me@houshanglivian.com
831.521.4176

Experience

Product Manager/Senior User Experience Designer, Symantec
November 2010 to Today, Mountain View, CA

I am the User Experience(UX) Lead for Clearwell, an enterprise eDiscovery product which is known for having the best in class user experience. Usability was a key reason we were acquired by Symantec for half a billion dollars. I have continued to evangelize design into the culture of Symantec, where I have one of the best reputations for being successful with UX.

I manage the UX deliverables for 200+ feature backlog, for 120 engineers across 12 scrum teams. In comparison, most UX professionals manage a maximum of 3 scrum teams. I do this by having a strong design foundation built from defining the business goals, personas and product design principles so decision making is fast and easy.

Since becoming UX Lead in 2013, I have proactively created all UX deliverables before they were needed. I do this by back-planning features based on the size and complexity and by spending my time focused on only the most important impactful work.

I also perform a subset of Product Management duties relating to customers and new product features. I am known as ‘the unstoppable fountain of ideas’, I have a reputation for innovative BIG thoughts.

Owner, Houshang Livian Web Development
October 2002 to November 2010, Monterey, CA

I designed, architected and developed 100+ websites of all classes and levels of complexity with a small team of developers. I specialized in understanding the essence and story of each business and bringing that message into an immersive unique web experience. In my work, I strived to create specific mental and emotional reactions and did a great deal of research into psychology, sociology, design and branding to achieve that goal.

Dynamic Media Developer, Full Steam Marketing
May 2000 to October 2002, Salinas, CA

Without any prior knowledge of programming, I developed a line of very successful software products. I wrote my own content management system, an HTML editor, and mass email program in addition to many websites. I also invented a plain-text formatting markup before this idea existed. I did this by teaching myself PERL programming using books and courses.

Skills

Research
Contextual Inquiry
Stakeholder Interview
Participant Observation
Affinity Diagramming
Competitor Analysis
Heuristic Evaluation
Design Principles
Usability Testing
Persona Design
Design Studios
Task Analysis
Card Sorting
Scenarios

Design
Visual Design
Branding Design
Presentation Design
Information Architecture
Functional Specifications
Low/Hi-Fi Prototyping
Interaction Design
Data Visualization
Gamification
Wireframing
Illustration
Microcopy
Task-Flows

Organizational
Team Leadership
Core Values, Vision, Mission
Influence, Enrollment, Inspiration
Outcome-Driven Innovation
Backlog Management
Meeting Facilitation
Design Thinking
Requirements
Art of Critique
User Stories
Section 508

Development
Enterprise UX
Product Owner
Agile Scrum
Mobile UX
Waterfall
Lean UX
Web UX

Tools
Illustrator
Photoshop
JavaScript
JQuery
HTML
Flash
PHP
Perl

Professional Development

I had this crazy idea as a teenager that an artist doesn’t need a degree. My passions lead me to learn the following, that may be a degree equivalent self-education.

Books:       Sociology, Psychology, Human Computer Interactions, User Experience Design, User Testing, Visual Design, Information Architecture, General Business, Branding, Writing

Classes:    Programming, HCI, Interaction Design, Visual Design, Illustration, Fine Art, Writing, Psychology

Schools:     Collins College, San Jose State, Monterey Peninsula College, Stanford D-School Online, Coursera, Linda.com, Academy of Art University, Atelier of Oakland