Summary
- Human-centered design (HCD) leader with over 14 years experience consulting in healthcare, government, automotive, and manufacturing.
- Introduced HCD capabilities in various institutions, including the Cleveland Clinic Strategy Office and CertainTeed/Saint-Gobain’s Insights and Innovation Group.
- Consulted with Kaiser Permanente on Vision 2025, then CEO Bernard Tyson’s strategic plan for keeping KP nimble in the rapidly evolving health sector (2014).
- Skilled in service design, design strategy, user research, customer and employee experience, storytelling, workshop facilitation, team leadership, business development.
- Successfully led many cross-functional teams on complex user insights projects, particularly those focusing on health and social good.
- Facility for team building and mentoring junior and senior colleagues about improving the human experience within the broader context of organizational goals.
Skills
Design research and strategy
Data analysis and synthesis
Service blueprinting
Journey mapping
Patient experience, employee experience
Persona building
Storytelling
Workshop facilitation
Design operations
Writing
Presentations
Process mapping
Digital and experiential prototyping
Video production and editing
Design management and mentoring
Agile project management
Research operations
Tools
Adobe Creative Suite (Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Premiere Pro), Miro, Mural, MS Office, G-suite, sketching (analog and digital), AI (ChatGPT, Gemini), Optimal Workshop, Dovetail
Professional Experience
Bixal (Fairfax, VA) 2020-present
Director of Human Experience, April 2025 – present
- Leading Bixal’s HCD team, supporting the needs of team managers, working on team engagement, growing a culture of critique, managing team allocations, fostering a growth mindset among team members, including those practicing CX Design, Service Design, User/UX Research, UX and UI Design, Graphic and Multimedia Design, and Digital Accessibility.
- Led and contributed to several contract proposals and other business development activities.
- Acted as an internal auditor of Bixal’s Quality Management System.
Director of Design Operations, Jan. 2023 – April 2025
- Established the Design Operations practice to manage a growing team of CX, UX, and UI Designers, Researchers, and Accessibility specialists.
- Developed, documented, and implemented processes around onboarding, design methods and tools, professional development, interdisciplinary collaboration, and team member experience and engagement.
- Contributed to business development efforts, including identifying market opportunities, leading the technical approach, and contributing subject matter expertise to proposals, staffing, and budgets.
- Managed a team of 40 designers and accessibility specialists, advocating for a “shift-left” approach on federal contracts and at Bixal.
Director of Service Design, Jan. 2021 – Jan. 2023
- Grew a service design practice from one to four practitioners, documented team methods and templates, ensured contracts were staffed appropriately, hired and managed team members, contributed to business development.
Service Designer, March 2020 – July 2023
- Clients include the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), Social Security Administration (SSA).
- Used trauma-informed approaches to plan research and conduct interviews with survivors of natural disasters.
Cleveland Clinic, Strategy Office (Cleveland, OH) Nov. 2016 – Mar. 2020
Service Designer (Associate Strategy Partner III)
- Grew the HCD capabilities at Cleveland Clinic, focusing on enterprise service line delivery challenges in colorectal cancer, pediatric asthma, and weight management.
- Worked closely with the Office of Patient Experience and its Patient Advisory Committee to advance PX (patient experience) priorities.
- Championed HCD with executive leadership to bring a patient-centric lens to strategic planning and business development.
- Founded an HCD community of practice, developed an HCD playbook, hired and mentored a design intern, designed and built a 900-sq. ft. design collaboration space to facilitate design thinking workshops.
- Designed and facilitated four interactive presentations at the Patient Experience Summit, attended by ~1,500 healthcare professionals; sat on the Summit steering committee to develop programming.
- Co-authored a whitepaper on the results of work on weight management, published in Southern Medical Journal, Jan. 2021. Patients Desire Personalized, Specific, and Continuous Advice on Weight Management, Authors: Elizabeth R. Pfoh, PhD, MPH, Russell Flench, MDes, N. Homa Varghai, MD, Michelle King, Leslie J. Heinberg, PhD.
- Created and led “Sketch Class” for MBAs and healthcare administrators to teach sketching techniques for brainstorming and lateral thinking.
Saint-Gobain / CertainTeed (Malvern, PA) Jan. – Nov. 2016
Design Researcher and Strategist
- Co-led efforts to grow HCD at CertainTeed, a legacy building products manufacturer. Established an internal “Insights and Innovation” group that collaborated with marketing and communications specialists and enterprise R&D to infuse customer insights into product development.
- Conducted design research investigating expectations of DIY home renovators relative to those of building trade professionals to expand its customer base from primarily B2B to include B2C.
- Presented “HCD-101” at company brown-bag forums to promote integrating customer insights into R&D and marketing efforts.
- Mentored two design research interns on two consumer insights projects.
Point Forward (Redwood City, CA) July 2013 – Dec. 2015
Sr. Design Researcher
- Led & contributed to projects with clients including Kaiser Permanente, Fiat-Chrysler (now Stellantis), Astellas Pharma, and Chick-fil-A.
- Conducted primary and secondary research, data analysis, and synthesis, video editing and production, presented HCD-101 to clients and a local university.
- Project managed global research studies across the US, Europe, and East Asia. Managed participant recruitment, interview transcription, travel logistics, on-site workshops, focus groups.
- Facilitated client engagements and designed reports to identify opportunities for innovation.
Conifer Research (Chicago, IL) May – July 2013
Design researcher (contract)
- Conducted a three-month data-mining project across five years of research to identify opportunities for further exploration with a client in the CPG sector.
Steelcase (Grand Rapids, MI) May 2012 – May 2013
Design Research Intern, Workspace Futures group
- Co-led a global research study using both web-based and on-the-ground field research methods across North America, Europe, and East Asia to support development of a next-generation task chair.
- Developed a new framework for research observation and analysis, co-led discovery workshops, presented findings to senior leadership.
- Created and led “Sketch Class” for engineers and industrial designers to teach sketching techniques for brainstorming and lateral thinking.
PlayLab (Brooklyn, NY) Sept. – Nov. 2009
Design Intern
- Researched developing a community music space with programming and musician residencies for underserved communities in Greensboro, Alabama.
Kid life, Odd jobs (Cleveland, San Diego, Oakland, DC) birth-2010
Various roles
- Grew up on skateboarding, bicycling, and darkroom photography.
- Learned residential construction, basic electrical and plumbing.
- Operated a crematorium for a year.
- Had my own home renovation business, focusing on kitchens, bathrooms, and built-in bookcases.
Education
Master of Design (MDes), Design Research & Strategy, IIT Institute of Design, Chicago, IL
Bachelor of Fine Art (BFA), Photography, Cleveland Institute of Art, Cleveland, OH
Sustainable Design, summer intensive program, Parsons New School, New York, NY
Presentations & Publications
2024, Impact First Digital Development Summit (Lisbon, Portugal), presenter
2024, Design For Dignity (Boston, Massachusetts), presenter
2021, Southern Medical Journal, Patients Desire Personalized, Specific, and Continuous Advice on Weight Management, co-author
2017-2019, Cleveland Clinic Patient Experience Summit (Cleveland, Ohio), workshop facilitator (multiple)
2014, core77, Designing Here/Now, “312 Park” featured case study
Russell Flench 