UX STRATEGY & DISCOVERY SPECIALIST
Complex products need structure before they need screens.
I help product teams and digital agencies define what they're building before design starts.
THE PROBLEM
When everyone sees the product differently, the experience pays for it.
Good discovery produces outputs. But outputs aren't the same as shared understanding. The sitemap gets built, prototypes take shape, and somewhere along the way everyone realizes they had a different picture of the product in their head.
You might recognize it as:
→ The design is done but a stakeholder says "that's not what we meant"
→ Developers keep surfacing requirements nobody discussed
→ The team keeps having the same alignment conversation, over and over.
WHAT I DO
Structured workshops. Shared decisions. Everyone on the same page.
I run information architecture workshops that give your whole team, including your stakeholders, a shared model of the product before design starts.
Guided by a method called Object-Oriented UX, or OOUX, we map out the core pieces of your product together. The objects people care about, how they connect, and what people need to do with them.
This process gets the people who know the business and the subject matter into the conversation early. Structural decisions become grounded in real knowledge, not guesswork. The investment upfront prepares everyone for a smoother design and development phase.
→ Stakeholders feel heard and can see their thinking reflected back
→ Designers build from a foundation instead of assumptions
→ Developers understand the domain from day one
HOW IT WORKS
What working together looks like.
I adapt to your existing process, adding the structural layer that makes everything else faster.
1
We start with what you already have
Research, stakeholder input, existing products, or just a vision. Whatever the team is working from, we start there.
2
I facilitate structured workshops
The product team and stakeholders in the same room. We map the product's core objects together in real time, in sessions that run alongside your existing discovery activities.
3
You walk away with a shared object model
A clear, visual picture of the product that everyone helped build. Your design team builds from it. Your developers understand the domain through it. Your client recognizes themselves in it.
"Allie is a passionate problem solver. She is driven to help her clients chart a path toward transparency for themselves and their users. And she is a delightful, creative human to partner with!”
Melinda Miller
CEO & Co-Owner at Pixo
WHO THIS IS FOR
Two ways to work together.
DIGITAL AGENCIES
I plug into your discovery phase.
You're already running research and stakeholder interviews. I come in during that window to facilitate the structural engagement, working directly with your client's team. Your content strategist gets a validated object model to build from. Your designers get to prototypes without the "wait, what is that?" derailments. Your client feels heard because they helped shape the decisions.
IN-HOUSE TEAMS
I lead your team alignment.
You know you need to get the team on the same page before design starts, but that conversation keeps getting folded into other meetings or deferred to wireframe reviews. I come in to run a focused engagement so structural decisions are made before your team opens a design tool.
I work best on projects where the system has real complexity. Multiple user types, interconnected data, objects that behave differently depending on context. If your project is closer to a marketing site than a web application, we're probably not the right fit.
WORK IN THE WILD
Every project is different. The result is the same.
MOBILE APP
15+ stakeholders aligned on a shared model in three days, before a single wireframe was drawn.
ENTERPRISE TOOL
A system no one could explain became something everyone could see and work from.
Let's talk about your next complex project.
Whether you're an agency looking for a discovery specialist or a product team trying to get aligned before design starts, I'd love to hear what you're working on.