Expression (NDA)
An overview of the two years of work I did as a product designer for a federal contractor in the defense sector.
Role
Product Designer
Timeline
Oct 2023 - June 2025
SUMMARY
LEARNING & GROWTH
ACHIEVEMENTS
Skills
Figma, Design Systems, Cross-Functional Teams
I worked on an internal federal platform for spectrum analysis that supports mission planning and defense efforts. I was also the sole designer of two separate initiatives: a full redesign of a repository application and a multi-step analytical tool.
I joined Expression as a junior product designer and was quickly given responsibility to lead and deliver mid-scaled projects; I was promoted within a year. I primarily worked with a team centered around building an internal federal platform and improving its experience for the many users within the DoD. While the two years of work I did are under NDA, and I cannot elaborate on the product itself, I can share some of the responsibilities that I had and what I did to reach my goals.
From the many features and initiatives I worked on, the first and most critical step was understanding and defining the problem I was tackling. Given the complexity of the product and having no direct access to the actual users (due to security reasons), I instead relied on numerous cross-functional collaborators to learn about the product and goals—subject-matter-experts (SMEs), engineers, data specialists, and other designers. It was essential to understand the user needs as well as the contractual requirements, as both were key but did not always align. Additionally, goals were constantly evolving or reprioritized. Though these info-gathering meetings were initially largely supported with the help of my manager or project leads, this became an area of growth for me as I became more familiar with the work and led meetings myself. I honed my ability to clarify requirements and expectations, adjusted my design process to be extremely adaptive, and became more confident in expressing design opinions.
The majority of my time was spent brainstorming, iterating, and seeking feedback.
Compiled an onboarding document to help streamline product understanding for incoming designers.
Sole designer on two successful initiatives: a comprehensive redesign for a legacy repository application, from the landing page to complex queries, and a multi-stage analytical tool. Created and maintained project-specific design systems for these initiatives to align with the main design system.
Streamlined key workflows and integrated new features in the main product to improve and expand overall usability to client satisfaction.
Advanced design system infrastructure by expanding and modernizing core components. Generated internal guidelines for consistent organization within windows.
Refined and prototyped a feature to be used specifically as an asset to support business development.
The telephone game.
Not having direct access to users meant the team relied almost entirely on subject-matter-experts to act as proxy representatives to translate problems and requirements. This dissemination of information often meant evolving requirements and contradicting information. As a designer, this honed my ability to clarify requirements and expectations, adapt designs quickly, and become more confident in expressing design opinions.
Walking the tightrope.
Balancing contractual requirements with actual user problems, especially when they often did not overlap.
Untangling complex data
Working with developers, the data team, and SMEs to define solutions for complex situations that were both technically achievable and digestible for the user base.