About Me
I believe great design solves problems.
I'm Yessel — a UX strategist and innovation facilitator based in Austin, TX. My work lives at the intersection of design, strategy, and human behavior. I help organizations understand what their users actually need, then build the structures, systems, and experiences that meet those needs at scale.
I started as a graphic designer and grew into UX through a curiosity I've never been able to turn off. I've designed enterprise AI products, built design systems, led research for blockchain platforms, and eventually found my home in innovation facilitation — the work of helping teams unlock ideas they didn't know they had.
At Discover, I designed the Ideation Hub: an internal crowd-sourcing platform that earned a 2024 President's Award, a patent co-inventor credit, and real adoption from real people solving real problems. I've facilitated dozens of workshops for teams across the company — individual contributors and SVPs alike — and I've learned that the best outcomes happen when everyone in the room feels heard.
I care deeply about accessibility, not as a checkbox but as a design foundation. I've contributed to open-source accessibility tooling, spoken at Grace Hopper Open Source Day, and built accessible-first experiences into every project I touch.
When I'm not designing or facilitating, I'm mentoring, learning, or figuring out how to make something complicated feel simple.
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