“Don’t fuck up the news”

Patch was a media brand and content platform offering local news in more than 800 communities nationwide. I was brought on to re-architect the user experience to embrace user content alongside original reporting from local editors in order to expand the number of towns we could serve. Think Facebook groups (but better designed) with elevated editorial content and local self-serve advertising… all while retaining respect for the well loved news content. I directly managed the 10 person product design team, oversaw creative for the 8 person marketing team, partnered closely with the Patch C-suite and met regularly with the CEO of AOL. I partnered with engineering and product to build the new platform and at the same time travelled nationally to explain the changes to over 1000 editorial staff and advertising salespeople on the ground. We also performed extensive ethnographic and UX research, built out visual design and brand voice style guides and managed agencies on side projects.