For 15+ years, I’ve designed products while leading high-performing teams to deliver value for users and customers in competitive, regulated environments, applying human-centered design principles with strategic business thinking.
Clients & Organizations
I have been fortunate to work with a diverse range of clients across the globe, from innovative startups to large enterprises.
This experience has allowed me to collaborate with and support exceptional companies and brands in industries such as healthcare, banking, financial services, insurance, advertising, branding, marketing, entertainment, fleet management, and education.
Expertise in the following areas to be effective wherever needed
Leadership & Management
Proven success as an Experience Strategist and Team Leader, skilled at facilitating a big-picture, systems thinking approach that fosters cross-departmental collaboration and alignment for greater impact.
Design Leadership
Budget Management
Coaching
Quality Assurance
Priorization & Alignment
Service Definition
Strategy & Vision
Talent Acquisition & Development
Product Leadership
Agile / LeanUX
Prioritization
Product Management
Roadmaps
User Stories
Content Strategy
Content Audit
Content Maps
Content Models
Research, Strategy & Journey Management
Don’t depend on luck! Applying research methods and tools that derisk critical decision-making and deliver value to the business and customers/users. Integrating AI with Journey Management platforms enables organizations to intervene at scale faster than ever before, ensuring customer and employee experiences are designed well, managed, and orchestrated to achieve continuous improvement. The outcome is a truly human-centric organization
User Research
Card Sorting
Ethnography
Heuristic Evaluation
Interviews
Jobs To Be Done
Task Analysis
Usability Testing
User Personas
Strategy
AI & Journey Management
Sytems Thinking
Service Blueprints
Journey Orchestration
Journey Atlas
Experience Strategy
Product Design
Whether you want to redesign or build a product from scratch, applying best practices to how product experiences are designed can be the difference between products winning or losing in competitive marketplaces.
Design Thinking
Collaborative Workshops
Design Critique
Design Facilitation
Rapid Prototyping
Validation Testing
User Experience
UX for AI
Conversational Design
Flowcharts
Sitemaps
Visual Design
Storyboards
Requirement Definition
Wireframes
Don’t take my word for it..
“What sets Don apart as a leader is his ability to closely connect the dots between identity and experience. By doing so, he ensures strategy, design, and execution result in an end product that is a true reflection of the organization. He remains at equal ease in front of both the senior executive and the analyst and figures out a way to keep them both engaged in the same room. His passion runs deep which naturally builds a culture of true innovation even in the darkest of corners.”
“Donald is an expert in how to focus teams on results. He has a passion for guiding teams through new ways of thinking to orient them on measurable results, assessing risk vs. reward, and problem-solving at a systems level. ”
“I’ve hired Don Spangler for a number of different primetime TV shows and pilots for 20th Century Fox TV. He produces consistent results and has various connections to the music world that he can use when needed to help finish any project. Don is one of our favorite guys here at Fox Music. I couldn’t recommend him highly enough.”
Work Highlights
Digital Transformation, Service design & UX for a top 3 US bank
Executives at a top 3 US bank wanted to examine the ecosystem of the commercial cardholder experience and determine how they might identify and solve pain points, as well as surface new opportunities for digital transformation. …read more
Case study showcases:
Experience Strategy
Service Design
Technical Analysis
Customer and User Research
Workshop Facilitation
Experience Mapping
Stakeholder Management
Team Leadership
UX Design
Helping a major US airline use a UX and Service Design approach to solve a challenge and surface opportunities.
The team was tasked by the CFO of a major U.S. airline to take a “total experience” (TX) approach to gather insights, identify opportunities, and design a digital solution aimed at reducing costs related to Special Services. The goal was to maximize both Employee Experience (EX) and the guest’s Service Experience.
Case study showcases:
Design Leadership
Strategic Leadership (TX / Design Strategy)
Service Design
UX Design
Innovation
Communication
Project Management
Product Ownership
Collaboration
A redesign for an auto insurance task flow.
AAA wanted to refresh its user experience for customers seeking car and home insurance quotes. The outcome was reduced friction and a 15% increase in conversion rates.
Case Study Showcases:
Information Architecture
Story Mapping
Competetive Analysis
UX Design
Illustration
UX Strategy