Spending more than a decade in the physical design space taught me the delicate balance between creativity, systems, and business realities. At a mid-size design and manufacturing house, I grew from Executive Assistant to the Director of Design into Product Manager, and later Director of Sales & Merchandising—roles that required me to move fluidly between design teams, production partners across Korea, China, and India, and high-end retailers worldwide.
From Fabric to Frameworks: How Fashion Shaped My UX Practice
My years in New York’s fashion and manufacturing industry were the beginning of my journey into participatory design thinking.
In those positions, I developed three skills that continue to shape my work as a UX designer today:
Cross-disciplinary collaboration: translating between design, production, and sales sharpened my ability to bridge diverse stakeholders, much like aligning designers, engineers, and business teams in tech.
Customer empathy: leading sales and merchandising placed me close to our customers’ voices, and I carried that insight into shaping products that met real needs.
Systems thinking: working with global supply chains taught me to see how each decision ripples across processes—a mindset essential for complex digital ecosystems.
Discovery Phase
Define Phase
When I later transitioned into UX, I was struck by the similarities in process: ideation, prototyping, iteration, and launch. But while fashion often relied on outdated, waterfall systems, UX design offered agile methods and a relentless focus on the human experience. It clarified what I had always felt—that design should start with empathy, context, and a willingness to adapt.
