01 · LPL Financial · Phase 1 of 3
Zero to one: launching Paraplanning Services
A paraplanning service built from zero to one, so advisors could hand off plan preparation and spend their time with clients.
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subscriber growth
Selected work
02 · LPL Financial · Phase 2 of 3
Map the gap: standardizing five planning services
Mapped all five planning service lines end to end to separate what was genuinely shared from what only looked shared, reframing the standardization effort.
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services mapped end-to-end
03 · LPL Financial · Phase 3 of 3
Evolving the service
With the service live, I shifted from making screens to leading research and service design: five bets to fix the model and operations underneath it.
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advisor engagement · Planning 360
04 · BuildonMe
From Reactive to Intelligent
A claims platform that only recorded the past, rebuilt to guide the work, proven out as a certified ServiceNow scoped app.
Read case studyHow I work
Fifteen years in, the method doesn't change: understand deeply, design in the open, let the evidence decide.
01
Frame the real problem
I map the system and talk with the people in it to build context: the goals, the pain, the economics, how the work actually flows. What I find has often changed what we built and why, not just refined the details.
02
Design in the open
I show my work early and often, rough and polished, explaining my decisions as I make them. You'll never wonder why I made a call. You were there for every one, and the work is better for it.
03
Validate and evolve
I validate with real users and real numbers. What I learn feeds the next round. Sometimes that's a course correction. Sometimes it's a new phase of work I stay to build. Either way, the product or service grows.
Skills & capabilities
Grounded in classic UX craft, sharpened on regulated, enterprise realities: deadlines, legacy systems, and stakeholders who answer to a P&L. Increasingly, done with AI in the loop, not instead of judgment.
Strategy & Research
- Discovery & problem framing
- Qual + quant research
- Service & systems design
- Stakeholder alignment
Experience Design
- End-to-end product & UX
- Information architecture
- Interaction & prototyping
- Design systems & governance
Delivery & Leadership
- Design-to-dev handoff & QA
- Workshop facilitation
- Mentoring & team building
- Content strategy
Building with AI
- AI-assisted research synthesis
- Prototyping with Claude
- Human-in-the-loop design
- Design-to-code with agents
Tools · Claude / Claude Design / Claude Code / ChatGPT / Figma / FigJam / Adobe Creative Suite / HTML & CSS
What I stand for
The principles I keep coming back to when the work gets messy.
01
People first. Always.
Life and work happen with and through people. I invest in the people I work with, and whatever happens, I've got their backs.
02
Drive to the why
You can't solve a problem until you know why the problem exists. I dig for the real objective and build shared understanding as I go, so the whole team is solving the same problem.
03
Mind the value exchange
Advocating for the user is where I start, not where I finish. I design the full trade: what the customer gives, what the business gives back, and whether that deal is worth making at all. Some deals aren't, and I'll say so.
04
Outcomes over output
An old Lean principle that AI now makes urgent. Output used to be expensive. Now, it's nearly free, and it's easier than ever to confuse producing things with making progress.
I ship to learn what research can't tell me, measure the result, and never forget the artifact was never the point.
05
Strong opinions, loosely held
Vigorous discussion and debate are how strong teams sharpen ideas. I'll argue my point hard and expect others to do the same. I'm genuinely ready to be wrong. When the decision maker calls it, the discussion is over, and I execute the decision like it was mine.
06
Own it
When I'm wrong or I screw up, I'm the first to say so. No spin, no waiting to get caught. Then I work my tail off to make it right. When things go well, I own that too, and I share it. I'm the first to credit the teammates and direct reports who helped make it happen.
07
Life's too short
Work is hard enough without being grim and salty about it. I lead with humor, keep it light when the pressure's on, and make sure the team's having a good time doing hard things. I do my best work that way and believe others do too.
What others say
Don't take it from me. Hear it from clients, managers, and teammates.
"He helped us distill mountains of qualitative data into unique insights, then manifested them into the best experiences for our customers. HFMA’s new digital experience attracted an average of ~20% more new customers a month versus our previous model."
Garth Jordan
Client, Chief Strategy Officer · HFMA
"I have had the pleasure of managing and working directly with Lou on multiple occasions spanning over 15 years, and have witnessed his growth and development firsthand. Lou has demonstrated the breadth and depth to execute across the full spectrum of user experience — from information architecture and interaction design work on very complex business workflows, to product research and development (exploring and applying emerging UX trends), to practice development (researching and designing new offerings such as a “Problem Solving Workshop in a Box”)."
Frank Wang
Chief Product Officer · BuildOnMe
"Lou is a talented designer, but that’s not the best part of having him on your team. The real reason I’ll stand beside him is that he’s a person of integrity, he leads with humor and humility, and has no ego."
Rosie Rathburn
Director, PM · lululemon
"Large or small, strategic or tactical, he would not stop until he was satisfied with the results. His mastery of UX, IA, content strategy, and service design makes him a formidable resource."
Terry Peters
Managing Director · ICF Next
"He took our technical ideas and built the UX flow and look-and-feel, facilitating full-day design workshops and leading development with my team. He pushed back where appropriate, the results were beyond our expectations."
Jay Wrobel
Senior Advisor · U.S. Dept of Energy
"He approaches problems focused on end-user benefits rather than an arbitrary list of tasks, and isn’t shy to responsibly push clients to think bigger."
Faryar Borhani
Chief Comms Officer · Encore
"Lou drives to ‘the why,’ then toward the best ‘what’ and ‘how.’ He’s a true consultant, an asset to any team looking to build the right thing, the right way."
Ken Wasetis
Technical Strategist · ICF Next
"Lou is powered by doing the hard work that makes things better. Easy to say, super-hard to find. So few can provide the entire suite of design services with a spirit of curiosity and the dedication of an expert."
Jamie Anderson
CX Design Exec · ICF
"Every project I was on with him, I knew was in great, capable hands. His UX expertise comes with excellent communication, thoughtful strategy, and cutting-edge service design, delivered with an eloquence matched by few."
Danny Mason
Creative Director & Consultant
Get in touch
Ask me anything, or just say hello.
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