Highland

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  Audrey Thomas

  Product Manager at Supplier.io

  Design System and UX Assessment

  Project Type: User Experience

  Review Date: 31 January, 2025

  Verified via email/call

  Highland is a great partner. The sought to deeply understand our product, customers, and pain points and built a number of forward looking opportunities for us in addition to the tight scope of our project. Proactive, thoughtful, responsive, and flexible. We are a small team and found lots of value in working with Highland to get our UX refresh project up and running.

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  Greg Kozak

  CIO at Collage Lake County

  CRM consulting services.

  Project Type: CRM Consulting

  Review Date: 30 August, 2024

  Source: 3rd-party Review Platform

  With Highland, be willing to think big. It is going to change the outcome of your product. You might have to spend a little bit more, but what you get will be enduring.

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  ✨ Liz Pisney ✨

  Vice President, Member Experience at ISACA

  Chapter Leader Portal

  Project Type: User Experience

  Review Date: 23 July, 2024

  Verified via email/call

  We recently partnered with Highland on research and prototypes for a new information architecture on a volunteer resources site for our Chapter leaders. Having over 3000 volunteers around the globe can introduce a lot of nuance and complexity to research and design processes. The team at Highland handled it all skillfully - focusing on how to deliver the most clarity and usability to our audience. 10 out of 10, I would recommend working with the Highland team!

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  Lee Wiensch, CAE, CFRE

  Executive Director at Thoracic Surgery Foundation

  New Website

  Project Type: Webflow Development

  Review Date: 28 June, 2024

  Verified via email/call

  We had a great experience working with the team at Highland to develop a new website for the Thoracic Surgery Foundation, a charitable organization aimed at advancing heart and lung health for all. Highland worked with us to re-imagine a dated website with limited functionality, and developed a a gorgeous new site that beautifully reflects the vitality of the organization. We anticipate that our award applicants, donors, surgeons and grateful patients will be able to easily navigate the new site and have a much-improved user experience. Jeff Blanchard and his team were exceptionally good listeners, and worked hard to create solutions for our complicated awards program. They provided good training to our team throughout the process so that we have been able to keep things updated and easily make changes now that the site has launched. I am grateful for their patience and very quick turnaround as we juggled a new strategic plan and new branding, all at the time of the website creation. I have been continually impressed with the expertise and the innovation that Highland brings to a project like ours. It was a pleasure to launch this site -- on time and on budget -- with their excellent work and support.

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  Kathrin Munz

  Head of Products & Services at GENIOO

  Digital Product Design & Development

  Project Type: Product Design

  Review Date: 29 December, 2023

  Source: 3rd-party Review Platform

  The initial product was much more sophisticated than we expected. Our executive team and board were highly impressed.

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  Greg Healy

  Head of Product at Security Organization

  Research & Design for Digital Strategy

  Project Type: Digital Strategy

  Review Date: 22 December, 2023

  Source: 3rd-party Review Platform

  One of their strengths is their product discovery and design approach, which is critical to us. Many shops will make something beautiful and miss the beat of the market analysis.

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  Janet Traphagen

  CEO at Creative Group

  Digital Product Design & Development

  Project Type: Product Design

  Review Date: 11 December, 2023

  Source: 3rd-party Review Platform

  Working with Highland has elevated our creative process, pushing us in a more strategic direction. Compared to similar platforms on the market, Highland built a fast, competitive version that will give us an upper hand.

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Highland Team Bios

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  Jeff Blanchard

  Director, Product Design

  Jeff has led the design of products & services across numerous verticals for over 20 years. His drive to experiment, learn rapidly through dialog, and be inclusive of multiple perspectives comes from founding or being part of several startups and growth companies.
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  Curtis Blackwell

  Manager, Digital Product Delivery

  Curtis Blackwell joined Highland in 2018. He strives to leave things better than he found them, and guides the development team in creating strong technical architecture, simplifying complex code and improving product workflows.
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  David Whited

  Principal, Design Research & Strategy

  David helped Highland make the shift from software to product development by incorporating best practices from the worlds of Product Design, Lean Startup Practices, and Business Design. Today, he helps our clients solve problems through gaining an outside-in view of their customers' experiences.
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  Jon Berbaum

  President

  Jon joined Highland in 2007 and has performed nearly every role in the company. He's lead Highland into new practice areas, and lead clients in a broad range of industries through customer experience strategy, product development, human-centered innovation, and digital transformation.
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  Kristina Giffin

  Design Researcher

  Kristina joined Highland in 2019 as a Front End Developer & transitioned to Design Research soon thereafter. Familiar with the technical details of creating a digital product, Kristina now enjoys uncovering the personal aspects of customer experience & user needs that drive product engagement.
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  Abril Caraballo-Marin

  UX Designer

  Abril joined Highland in 2022. She strives to stay curious and take a learner's stance to uncover insights which can be translated into design interventions that help promote holistic flourishing. Her work includes design for edtech, fintech, and non-profit organizations across numerous industries.
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  Amrita Kulkarni

  Director, Design Research & Strategy

  Amrita joined Highland in 2020, having previously applied her skills across four continents. With education in architecture, industrial design, and innovation strategy, she has spent the past decade in the innovation consulting space, helping imagine new futures in collaboration with her clients.
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  Amy Carrera

  Lead Product Manager

  Amy is dedicated to creating innovative digital products, driving her projects forward with genuine curiosity and determination. With a B.S. from Illinois Institute of Technology, Amy is deeply familiar with and enjoys collaborating with designers & engineers alike.
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  Justin Wu

  Lead Design Researcher & Strategist

  Justin joined Highland in 2021. He is focused on leveraging research & design to create ethical & equitable impact. He has helped legacy organizations & early-stage startups design human-centered products and services as well as finding the intersection between business strategy & human insight.
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  Katherine Halbig

  Lead Designer & Strategist

  Kat has a decade of experience in design and 5 years in user experience consulting. In the past she's worked on enterprise products for the customer service, finance, healthcare, and construction industries. Outside of work, Kat teaches user research & design at her undergrad university.
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  Elijah Yazdi

  Senior Product Designer

  Elijah joined Highland in 2022. He is a Loyola graduate with over 12 years of product design experience. Over his career, he has worked on mobile & web products in the construction, health, and social networking industries.
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  Patrick Ruff

  Senior UX Designer

  Patrick Ruff approaches product design through the lens of service design and systems thinking. Hes spent the majority of his career helping organizations understand how their products could interact with one another and how to improve their greater product ecosystem.