Maicol Parker-Chavez

Product Designer and Venture Architect bridging the gap between emerging technologies and intuitive user experiences with a Design Thinking approach.

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What people are saying

"He helped us solve a large and ambiguous problem and discover issues within our solution in a week instead of months. We were able to pivot and solve it the right way and our users were very happy with our results. I would highly recommend Maicol for anyone looking to develop the right product quickly."

Jean-Eric Khalife
Product Owner, Riot Games

"Our team was struggling to get our product off the ground and Maicol got everyone on the same page and aligned us on a clear direction. The way Maicol uses Design Thinking, Agile methodologies, and his product design background, helped ensure a successful launch of our initial product offering."

Kevin Jung
CTO, Together We Rise

"I really believe the website and overall project wouldn’t be where it’s at without the support and guidance of Maicol and Rachael."

Julien Antelin
Director of Innovation, Neighborhood Empowerment for the City of Los Angeles

"Maicol's approach enabled everyone to have a voice and contribute to decision making quickly and efficiently. His demeanor is perfect for collaborations as he is open, understanding, and flexible. He can read the room well and facilitate effectively."

Darlene Fukuji
Associate Director - Fred Kiesner Center for Entrepreneurship
Loyola Marymount University

"Working with Maicol through two Design Sprints has fundamentally changed how we operate and build products. The process is a good framework for taking a complex environment, where you don't necessarily know what the problems are, and drilling down into what is important."

Patrick Lu
Co-founder & CEO, Playfull

"Maicol expertly lead us through four days of analysis, prototyping and user testing to refine our product and collect feedback on new design ideas. He helped us get the critical data we needed and translate user frustrations into useful features in order to take our product to the next level."

Ford Davis
Technical Director, Assured Certificates

"Maicol and Rachael's guidance, planning and facilitation were critical to our success."

Michelle Burton
Chief Strategy Officer & Director, Social Change Institute

"Maicol & Rachael were awesome in leading all of our project team members through an unfamiliar methodology to identify the backlog. The results of this effort will allow us to kick our dev project off to a good start. Their energy and humor was very infectious and kept us on point. A win for Human-centered development!"

Dean Church
Agile Project Manager & Program Analyst, Southern California Edison

Understanding
Generative AI

Rethinking Product Design: The Impact of Generative AI–an open-ended case study.

Role
Product Designer
Deliverables
Prototypes (alpha)
Usability Research
(coming soon)

Venture
Architecture

Helping leaders and associates build a competitive advantage by leveraging emerging technologies like Generative AI.

Client

Capital
Group

Role
Venture Architect
Design Thinking Facilitator and Coach
Product Design Consultant
Deliverables
Workshop Designs
Prototypes
Executive Summary Decks
Product Designs

Product
Design

Shifting the approach to building internal development tools to improve how content is created for over 100 million players globally.

Client

Riot
Games

Role
Product Designer
Deliverables
Usability Research
Design Sprints
Customer Interview Training
Product Designs

Brining the voices of Los Angeles’ 99 neighborhoods into the design and decision making process to help EmpowerLA better serve their constituents and re-imagine what website experience.

Client

Empower LA

Role
Product Designer
Design Thinking Facilitator
Deliverables
Usability Research
Workshop Designs
Executive Summary Decks
Product Designs

Optimizing the workflow of professional artists through a comprehensive referencing tool app.

Client

VizRef /
Studio Pixanoh

Role
Product Designer
Deliverables
Product Market Research
Design Sprints
Product Designs

Design Thinking
Facilitation
‍–

Leading 80 cross-industry executives in a Design Thinking workshop to uncover solutions to economic resiliency for low-income communities.

Client

Community
Health Councils

Role
Design Thinking Facilitator
Deliverables
Workshop Design
Facilitation Guide

Preparing a global investment group managing more than $1.7 trillion to run remote Design Sprints.

Client

Capital
Group

Role
Consultant
Product Designer
Design Thinking Facilitator
Deliverables
Remote Design Sprints
Readout Decks
Facilitation Guides

Leveraging research and design experiments to improve the player experience and increase retention on a game rewards app.

Client

Playfull

Role
Product Designer
Design Thinking Facilitator
Deliverables
Design Sprints

Product
‍Management

Building digital tools to improve the quality of life for youth in foster care nationwide.

Client

Together
We Rise

Role
Product Manager
Product Designer
Deliverables
Product Market Research
Customer Research
Prioritized Backlog
Product Designs

Digitizing historically analog processes to increase efficiency and reduce errors for insurance compliance professionals.

Client

Assured
Certificates

Role
Product Manager
Product Designer
Deliverables
Customer Research
Prioritized Backlog
Product Designs

Workshops
‍–

I created the Design Thinking Principles Workshop to break down the fundamentals of what makes Design Thinking processes successful into concepts that can be applied by individuals without needing a large team or tons of time to achieve value.

Partner

LAUX

Role
Workshop Designer
Design Thinking Facilitator

I partnered with John Zeratsky to bring the Official Design Sprint Bootcamp to Los Angeles so that design professionals and aspiring UX or product designers could learn the process directly from the source.

Partner

John
Zeratsky

Role
Workshop Host
Co-Facilitator

Speaker & Mentor
‍–

LMU Startup Weekend: Speaker & Mentor / October 2018 & October 2019

The Storyteller’s Summit Speaker: Testing Your Concept / April 2019

Design Thinking Principles Workshop / January, March & August 2019

Organizational Change through UX: Panel Speaker & Mentor / March 2019

OFFICIAL Design Sprint Bootcamp with John Zeratsky / Dec 2018

UCLA Creative Labs Designathon: Panel Speaker & Mentor / April 2018