Julia Schaumburg

One of the founding members of the Fjord Federal Studio specifically invested in delivering measurable value for healthcare and human services agencies. Worked with agency partners to define what problem to solve and identify next steps. Designed a successful approach that used customized research methods st scale as an effective stakeholder engagement method. Created an operational/product strategy proposal adopted by the program, that integrated Human-centered design and Agile methodologies. Led efforts to establish an evidence-driven, iterative product development approach for the Case Management team. Proven success aligning stakeholders, insisting on discovery, turning vague ideas into concrete priorities, and minimizing risk in the product development process.

• Created organizational and operational strategy for 3 critical transformation projects in HHS and the DOJ representing over 1 billion dollars worth of work.
• Established a design system for a Fortune 100 Healthcare client, and led product for a social impact startup recognized by the Obama Foundation
• Worked with agency partners to define what problem to solve and identify next steps.
• Designed a successful approach that used customized research methods st scale as an effective stakeholder engagement method.
• Proposed initiatives adopted at the program level to better support delivering value with Human-centered design and Agile methodologies in an enterprise HHS transformation space.
• Proven success establishing an evidence-driven, iterative approach for multidisciplinary Agile delivery teams, by aligning stakeholders, insisting on discovery, turning vague ideas into concrete priorities, and minimizing risk in the product development process.

Leveraged user-centered design methods to translate user needs, business objectives, and technology capabilities into world-class user experiences and leading-edge responsive solutions for federal clients.

• Embedded designer on an Agile delivery team for a federal agency client
• Used extensive user interviews and feedback to help designs for internal and public-facing systems.
• Explained issues clearly to both technical and non-technical audiences.
• Recognize when practices no longer serve the team and recommend a way forward.
• Helped establish a framework to measure usability, quality, and ROI of solutions based on testing results.

Lead a successful usability audit and service evaluation on an Agency for Healthcare Quality and Reform tool. MONAHRQ is a platform used by agency and NGO for the public reporting of provider performance data.

• Provided actionable, evidence-based improvement suggestions and established a research-based release benchmark.
• Principle author of a usability audit and findings report that combined extensive domain research, an expert usability review, and interviews with stakeholders and the user support team.
• Navigated complex organizational relationships to bring stakeholders together around common goals and priorities.
• Gave agency partners and peers the advice they need to hear over what they want to hear, in a manner that respects their intelligence and experience.

UX designer for a small distributed digital agency that specialized in creating customized business technology systems for professional firms in the US and Europe. Doubled DC revenue through new accounts, due to successful relationships as a client-facing account lead for projects.

• Increased revenue by developing a client facing performance-testing-as-a-service program, integrating testing into the pitching process and coordinating managed A/B and remote user testing services.
• Account lead and client-facing solution architect for several diverse business technology projects.

GPA 3.5 (Cum Laude); Professional Psychology Honors Fraternity; Honors Clinical Practicum; Departmental award recipient for Excellence in Experimental Design for Behavioral Science

Ongoing personal project building a tactical "Sprint Zero" toolkit to support Design-led Agile for government transformation projects at scale. Focused on practical methods to combating common misconceptions among Agile practitioners and helping commercially-trained designers adapt traditional studio language and agency methods to better fit a deployed-to-entity, multi-scrum team delivery model and government compliance culture. Combining ongoing inquiry, expert interviews with colleagues and clients throught the civic service design community, and findings from personal experience wtih customizing research and service design methodologies to be effective in high-security, high-assurance public safety systems.