about zen
a serious practice. a whole person.
I’m Zen. I help teams notice what’s happening between people—and build the capacity to work with it.
research, design craft,
and a little mischief.
I came to this work through service design, research, and design systems. Again and again, the most useful work happened between the deliverables: a conversation that named a tension, a shared language, a way for people to try something together.
ZDL brings that work into focus. The aim is a team that can hold its own sensemaking conversations, voice objections, and decide what to do next.
what I bring to the room
care is part
of the method.
Research helps me notice patterns. Design gives them a shape people can work with. Somatic practice and transformative justice inform how I pace a conversation, attend to what is going unsaid, and leave room for people to choose how they participate.
the work
that brought me here.
At AKQA, I worked across enterprise design and research. At Calendly, I built a design systems practice through a period of rapid growth. With Harvard Business School through Superfriendly, I designed a curriculum and playbook for inclusive design.
These settings taught me to pay attention to what people can use, teach, and adapt after the engagement ends.
the form follows
what the team needs.
a specific situation
a focused sprint
Listen closely, make one consequential pattern discussable, and practice a way of working the team can repeat.
a period of change
an ongoing partnership
Develop listening, sensemaking, and decision practices with the people who will keep using and adapting them.
Listening tours, retreats, design systems, and AI and creative sovereignty remain part of the wider practice. The situation gives the work its shape.
a place to begin
what are you noticing?
A change coming. A conversation going nowhere. Something worth protecting as you grow. Bring the real situation.
let’s talk ↗