I’m Russell Flench, a human-centered design (HCD) leader with over 14 years of experience consulting in government, healthcare, automotive, and manufacturing. I’m a storyteller, facilitator, and creative thinker. (And I love motorcycling.)
I have spent years introducing HCD capabilities into legacy institutions in the healthcare and manufacturing sectors. I’ve led many cross-functional teams on complex user insights projects, especially those focusing on social good. (I also love bicycling.)
I have a talent for team building and mentoring junior and senior colleagues about how to improve customer and employee experience in the broader context of organizational goals. Recently, I’ve had success delivering engaging presentations at global conferences to share lessons learned and tips for growing HCD capabilities. (And from time to time I’ll do some homebrewing.)
I hold a Master of Design from the Institute of Design at IIT, and a Bachelor of Fine Art from the Cleveland Institute of Art.
As much as I love working with design teams, I am equally devoted to raising my two young daughters to be socially responsible, compassionate community members in Washington, DC. (They’re into cycling now, too.)
Skills I use at work
Leadership: strategy, mentoring, team building and management, client relationships, listening
Tactical: design research, data analysis and synthesis, video production, journey mapping, building personas, service blueprinting, sketching, research ops
Cross disciplinary: collaboration, storytelling, workshop facilitation, Agile, writing, asking questions
Tools: AI, Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Premiere Pro, Excel and PowerPoint, Miro and Mural, Dovetail, Optimal Workshop, Jira, Google suite
Skills I’m working to develop
AI, asking better questions, self-reflection, resilience
Russell Flench 