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 don't start with screens. I map the whole system, users, business model, the operations underneath, until the real problem is unavoidable. If the brief doesn't exist yet, I build it.
02
Design in the open, AI on the busywork
I move from strategy to structure fast, leaning on Claude for synthesis, first drafts, and prototypes so the judgment gets the hours. You always know why I made a call, not just what I shipped.
03
Prove it, then commit
The work doesn't end at handoff. I validate with real users and real numbers, argue the one point worth arguing, then commit. I'd rather be honest about what didn't land than sell a clean win.
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 · Figma / Claude / FigJam / Adobe CC / HTML & CSS
What I stand for
The principles I keep coming back to when the work gets messy.
01
Drive to the why
Give me a task and I'll do it; give me the problem and I'll do it right. I dig for the real objective, the business, the user, the constraints, before anyone's attached to a screen, and I build shared understanding by showing the work, not just describing it.
02
Strong opinions, loosely held
Before the results are in, I'll argue my point hard, and stay genuinely ready to be wrong. The goal is the best answer, not my answer.
03
Honest over polished
Once the results are on the table, no sugar-coating. I'll own what didn't land as readily as what did, that's what earns trust on the hard problems.
04
Outcomes over output
A strong bias to action: ship to learn, measure the result, and never forget the artifact was never the point.
05
Mind the value exchange
I design the trade between a business and its customer, not just the user. Some customers aren't worth having, and the ones who are deserve an exchange that's fair both ways.
06
Leave it better
The work, the process, the team: I want all of it in better shape after I've moved on than it was when I arrived. No ego, no territory.
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
"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 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
"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
"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
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