The best is yet to come.

CONTACT ME
My professional headshot.Josie standing and overlooking the Mediterranean Sea in Sicily.Josie and her husband Thomas.Josie and her dog Stella on a fall day.

I’m here to help my clients discover the greatest version of their products through problem definition, actionable strategy, and iteration.

I have a proven ability to quickly grasp business goals, success metrics, and legal requirements to build outcomes that consider the whole picture. I’m comfortable switching or adapting roles as needed, growing adjacent expertise, and keeping up in an agile environment.

My design process revolves around thoughtful and actionable strategy, where I empower teams to prioritize critical needs and amplify resources. Recommendations are tailored to the specific factors and necessities of each client, finding any opportunity to innovate and maximize potential.

When I'm not working you can find me reading historical fiction or biking one of Minnesota's many regional trails, and when I feel like being an extrovert, my friends know I host the best dinner parties. My other heartthrobs include my labradoodle Stella, antique stores, black licorice, and paranormal podcasts.

VIEW MY RESUME

SDG Award, 2x winner — Silver Pin, AdFed MN — Bronze Pin, AdFed MN — Gold, Hermès Creative Awards — Marketing Department Employee of the Year, UMN RecWell — SDG Ambassador Award — SDG Sales Support Award — Student Design and Scholarship Excellence Award, UMN College of Design — Larson Scholar, University of Minnesota —  

SDG Award, 2x winner — Silver Pin, AdFed MN — Bronze Pin, AdFed MN — Gold, Hermès Creative Awards — Marketing Department Employee of the Year, UMN RecWell — SDG Ambassador Award — SDG Sales Support Award — Student Design and Scholarship Excellence Award, UMN College of Design — Larson Scholar, University of Minnesota —  

KEY capabilities

Product strategy & analysis

I specialize in UX strategy and user analysis, where I team up with business analysts and product owners to focus on user needs while considering business growth and technical efficiency. My analysis realizes a combination of user research, product metrics and KPIs, market research, business priorities, and technical feasibility & effort to evaluate effort versus value versus risk. UX strategy takes this analysis to prioritize iterative next steps for release and testing.

I enjoy advocating for my users and solving the right problem, not just any problem. A strategy always has actionable steps, not pie-in-the-sky aspirational buzzwords. I believe in data-informed decisions with ongoing, transparent communication and team alignment and hope to truly build goodness for a product, both within the organization and beyond a product’s borders.

I have a Certified Scrum Product Owner certification and training in a ECBA-, CCBA-, and CBAP-endorsed business analysis course to more deeply understand the PO and BA perspective. Should my client need them, I am able to step into these roles. I’m confident in my ability to facilitate meetings & discussions to keep a task moving, breaking down blockers and considering all perspectives and possibilities.

The Scrum Alliance CSPO Certified logo.

User research

Actionable insights from user research help teams make informed decisions so they can solve the right problems, the right way. The research process builds empathy for users; identifies opportunities that best align user, business, and technology goals; and achieves directional buy-in through data and cross-functional collaboration. Research is critical for mitigating the risk and cost of launching unusable and undesirable features and products.

My work aims to avoid assumptions and personal bias by having frequent conversations with users, more deeply understanding their true processes, and keeping up with inclusivity training. Qualitative research, including interviews, usability testing, and heuristic reviews, can be combined with results from quantitative research — surveys, click tests, card sorts, and product analytics, just to name a few — to provide data-supported product improvements.

Supplementary discovery activities, including market research, product audits, and problem definition, is used alongside user research to lay a foundation for successful software development. I am also happy to step in here to support these activities if a client isn’t able to do so.

Interface design

Everyone’s favorite, the build stage! There are a couple stages to interface design: Ideation, concept design, and validation. Every stage of interface design is done in close collaboration with developers to create the most efficient and usable product.

Ideation
To inform my concepts, I take all of the research and strategy work that has been done to create potential solutions to the defined problem. I consider how this problem might have been solved in the past, how the customers or stakeholders might see this being solved, and how subject matter experts view the problem. Ideation can also take a collaborative approach, where developers and business analysts give feedback on proposed designs as well as contribute their own ideas.

Concept design
Ideas go through relentless iteration until we land on the best outcome. In concept design, I I will typically use sketches, wireframes, prototypes, and flowcharts in research activities and workshops in order to gain buy-in and extend ideas to users and team members or stakeholders.

Validation
Usability testing and quantitative research is then used, much like in the early discovery phase, to determine the usability and desirability of the proposed solution. This testing delivers actionable ways to iteratively improve until the team is confident enough in the solution to build a releasable product increment.

Build partnership

Connection with developers is the key to any successful product — no decision should be made without consulting developer ideas and input. I place a special emphasis on the build partnership for this reason.

Developers and UX design are in constant communication during the design process. The technical landscape, limitations, and constraints determine if the concept is feasible, or even if it’s the best way to be thinking about a solution. Design decisions can significantly impact technical performance, compliance, and security, so an idea should always have developer buy-in before building.

When an idea is finally approved by all team members, accepted by stakeholders, and validated by users, I work closely with the development team to communicate designs in a format that works best for them. I can deliver realistic prototypes and detailed requirements, plus produce helpful documentation that can be referenced at any time.

Lastly, I like to include a round of “Design Review” before QA in a development cycle. This ensures that the developed solution is functioning as intended and checks that the built design doesn’t accidentally create additional usability problems. This reduces the likelihood of bugs, maintains a consistent user experience, and also provides another opportunity to find the best way to solve a problem.

Brand identity

At the heart of every delightful interaction is a visual brand that resonates with the user and supports the customer experience. Brands breathe life into a digital product, turning customers from one-time users into devoted supporters.

I am professionally trained in brand identity, with a degree in graphic design, a minor in mass communications, and experience working for one of the best advertising agencies in the Twin Cities. My brand skills run the gamut from logo design to full brand identity system, which can then extend to product design systems.

Solutions found here.

Have a specific project inquiry?

Or maybe your product’s just lost its edge, your stakeholders are demanding PROFIT, that monstrous fiscal budget planning session is coming at you like a freight train, and an escape to a mysterious forest with only cryptids as co-workers feels like a probable outcome? (In that case, read here.)

For all things product design, user experience, and value analysis, email me at josiecadkins@gmail.com. Please include your current issue to be solved as well as your desired timeline and budget. Blurry ghost photos are optional but appreciated.

"She has an ability to take vague projects and bring them to life. Often times our projects start out as baby concepts without a lot of requirements built out and she has an ability to draw up initial concepts to bring the conversation further. She also is great at coming up with solutions for complicated workflows and complicated UX."

– ANONYMOUS FEEDBACK received in an annual retrospective