In 2016, General Electric was repositioning as an industrial software company on the back of its Predix IIoT platform. I joined to lead UX across GE Digital and GE Aviation — platforms built for aviation MRO environments and industrial internet of things operations.
The work touched some of the most demanding users in any industry: aircraft mechanics, operations coordinators, and floor supervisors whose jobs involved real safety consequences and zero margin for bad software.
GE's enterprise software had been designed for desktop — by people who had never stood inside an MRO hangar. The result was software that technically worked but wasn't built for how it was actually used.
The challenge wasn't to redesign screens. It was to build the organizational capability — the research infrastructure, team culture, and design standards — that would make mobile-first enterprise design a core GE competency.
I built the research program before anything else. My team conducted global contextual research — on-site interviews, job shadows, and usability studies with workers in MRO facilities across multiple countries. We built empathy maps before we built wireframes.
From that foundation, I established GE's Mobile Center of Excellence — a dedicated capability for mobile-first enterprise product design that hadn't existed before. I then led UX for GE's first enterprise iOS application, the anchor deliverable of the GE–Apple partnership.
Throughout, I coached a team of 11 UX professionals: building development plans, advocating for their work at the executive level, and creating a culture where deep user research was a competitive advantage, not a delay.
I start with the user in their actual context. I build the infrastructure for good work before I ask for good work. And I believe a manager's most important job is making the case for design quality to the people who set the constraints.
GE's mobile enterprise product line shipped. The IIoT platform reached industrial customers at scale. The design standards my team established shaped the company's approach to mobile product development for years.
The Mobile Center of Excellence I founded became the organizational home for mobile UX across GE's digital businesses. And the team I built stayed — no attrition during my tenure.