Jarrod Joplin | CV

I am a design leader focused on delivering valuable human experiences at scale. I believe in human-centered experience design (HCD), service design, and agile methodologies. I am continually working to grow and mature design programs, build design teams and ultimately deliver delightful, intuitive experiences with human and market impact. Building teams and programs require three things: people, practice, and process. People with the talent and skill to deliver experiences, a practice that is human-centered and data-informed, and a process that is agile and leverages multifunctional teams working on shared priorities. 

As I’ve led interdisciplinary design teams and partnered with multifunctional stakeholders, I have developed the skills and abilities necessary to uncover and frame problems, align teams, and inspire collaborators to move towards big goals. I am devoted to building and empowering teams to conceive and deliver innovative, human-centered experiences focused on solving real-world challenges.


Professional Experience

Head of Design, Amazon Hub. Amazon Last Mile, Jan 2020 - Present

Amazon Hub, part of the Amazon Last Mile organization, exists to provide a safe and secure alternative to home delivery and returns, also known as pickup. As the Head of Design for Amazon Hub, I lead a team of multidisciplinary designers to influence product development through human-centered methodologies. Influence is achieved by hiring the right people and leveraging a practice that starts with the needs of critical users resulting in end-to-end experiences for Amazon customers where they successfully pick up and return packages to Hub locations globally. 

The Amazon Hub experience is a connected, complex ecosystem of delivery drivers, associates, business partners such as CVS, property managers, and package locker technicians. Every participant in the ecosystem depends on physical and digital interactions through unique software, physical products, and workflows that promise on-time and secure package pick-up for the retail Amazon customer. I have built a team that makes this ecosystem tangible through our research and documentation of the core needs and desired outcomes of our key users. Key outcomes like successful access and ease of use are north stars for delivering innovative experiences that create awareness and demand by Amazon Hub customers. 

I coach team members to work together productively and utilize their uniqueness to exert design influence amongst our partners because I fundamentally believe Design has an essential role, in educating collaborators on the core practices of Human-Centered Design for partners to understand how to add value to their products.

Additionally I:

  • Broadened Amazon Hub’s capacity to build quality experiences through extensive top-talent recruiting, interviewing, and hiring.

  • Coached and supported the career growth and skill development of designers.

  • Partnered with key executive business, product, and technology partners to ensure designers are informed and aligned to business initiatives and shared outcomes.

  • Collaborated as a Senior Leadership Team Member for the Last Mile Experience Design organization focused on growing the Experience Design practice across all design teams in Last Mile. 

  • Implemented agile for design and management. Built the case for a dedicated Design Program Manager to oversee this effort for the team and LMXD.



SVP. Experience Design Director. Bank of America, Jan 2019 - Jan 2022

As an Experience Design Director at BofA, I worked at the intersection of CX and Design to transform the Design organization and to build upon BofA’s focus on the client. As a critical part of this transformation, I designed and launched an experience design practice called The Lens as well as an education platform to help existing designers and new hires align on our shared language and approach to design. The Lens is now the guiding framework for new projects and has been a key contributor to building a culture of experience design at BofA.

In addition to launching and scaling a design practice, I led a team of multidisciplinary designers focused on developing and improving the consumer banking digital experience. My human-centered management style built a team that influenced and collaborated with our broader product team to implement and scale an experience design practice. Skilled at understanding the unique qualities of others, I coached team members to apply their unique talents to “work above their rank” and challenge partners who often outranked them.

Additionally I:

  • Partnered with executive business, product, and technology stakeholders.

  • Served on the Senior Leadership Team for the Experience Design (XD) organization.

  • Created and built essential critique and review programs to bolster the design organization culture and quality.

  • Introduced and implemented an agile design sprint structure and task management for the design team.

  • Developed and implemented team approaches to concept, test, and deliver new product experiences for BofA clients.

  • Served as the design representative on the BofA CX Council for Consumer and Small Business

  • Sat on the Forresters CX Council for Financial Services.


Design Director. USAA Bank, Oct. 2016 - Jan 2019 

As a Design Director at USAA, I successfully recruited and hired a team of interdisciplinary designers to deliver valuable member credit card experiences. Through values-based leadership, I worked to harness the strengths and skills of those I had the pleasure to lead to enable them to meet objectives while growing personally and professionally. My team was pivotal in setting the creative vision and strategy for multiple projects within the bank while managing their production. We used HCD to frame problems and influence strategies that impacted product direction through partnerships with key stakeholders. To scale a practice like HCD, teams must not only execute on design deliverables but build trust and advocate for a broader design practice. This growth is what I helped to lead design for in our partner interactions.


My team:

  • Redesigned and launched the new USAA rewards platform and experience.

