During my Slack tenure, I have built and evolved numerous key aspects of the Slack core functionality including messaging, activity, canvas (editor), files, bookmarking, interoperability, new user experience and in-product education. As a Senior Staff designer in the core team, I establish robust foundations for new features that both scale with our growing capabilities and deliver an intuitive, simple user experience from day one. Lately, I’ve been focused on boosting user productivity and improving attention management in Slack. Below is a brief summary of some recent projects. Please inquire directly for full case studies.

Project: VIP | Role: Design Lead | Launched Nov 2024

🔊 Turning up the volume on what matters most

VIP cuts through the noise in Slack, surfacing what matters most in a seamless, lightweight way. The unique challenge in designing VIPs was to make the feature almost invisible until you set it up. How might we help people dial up the volume of some Slack conversations in a way that is simple and doesn’t add more noise? Prototyping for different visibility models helped us arrived the most appropriate content and ergonomic form factor: DMs and mentions from VIPs simply get elevated to the top of the Slack sidebar (in Home and other tabs) when unread.

Rapid testing and research made it clear that, for feature comprehension and adoption, it was critical that users understood VIPs as a notification feature—not an organizational one. Every aspect of the feature—including setup, entry points and nudges—reinforces this distinction.

VIPs launched to GA in late November 2024. It quickly exceeded adoption expectations, reaching 500K WAU in December and 1M WAU by January 3, 2025. Notably, 23% of users who set up VIPs did so without receiving any educational introduction. We’re continuing to build on this insight: even users in less noisy Slack teams find value in the VIP feature, suggesting that its core functionality addresses a fundamental user need.

Project: Activity | Role: Design Lead | Launched: 2023

📢 A centralized place to catch up in Slack

By 2023, incoming activity in the Slack sidebar had become fragmented, overwhelming, and a constant source of distraction. The new Activity tab—designed as part of Slack’s updated information architecture—offers a single, focused surface to help users stay on top of important messages that need their attention or response.

Unlike email, where each entry is uniform, Slack surfaces multiple types of entries that must be presented at the same level—yet clearly differentiated. This system prioritizes the message author and content, while also surfacing key metadata to help users assess the importance of each message.

The Slack interface is extremely information-dense, so navigation within the Activity tab had to be simple and intuitive. The read/unread status is prioritized above all other controls and we launched with fully exposed filters to reduce friction, avoid buried settings, and support quick decision-making.

No more pogo-sticking, stay updated at a glance: A quick peek into the Activity tab—regardless of which tab the user is in—helps them stay aware of what’s new and decide whether it’s worth switching context. When set to Unreads, the peek is all you need to make sure you’re not missing an important message.

The new activity tab was launched in Aug 2023 as part of Slack’s IA overhaul. It is currently the #3 most popular tab, followed only by Home and DMs. with over 13 million humans who rely on it each week.

Project: Canvas | Role: Design Director | Launched: 2022

A new editor surface, in Slack

I led the design of the new Canvas editor pilot in Slack (bringing Quip into Slack at Salesforce), including visioning, cross-functional leadership, and creative direction for a team of five designers and copywriters.

Starting with positioning canvas as the missing link to help users organize information in Slack—giving them much-needed access to data, charts, text, tasks, internal and external links, videos, and more—all in one place and free from the chronological constraints of channel conversations.

As a team lead, my role included providing clear onboarding guidance on process, culture, and expectations for the new design, product, and engineering teams coming from Quip; identifying and prioritizing key focus areas; codifying design initiatives; and laying the long-term foundation for architecture decisions related to integrating the editor into Slack.

As an IC in the team, I also was responsible for the interface design of the canvas browser and the editor history pane. The final version of the browser distilled the experience to a simple fundamental set of controls and set the long term foundation for other Slack surfaces, including Lists (Slack spreadsheets). The new editor history controls replaced Quip's legacy history system and brought Canvas in line with competitor capabilities.

From vision to public release in 2 quarters, read more about the launch of Canvas on Fast Company, Tech Crunch, and The Verge.

Project: Bookmark Bar | Role: Design Lead | Launched: 2021

🔖 Beyond the last message

While Slack’s channels are optimized for real-time communication, the chronological order of conversations makes it hard to revisit shared files. This feature rethinks how persistent, relevant information could stay accessible without interrupting the rhythm of communication.

The Bookmark Bar is a lightweight, intuitive solution that lets anyone add and access key links or files in a channel. It relies on familiar patterns, fits seamlessly into Slack’s interface, and scales with minimal effort, even if just one team member uses it. This feature reinforced a core design principle: simple isn’t simplistic. The right solution balances visibility, utility, and ease—supporting users in staying organized without adding cognitive load.

Read more about this project: Beyond the last message: Designing for all information in Slack

Project: Files Entity System | Role: Design Lead | Launched: 2021

📑 A new file design system

A comprehensive design overhaul and technical refactoring of native and 3rd party file objects in Slack.

Before Slack

Before joining Slack, I took time to attend graduate school, expanding my focus from interaction design to product design and user research. I then spent a few years working as a consultant across both disciplines for clients including Google, Stanford University School of Medicine, Hewlett-Packard, and Kaiser Permanente, mentored by my graduate school advisor Michael Barry.

Earlier in my career, I spent years honing my craft at design studios in Los Angeles and as a freelancer, where I worked on identity, illustration, wayfinding, print, and web projects for tech startups, small local businesses, and bigger clients like University of Southern California, The Four Seasons Resorts, and Disney XD.