About Me
I'm a senior UX designer with 20+ years of experience spanning graphic design, UX, and UI. I bring a user-centered mindset to every project while translating insights into intuitive, scalable solutions that balance user needs with business goals.
I’m passionate about collaboration and cross-functional teamwork. Partnering closely with product owners, engineers, and business leaders, I help teams align around shared outcomes and deliver thoughtful, effective experiences.
Always happy to talk shop, virtually or over coffee. Reach out on LinkedIn or renaewood.ux@gmail.com.
Skill Sets
PRIMARY ROLES
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Designs intuitive, user-centric experiences that improve workflow efficiency and delight users.
Leads end-to-end projects from conception to execution within Agile environments.
Applies user-centered design principles to enhance functionality, workflows, and visual appeal.
Conducts user research, creates personas, defines information architecture, and designs streamlined interfaces.
Communicates design decisions and rationale effectively to stakeholders.
Balances speed and quality through optimizations and new product development.
Advocates user needs using feedback, data analytics, and research to inform design.
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Conducts qualitative and quantitative research through customer and stakeholder interviews, usability testing, and surveys for customer insights.
Synthesizes research findings to guide design decisions, development, and prioritization.
Advocates for user needs in cross-functional discussions to shape product outcomes.
Leverages insights to spot innovation opportunities and improve workflows and user experience.
LEADERSHIP APPROACH & SKILLS
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Drives UX strategy and execution, aligning teams with user-centered objectives and business goals.
Collaborates cross-functionally to empathize with customers and inform product prioritization.
Influences decisions via compelling storytelling and presentations across organizational levels.
Sets scalable design standards for consistency, quality, and usability.
Hosts workshops and brainstorming sessions to foster innovation.
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Mentors and coaches designers to grow professionally and uphold user-centered thinking.
Builds a collaborative team culture and robust workflows for operational efficiency.
Drives process improvements and resource management across product tiers.
SUPPORTING SKILL SETS
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Builds and maintains scalable, accessible design systems aligned with user and business needs.
Applies systems thinking to solve complex challenges and drive platform consistency.
Collaborates with engineers to ensure implementation matches design intent.
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Partners with developers early and often to ensure feasibility and quality.
Provides detailed specs, prototypes, and clear rationale to streamline handoff and iteration.
Balances speed, feedback, and refinement within Agile workflows.
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Fosters strong partnerships across product, engineering, and research.
Leads workshops and discussions to align on user needs, priorities, and strategy.
Advocates for design rationale and user insights at all levels of the organization.
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Operates within Agile teams to deliver iterative, value-driven solutions.
Balances technical constraints and business goals with user experience outcomes.
Translates evolving requirements into actionable design artifacts.
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Guides platform-wide improvements through a balance of innovation and reuse.
Collaborates across teams to reduce design debt and plan for sustainable growth.
Aligns near-term iterations with long-term product vision.
Experience
Most Recent
UI/UX Design Manager – Treasury4
Mar 2022 - Present
Product Designer – JUNO
Jun 2021 - Mar 2022
UX Designer – RiskLens
Feb 2020 - Jun 2021
Senior UX Designer – Aon
Jun 2019 - Feb 2020
“Kudos to Renae for always having patience with our team and doing an amazing job of leading journey mapping sessions that help uncover potential user issues from the start rather than down the road after half (or more) of the work is done! Her mockups and UI/UX suggestions are way better than anything I ever have or could produce!”
“Our UI has evolved nicely over the last three years, primarily as a result of Renae’s thoughtfulness, efforts, and leadership. We hear a lot of comments from customers, prospects, and partners that we have a nice intuitive UI.”
Work Examples
Modernize Insurance Portal and Align with Agents’ Workflows
The goal for this project was to deliver an updated online agent experience that improved insurance agents’ daily use of the platform and streamlined their most common workflows.
Create Medication Tracking Mobile App with AI Chat
This digital health coach app was created for Parkinson's disease (PD) patients and caregivers to help them keep track of their patch medication records, get quick easy access to information on PD and keep track of their overall health.
Improve Information Architecture and UI of a Conversational Data Analysis Tool
With a limited amount of time to dedicate to the project, the goal was to make UI improvements that would improve the visual experience and not be time consuming to implement.
User Persona Workshop
This presentation and workshop was created for a Spokane UX Meetup session where I presented information about user personas and why they are important. We split into groups and I walked participants through an example workshop on how to create user personas.