  • Redesigned the Card Lost and Stolen experience achieving two patents. 

  • Implemented a two-week design sprint structure for managing all effort and design tasks.

  • Significantly contributed to building USAA’s enterprise design system. 



Senior Design Lead. Argo Design, Nov. 2015 - Oct. 2016 

As a client-facing product design consultant, I defined engagement objectives and outcomes. Project teams counted on my empathetic but direct communication style to stay aligned and make progress. I demonstrated skill in managing delivery pivots and the energy of clients as they faced pressure from their internal partners. My ability to coach clients on the design process built their acumen and provided a value-added service while allowing my design team to maintain momentum and to even accelerate at times. 

Additionally I:

  • Led an interdisciplinary design team focused on client needs achieving custom software, product innovations, service design solutions, and strategies to solve client and user needs. 

  • Utilized design thinking methods grounded in understanding and empathy to shape projects. 

  • Achieved a successful digital presence redesign for a company that is a leader in language proficiency testing, enabling them to appeal to a new market and compete in an increasingly crowded testing and certification market. 

  • Achieved the design and launch of a precision data analytics web software for precision farming, helping to maximize land use, harvest yields, and selling price for sustainable profitability. 

  • Partnered with business development to define project scope and necessary design activities to achieve client and user success. 

  • Participated in sizing and resource planning for awarded projects.

  • Collaborated to define and scale an internal incubator program for internal company-funded projects from employees.



Design Lead. IBM Cloud, Jan 2014 - Nov 2015 

 

As a design lead for the then-emergent Bluemix product for IBM, I was the team lead for a small team of designers and individual contributor. The team was essential in developing the product and the business execution model for an online API platform. The current iteration of this product is known as IBM Cloud.


My team: 

  • Launched a world-class cloud API platform, the first of its kind for IBM. 

  • Developed the Bluemix design component library, which eventually became the Carbon Design System and the onboarding experience for third-party APIs joining the platform.

  • Integrated the Watson Developer Cloud within IBM Cloud platform. 

  • Developed and executed hack-a-thons where designers and developers worked together utilizing APIs on the Bluemix Platform.

Individually, I: 

  • Collaboratively launched the IBM Bluemix Garage Design Consulting Program allowing IBM clients to utilize the Bluemix API platform for application development after aligning on ideas in product innovation workshops grounded in design thinking. Beta clients included GameStop, Tangerine Bank, MD Anderson, American Airlines, and RBS. Engagements resulted in developing digital applications and in-store shopping experiences enhanced by digital capabilities. 

  • Planned and facilitated a two-day innovation workshop for one of the largest banks in Canada, providing the opportunity for C-Suite stakeholders to focus on producing innovative concepts for their millennial target market. By utilizing divergent and convergent thinking, storytelling, and rapid prototyping, the sessions helped the client narrow in on a strategic direction. Aligned in their direction, they began bringing the concept to life. This workshop contributed to validating assumptions and moved the team forward toward an MVP for testing in their bank locations. “Failing” and learning early in the journey allowed the bank to move quickly and keep costs down. 

Brand and Identity Systems Designer. Monigle + Associates, Jan. 2013 - Dec. 2013

As a brand and identity systems designer, I leveraged systems thinking and human-centered design to drive outcomes with major brands and Fortune 100 companies. The creation of resonating brand systems emerged from understanding the needs of our client’s users. 

Collaborated with design teams to create and implement unique brand strategies, identity systems, and brand management for major telecom and healthcare clients, achieving a consistent brand narrative and brand system throughout customer digital and physical touch-points resulting in relatable and consistent positioning in the market.


Lead UX Designer. Metropolitan State University of Denver (MSU), 2011 - 2013 

MSU allowed my to begin the formalization of my design practice. Before MSU I worked as a freelance graphic designer.

During my time at MSU I:

  • Designed the University’s first mobile application for students. 

  • Guided an internal development team as the only designer on the project. 

  • Formed empathy for development challenges and culture that make me successful in my roles even today. 

  • Dedicated design role producing a myriad of artifacts to support the mission of the university for all student, faculty, and staff events. 

Education

2012 Bachelor of Fine Art - Design
Metropolitan State University of Denver

2003 Bachelor of Science - Psychology
Dallas Christian College 

Accomplishments

Design Leadership Forum Member. 2019 - present

Forrester - CX Council Member 2020 - 2021

Advisory Board Member. IQPC Design and Innovation. 2020-2022

Member AIGA

Recent Speaking Engagements

Ops Design Summit, Amazon, 2022

CXFS (Customer Experience Financial Services) 2019 

Experience Design 2020

Design Thinking Conference 2020