Design & Strategy

about me

I am an entrepreneurial, design-thinking leader and advocate with a reputation for driving transformative, human-centered design strategies and delivering the best in product design and customer experience. I excel in standardizing design processes, fostering collaboration, and leading high-performing teams toward successful business and product solutions.

experience

SENIOR XD DIRECTOR & STRATEGIST  |  ​ORION INNOVATION  |  DECEMBER 2021 - JUNE 2023​​​ 

  • Led strategic overhaul for a top-tier fin-tech advisor platform, reducing project lifecycle by 50% and delivering MVP within 6 months.
  • Co-led integration of an acquired entity into a leading U.S. financial institution, ensuring seamless design alignment within the existing design ecosystem.
  • Co-led the creation of the Orion Industry Vertical XD Leads Group as part of an organization-wide design-centric effort to bring about greater collaboration between XD and sales.
  • Created, orchestrated, and implemented the Orion Design Maturity Initiative and XD Sales Hub. Equipping sales with CX/XD educational resources, tools, and assets, helping to drive a 10% increase in sales growth.
  • Revamped internal design processes and methods. Streamlined workflows, and created a more cohesive and collaborative team environment, increasing team efficiency by 20%.

Day-to-Day Responsibilities:

  • Establish and manage design ops for the engagement ​(XD team roles, tools, workflow, governance).
  • Oversee XD project team resources.
  • Align project goals with XD output and strategic outcomes.
  • XD Sponsor and point of contact with business stakeholders and sales channels.
  • Focus on overall XD strategy, establish OKRs, and project roadmaps.
  • Provide the 1000-foot view of business, and product objectives and concepts for how to achieve them.
  • Provide leadership, lead overall discussion on strategic execution, conduct workshops and provide quality control based on client brand guidelines.


SENIOR DESIGN & STRATEGY LEAD  |  MCKINSEY & COMPANY  |  MAY 2019 - SEPTEMBER 2021​ 

  • Maximized efficiency by establishing the Professional Development Platform design system for a trio of internal products, leading to a 40% decrease in time to launch for iterations.
  • Committee member for the creation of the internal McKinsey design system, increasing all teams’ efficiency by an average of 20%.
  • Helped establish the internal XD group strategic and tactical philosophy to improve overall productivity by 15% by establishing a defined system of workshops and methodologies.

DESIGN DIRECTOR  |  ​​PRUDENTIAL FINANCIAL  |  DECEMBER 2013 - MARCH 2019​ 

  • Oversaw the growth of an internal design team of 30. Pivotal in unifying 5 business units & developing B2C tools, raising user satisfaction 10-fold.
  • Restructured the design team and processes to streamline workflow by introducing design sprints and workshops, resulting in a 30% decrease in project completion time.
  • Team lead for the creation of Prudential's inaugural native iOS and Android app for retirement and the B2C dashboard, increasing user satisfaction across products by an average of 25%.

skills & expertise

  • Leadership & Team Development: Proficient in guiding and cultivating design teams. Dedicated to steering collective and individual growth towards shared objectives and goal-setting.
  • Strategic Visioning: Adept at aligning product visions with business objectives and executing design solutions to meet both user needs and business requirements, ensuring a cohesive integration of design thinking and strategy.
  • Human-Centered Design: Empathetic and human-centric. Proficient in translating abstract concepts into top-tier design solutions, prioritizing user experience and needs.
  • Extensive Design Proficiency: Possessing 20 years of design expertise, deeply versed in design principles encompassing typography, color theory, layout, and more, ensuring a comprehensive understanding of design fundamentals.
  • Technical Versatility: Highly knowledgeable in diverse technological domains including SaaS, API development, native apps, web/web3, AI, React, HTML, CSS, and mobile technologies (iOS/Android), ensuring adaptability across various platforms and technological landscapes.
  • Process Optimization: A logistics, operations and management enthusiast, and agile methodology expert adept at translating product vision into tactical execution. Proficient in storyboarding, persona development, wireframes, mockups, and rapid prototyping, streamlining design processes for efficient outcomes.
  • User-Research & Testing: Well-versed in conducting comprehensive qualitative user research and crafting detailed persona development as well as creating product roadmaps and user journeys. Validating design prototypes through user testing, quantitative analytics, and UX audits for iterative improvements.
  • Project Leadership & Organization: Capable of managing multiple concurrent projects; managing timelines, budgets, and resources. Highly organized in task prioritization and delegation, ensuring consistent and timely project delivery.
  • Collaborative Leadership: Skillful in guiding design teams and fostering growth while advocating for collaborative practices between design and engineering, ensuring unified and innovative solutions.
  • Analytical Problem-Solving: Highly analytical with creative problem-solving skills, utilizing user research and usability testing to derive data-driven insights; enabling informed design decisions.
  • Stakeholder Communication: Exceptional in managing and negotiating with stakeholders, effectively articulating design concepts and strategies to clients and stakeholders.
  • Adaptability & Creativity: Highly adaptable and continuously learning, embracing emerging trends and technologies. Able to recognize when to regroup, re-strategize, and alter course as needed.
  • Business Acumen and Insight: Research-oriented with an immersive understanding of business cases, products/services and long-term goals. Leveraging design to foster growth and add value.
  • Proficient in Design Tools: Skilled in a range of design tools including Figma, Adobe Creative Suite, Sketch, Miro, Jira, and Microsoft Office 365, facilitating versatile and efficient design workflows.

awards & achievements 

  • Orion Global MVP for organizational design impact 
  • Orion U.S. MVP award for client project impact 
  • Orion global hackathon honorable mention
  • Three consecutive Prudential “Big Rock” design awards 

education 

University of North Carolina at Wilmington:

  • Bachelor of Arts: Professional Writing & Journalism / Creative Writing (2001 – 2003)
  • Bachelor of Arts: Visual Art & Design (1996 – 1999)

appeasement

Below are keywords you have in your job description that simply don’t fit into a real and reasonable resume. I clearly possess these abilities and it’s a matter of semantics and grammatics.

Web application, ui design, storytelling, art direction, service design, digital products, business strategy, responsive web design, visual design, confident, committed, self-motivated, flexible

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