Benjamin Bowes

Experience

• 

  Gaiam

  Jul 2007 - May 2011

  Art Director

  As an Art Director at Gaiam, my responsibilities included: the design of email marketing, social media campaigns, websites, landing pages, banner ads, product packaging and graphics, brochures, catalogs, sell-sheets, in-store displays and trade show booth graphics. Other duties included: user experience analysis, information architecture, HTML and CSS programming, copywriting and marketing strategy development. On a daily basis I collaborated with marketers, developers, copywriters and internal clients across the company to deliver excellent creative work. Show less

• 

  Room 214

  May 2011 - Jul 2013

  Creative Director

  As the Creative Director, I’m responsible for guiding all of the design work within our agency. On a daily basis I work with our video production, development, account, and research teams, in partnership with our clients, to bring creative concepts to life.My responsibilities include: quoting projects, scheduling projects, tracking project profitability, managing contract labor, concept development, digital strategy creation, presenting to clients, providing guidance to creative team members and leading the day-to-day design work. Show less

• 

  Slice of Lime

  Jul 2013 - Jan 2016

  Senior UX Designer (Acquired by Pivotal)

  As a Senior User Experience designer for Slice of Lime I work closely with clients to facilitate and execute the design of digital products with an emphasis on user experience. By working in an agile format I promote a build/measure/learn approach with clients through the use of rapid prototypes, user testing, and qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis.My other responsibilities vary from project to project but include: high-fidelity design, partnering with development teams to refine design interactions, UX strategy development, user testing participant recruiting, project management, and client relationship management. Show less

• 

  Pivotal Software, Inc.

  Jan 2016 - Apr 2020

  As the Design Manager for Pivotal Labs Singapore I function as both an individual contributor on projects as well as a mentor and coach for a small team of designers, product managers and developers.As a manager, my goal is to be a multiplier for my reports by removing obstacles, collecting and framing feedback with actionable insights, sharing advice from past experiences, identifying strengths and providing opportunities for growth.I work together with each report to create a custom development plan based on their own strengths and opportunities for growth. We set short term and long term goals and identify what tangible results will let us know if they are achieving those goals.I strive to build strong relationships with my reports based on trust. I use a lot of the soft skills that I’ve picked up as a user experience designer to help identify the needs and goals of my reports in order to build a deep sense of empathy and understanding. Show less At Pivotal, our mission is to transform the way the world builds software. As such, my role as a Senior User Experience Designer goes far beyond research and wireframes. All individual contributors at Pivotal are essentially change agents. We work to change the way our clients think about developing products within their organizations. There are a multitude of ways that we do this but the most common is to simply work hand-in-hand with our clients to build great software together.During my tenure at Pivotal I’ve helped to build products and affect change within organizations all across the globe. I spent time in Atlanta, Georgia to help The Home Depot optimize their in-store order pick-up service. I went to Dearborn, Michigan to work with the Ford Motor Company to design systems to help extract and organize vehicle data. I traveled to Tokyo to introduce user-centered design to Yamato in order to redesign their self-service tablets. And finally, I moved to Singapore where I’ve helped build out the design practice for the Singapore Labs office while working with clients like DBS, Dell, BCA and Singtel.Day-to-day I pair with my client designer to teach them everything I know about designing and building a product on an autonomous, high-performing development team. My clients learn by doing over the course of their engagement with Pivotal. We cover everything from recruiting to research to wireframes to high-fidelity interaction design.We focus on the principles of User Centered Design, Lean Product Management and Extreme Programming and acknowledge that design is one of many tools in the product development toolbox. Ultimately, what matters most is getting working software into the hands of our users as soon as possible. Show less

  • Design Manager - Pivotal Labs (Acquired by VMware)

    May 2018 - Apr 2020

  • Senior UX Designer - Pivotal Labs

    Oct 2017 - May 2018

  • Senior UX Designer - Pivotal Labs

    Jan 2016 - Oct 2017
• 

  VMware Tanzu Labs

  Apr 2020 - Jan 2022

  After the acquisition of Pivotal Labs by VMware, the consulting team became known as VMware Tanzu Labs where I stepped into a full-time management position as the Associate Director.I had three main responsibilities, grow the business, ensure client engagements were successful, and develop our team of consultants.I helped to grow the business by build trusted relationships with clients to identify new opportunities for work, partnering with our sales team to pitch work to new clients, and establishing partnerships with our sister offices in Tokyo and Sydney to extend our capacity via remote work.I ensured the success of our client engagements by building trust with stakeholders, setting clear expectations with clients, and providing feedback and direction for our product teams.I helped to develop our team of designers, product managers, and engineers by providing mentorship, coaching, and direction for the team. I met with individuals weekly to provide feedback, align and follow up on goals, and connect them to new resources and opportunities. My goal was to provide the right level of challenge to keep my reports engaged and growing as practitioners. Show less

  • Associate Director, App Services Southeast Asia

    Oct 2020 - Jan 2022

  • Designer Manager

    Apr 2020 - Oct 2020
• 

  Open Government Products, GovTech Singapore

  Jan 2022 - now

  Product Design Manager

  At Open Government Products I’ve had the opportunity to get refocused on design and fulfil a career goal of designing for public good. As the functional head for design, I’ve focused on 3 main objectives, building an amazing design team, changing the narrative about design in government, and propagating best practices for design within government.To build an amazing design team, I’ve focused on developing internal talent through coaching, providing a clear mission, and hiring well externally. I overhauled the hiring process and have grown the team from 7 designers to a team of 24 designers including new specialist roles like UX Writing and UX Research.Governments are not known for great design but I believe that they should be. In order to start shifting this narrative, I’ve pushed the team to not only deliver excellent work but to share those stories internally and externally. Members of our team recently spoke at the global design conference, Figma Config 2023.Lastly, I’ve helped to propagate best practices for design within government through intensive design workshops targeted at senior leadership. Key takeaways include a set of principles for good design in government and an understanding of what good design looks like and how to achieve it. Show less