About me
For 8+ years, I've used human-centered design and user research to help teams find the friction points and unmet needs hiding inside their organization, products, and services.
A few things I bring to the work:
User research that leads to action. I use mixed-method research and innovation frameworks to help teams, and decision-makers, understand their current state and create solutions to where they want to go.
Workshops people actually enjoy. I've designed and facilitated sessions with product teams, executives, industry experts, marketers, researchers, and analytics partners. I lean into participatory design and open collaboration.
Product strategy and service design. I build strategies that create real value for customers, staff, and the business. I genuinely love thinking critically and creatively alongside great teams.
Testimonials
“Thaniel has a keen ability to use a mix of tools and methods to uncover real problems and guide teams toward meaningful change. He demonstrated his ability to make true partners of stakeholders and decision-makers by being inclusive in problem-solving mapping for the City’s 30-year Comprehensive Plan initiative and the Austin Public Library procurement project.
Thaniel has a talent for bringing people together through engaging, solutions-oriented workshops. He helps partners and decision‑makers feel included, heard, and equipped to participate. He navigates challenging environments with professionalism and clarity, all while championing human‑centered design at every step.
He successfully led and contributed to many important design initiatives that came to fruition, including research for the City of Austin website redesign and workshops on merging two security offices. These projects moved forward because of his strategic thinking, deep research expertise, and collaborative approach.
He is truly an asset to any team, and I fully trust and admire the thoughtful, people‑centered approach he brings to his work.”
— Martha Foote, Senior Service Designer, City of Austin
“Thaniel is a bright, empathetic design leader with a specialized skill for combining human-centered research, strategic thinking, and practical execution.
In Kentucky, we worked alongside colleagues in the field to help the Commonwealth’s Cabinet for Health and Family Services improve social service delivery for its citizens. During our time on the road, I saw Thaniel’s deep commitment to ensuring that Kentuckians’ basic human needs were met through thoughtful, effective service design.
In the office, Thaniel was often the voice of reason as we designed the research activities that shaped our work. From discussion guides for user interviews to templates for mapping findings across a comprehensive customer journey, he was instrumental in creating a collaborative research environment that made it easy for our team to bring insights back from the field and translate them into action.
Thaniel was also critical in helping us navigate a complex stakeholder landscape that included program owners, community organizers, frontline staff, and, most importantly, citizens. His community outreach gave us a reliable channel for recruiting participants and connecting their lived experiences to the broader patterns we were seeing across the service network.
Beyond the research itself, Thaniel consistently brought forward-looking innovation frameworks into our recommendations. His thought leadership helped unlock ideas that were advanced for the time, including the use of machine learning to improve the speed and accuracy of document verification for social service certification while reducing the burden on caseworkers.
Thaniel was a joy to work with on this project and others. He brings empathy, rigor, creativity, and clarity to complex challenges, and I have no doubt he would be an exceptional design thinking leader in any setting.”
— Deron Hogans, Senior UX Researcher, Deloitte Digital
“Thaniel is what I would consider the consummate entrepreneur. His mind sees connections between things that often lead to new and exciting opportunities. You can't teach this, and Thaniel's got it.
He and I worked closely to create a 9-week, human-centered design training program for Deloitte practitioners. This program, which was lauded by senior leaders, came out of Thaniel seeing this gap and inviting me to join him. He was the driving force in building our team, fostering partnerships with professional groups, and ensuring we continued to make progress. It was a pleasure working with Thaniel and he really shined in an environment where he could be candid and authentic. Any project or company that provides him a voice will be glad they listened.”
— Evan Chan, Senior UX Researcher, Deloitte Digital
“Thaniel is one of the most open and fair-minded leaders I've had the privilege of working with. He has a natural ability to unite people around a shared vision, and his curiosity and commitment to research consistently pushed our team and product forward.
What sets him apart is his dedication to transparency, he keeps everyone informed and in the loop, which builds the kind of trust that makes a team truly work. Any organization would be lucky to have him!”
— Sam Schmaedeka, Technical Contractor
Books on design, innovation, and business I've read and applied in my work.
