Hello there. I’m Kim; a design leader with a passion for orchestrating customer experiences for the enterprise.

My career has been made of many beautiful and simple digital experiences that were born of a small idea and raw customer feedback. I have worked in a range of companies and contexts; from startup speed through discovery and delivery of global enterprise deployments. Through the breadth of my career experiences I have honed an ability to see the big picture and understand the context of the business, clarify that strategy and what it means for design, and set the direction for designers, researchers and artists involved in the delivery process.


A few specific things I’m most passionate about are:

Organizational Influence
I have a passion for influencing organization shifts. I have seen the big impact happen through small influential actions coupled with executive sponsorship. Any change in mindset or behavior does not happen overnight and I rely on design thinking, lean product, and design sprint methodology as anchors for driving solid and mindful product experience.

Customer Experience
I’m an advocate for dedicated and durable teams as the key to building great products for customers. I believe in cross-functional product teams that test, learn and build experiences around customer journeys. Making experiences easy, fast, personal, transparent and safe, are all ways of meeting the social and emotional needs of customers. Over time, these small moments build trust and create a bond of customer loyalty and lifetime value.

Team Leadership
I’m an agent of positive energy and encouragement. I enjoy leading teams through ambiguous problem spaces. I’m an action-oriented, team leader and I take pride in both supporting the success of others as well as jumping in myself to lend a hand to evolve work product. I am a change agent and I gather inspiration from skip-level conversations and other parts of the organization as I look for ways to challenge my own notions and ideas regarding customer experience.

I carry a mantra of “progress over perfection” and encourage the sharing of in-progress work to bring stakeholders closer to product design and the messy work of designing for customers.

And to that end, my next career opportunity will consist of:

• Fostering and building a product design team
• Building an internal product design and discovery practice
• Contributing thought leadership to the larger design community
• Sharing my career experience through mentorship
• A visible path to career growth within a leadership structure
• Mentorship, coaching and design support from a senior leader

Principal, Product Design & Strategy – REI

Seattle, WA Dec 2018 – Present
Leading product strategy and discovery and influencing delivery within our digital product teams; my current remit includes building an omni-channel design strategy, establishing key service standards and a building a measurement framework for all touch points of interaction within the REI ecosystem.

Building a mobile strategy for the enterprise; product design and MVP for key markets
Delivering omni-channel product experience strategy; physical & digital retail experiences
Driving a service design program; understand how customers interact across the REI ecosystem

Director, Innovation – USAA Labs

San Antonio, TX April 2018 – Dec 2018
Driving disruptive innovation through a series of MVPs; I served as a design director for two new business model platform experiences. I led a product design teams that created and developed customer-facing product concepts for testing. I created product strategy, vision and executive communications.

Accountable for learning KPIs; defined and presented metrics and learning plans for products
Orchestrated cross-functional teams; business, design, tech, legal, compliance, exe. leadership
Drove vision, strategy and product discovery; business model and experience opportunities

Strategic Innovation Director – USAA Labs

San Antonio, TX April 2017 – April 2018
Combining business strategy, customer insights and technology; my role was to drive and influence the exploration of net-new digital business opportunities and partnerships with fintech for USAA bank. Accountable for utilizing a disruptive innovation framework to build and test business models.

Partnered with Bank Leadership; co-created vision that reflected bank business strategy
Delivered Disruptive Innovation; a first-mile test plan for a net-new digital product platform
Led UX and Qualitative Research Teams; from product discovery toward a MVPs in market

Owner/Founder – FinFoundry.co

Washington, August 2016 – March 2017
Lean, Lite-touch Product Design + Strategy
Product discovery and financial product strategy services designed to help Fintech clients build investor confidence through vision, strategy, discovery.

Owner/Artist – KimWiessner.com

Washington, Aug 2015 – 2019
Tiny Watercolors – Original Art for Small Spaces
A vibrant collection of original watercolor. Original art, patterns and illustration for design, industry licensing and print-on-demand service companies.

Global Creative Director – HSBC

London, UK 2009 to 2014
Leading global UX initiatives to establish, develop and govern global UX design systems and best practices achieving significantly improved digital experiences globally (US, UAE, France, India, Australia, Hong Kong) within a range of business groups; Consumer, Insurance, SMB, Private Bank and Global Banking & Markets.

Influenced Global Heads and Executive Leadership; digital vision for HSBC across the globe
Delivered “First-Ever” Group Global UX Framework; standards, toolkits, consultancy, governance
Defined and Governed Digital Design; a developer toolkit to address digital global market needs

Lead UX Designer – HSBC

Chicago, IL 2007 to 2009
Shaping insights into powerful customer-centered designs through qualitative research and design iterations; many of my projects were omni-channel including desktop, mobile, kiosk and ATM and most were designed for customers outside of the US.

• Delivered Best-in-Class Experiences; adhere to digital standards and craft the best practice
• Expanded Awareness of UX; global workshops to share design thinking process with business
• Demonstrate UX Business Value; deliver options that go beyond product requirements

UX Designer & Research Scientist – PNNL

Richland, WA 2006 to 2007
Applying UX methods to a range of lab projects, my work influenced US Govt. projects with a focus on ease-of-use and future software commercialization. Acting in a consulting capacity, my primary focus was to work with project owners to budget and plan for UX within their current and upcoming work cycles.

• Designed a tactile UI; designed for a physical device via collaboration with PNNL, NASA and NOAA
• Solved Wicked Data Visualization; UX for prediction modeling and quant data viz applications
• Delivered UX Education and Impact; authored peer-reviewed white papers, funded UX education