The Wonder Years

Farewell, Automatic. Hello, Facebook.

With the year’s end among us, we have the opportunity to step outside our daily lives and take an introspective look at the road we’ve travelled.

Change is beautiful, especially when it takes us out of our comfort zone and forces us to adapt to new environments. In a way, I’ve lived most of my life in constant change—I’ve lived in three countries and dozens of cities. I’ve grown accustomed to embrace change and seek it when I feel stagnant.

But recently, change has led me to a place that I never would’ve imagined.

— 2012 —

In March, I moved to Los Angeles, California from Tampa, Florida to join a design agency that was working on their yet-to-be-released product. In my time there, I lead a team of great designers who quickly became even greater friends. Together we crafted interactive experiences for the likes of QVC, Diesel, The Economist and hundreds of small business owners.

Though Silicon Beach is alive and thriving, I found myself itching to be a part of the digital movement a few miles north of the LA sunlight.

Automatic

Later that year, I met a small group of Berkeley graduates in San Francisco with the crazy idea to reinvent people’s relationship with driving, and I fell in love. Not because I particularly love driving —though I’ve been driving for as long as I’ve been legally allowed to, I never really thought of myself as a car fanatic— but because I was very enamored with the idea of unlocking your car’s potential. In fact, earlier that year I had bought a brand new Ford Focus, mainly because of its Ford Sync technology. Underwhelmed by Ford’s attempt at the connected car and inspired by Automatic, I decided to pack my bags (again) and head up to foggy San Francisco, California to work on the product and design for the young start-up.

— 2013 —

After working at Automatic for more than a year now, I’ve witnessed some of the best moments of my career. Moments like staying up all night before launch day as everyone rallied together to catch our website bugs, watching my phone vibrate uncontrollably as our inbox was flooded with support emails, or walking through the Apple Store and seeing the product we created from the ground up on the shelves. These are moments that I will cherish forever and will be eternally grateful for being a part of.

In the past year I have grown exponentially as a designer. I’ve done the best work of my life and met really amazing people along the way. Watching a handful of nerds in a small room on Market Street make something out of nothing and grow into the amazing team that is Automatic has been incredibly inspiring and rewarding. To think that I’ve had even the smallest part in the accomplishments of the company leaves me with nothing but pride and gratitude for such an amazing opportunity.

— 2014 —

I am very proud of Automatic and the product that we’ve collectively worked so hard to put out there. But, a new year brings new challenges, and I’m excited to announce that this year, I will be joining the incredibly talented team at Facebook as a Product Designer.

I’ve been a fan of Facebook’s product design and vision for a really long time, especially recently with products like Facebook Home and Graph Search. I’m incredibly excited to be a part of that vision and work on what’s next for the company.

As for Automatic, they are currently hiring for a Principal Product Designer as well as a Mobile Product Designer. This is a great opportunity to have a big impact in the company’s product and design future.

What about you? How has this last year treated you? What do you have in store for 2014?

Don’t forget to follow me on Twitter and say hello. I’d love to meet you!