“Creating innovative solutions should always begin by learning how people live, work, and accomplish their everyday tasks.”

Derek Turner

Meet Derek

Exceptional products don’t happen by accident. They are engineered through a balance of empathy, creative intuition, and rigorous, results-oriented processes—all powered by a lifelong commitment to continuous improvement and knowledge gathering. As a Product Design and Innovation Strategist, I have steered the development of complex digital products from initial problem statements and ambiguous visions into successful market realities. Shaped by an education in advertising and graduate-level computer science, alongside an active pursuit of emerging technologies, my work sits at the precise intersection of technical infrastructure and human creativity.

I am a dedicated advocate for process-driven product innovation. By evangelizing structured frameworks—including my own PULSE methodology—I help cross-functional teams scale complex digital solutions. With a career rooted in healthcare ecosystems, advertising, e-commerce, and CRM/SaaS/CaaS platforms, I specialize in bridging the gap between technical architecture and creative execution, drawing on years of experience managing, aligning, and upskilling multi-disciplinary creative, production, and technical teams around a unified product vision.

Experience

Product Innovation – User Experience Design and Research Strategist

Wolters Kluwer Health — July 2019 to Present

  • Lead user experience research and design strategy for next-generation, AI-powered clinical decision support and content aggregation platforms.
  • Champion advanced, low-code rapid prototyping methodologies to accelerate the product discovery phase, allowing cross-functional teams to validate API and AI-supported clinical content applications with speed and precision.
  • Conceptualize and pilot high-impact innovation initiatives, successfully advancing proprietary concepts to organization-wide innovation finals.
  • Partner with clinical subject matter experts, product management, and engineering leaders to translate highly complex medical workflows into intuitive, scalable product solutions.
  • Standardize user research frameworks that integrate deep qualitative data with quantitative insights to minimize risks in the product roadmap.

Senior UX Design Consultant

United Airlines (Contract) — February 2019 to July 2019

  • Led user interface design and operational analysis for a major international aviation platform, focusing on consolidating complex airport operations software solutions.
  • Conducted immersive contextual inquiries and field interviews with system operations users to map intricate workflows and identify systemic operational inefficiencies.
  • Developed high-fidelity interactive wireframes and prototypes to anchor qualitative user testing, transforming user feedback into actionable engineering requirements for a consolidated management platform.

Global UX Architect/Creative Team Manager

Brady Corporation — September 2014 to February 2019

  • Directed global user experience design and usability strategy for a major direct-to-customer (B2B) e-commerce portfolio, maximizing online engagement and conversion.
  • Led a multidisciplinary creative team of designers and copywriters delivering comprehensive digital solutions, global brand overhauls, and omni-channel marketing assets.
  • Spearheaded a strategic transition to mobile-first responsive web design, partnering with analytics teams to optimize user journeys utilizing tools like UserTesting.com, ClickTale, and Optimizely.
  • Built out a centralized visual identity system and messaging framework, managing agency partnerships to ensure global brand alignment across web and traditional print media.

UX Design Lead

Humana — June 2013 to August 2014

  • Led interaction design strategy for core web properties handling secure healthcare consumer data, research tools, and public-facing guidance applications.
  • Established standardized rapid prototyping practices by training and scaling the design team on Axure RP, drastically reducing time-to-concept for complex web features.
  • Partnered with Business Analysts to unpack complex corporate requirements, translating them into highly usable, adaptive, and fully compliant digital experiences.
  • Authored user testing scripts and functional prototypes to conduct rigorous UX validation before development handoff.

Senior User Experience Consultant

Cars.com (Contract) — December 2012 to June 2013

  • Consulted with product management and technical stakeholders to architect intuitive UX solutions for business-critical, back-end client relationship management (CRM) systems.
  • Delivered structural recommendations and validated new features by deploying functional prototypes directly into end-user testing environments.
  • Collaborated closely with front-end engineering teams to guarantee that production-ready code aligned perfectly with intended user interactions, accessibility, and design specs.

Senior User Experience Consultant

Truven Health Analytics (Contract) — October 2012 to December 2012

  • Evaluated core healthcare data products, delivering visual and interaction design enhancements to improve the usability of complex analytics frameworks.
  • Rapidly built and iterated on interactive product concepts utilizing front-end prototyping environments (HTML/JavaScript/jQuery) to secure early stakeholder buy-in.
  • Introduced design process improvements and specialized application training to mature the internal UX team’s production workflows.

VP, Associate Creative Director

Ignite Health (a former Syneos Health Agency) — 2011 to 2012

  • Served as creative team leader for a premier digital health and pharma advertising agency, overseeing interactive agency-of-record portfolios for Fortune 500 pharmaceutical and medical device brands.
  • Directed the strategy, visual design, and content architecture for direct-to-consumer (DTC) and healthcare professional (HCP) web experiences, mobile applications, and digital campaigns.
  • Mentored a high-performing team of art directors and copywriters, fostering a culture of rigorous design thinking and strategic execution.
  • Championed creative direction and experience mapping for high-value new business pitches and brand strategy workshops.

VP, Associate Creative Director

Corbett (a former Omnicom Health Agency) — 2007 to 2011

  • Managed the creative team of the agency’s interactive strategy business unit, directing the design, execution, and global launch of cutting-edge digital sales applications, mobile/tablet programs, and complex HCP/DTC clinical websites.
  • Co-led cross-functional teams alongside digital strategists, account planners, and information architects to ship U.S. and international pharmaceutical product launches across highly regulated categories (e.g., Diabetes, Cardiovascular, Infectious Disease).
  • Awarded the agency’s premier annual “Momentum” Award for Creativity alongside over 10 separate agency performance accolades for excellence in campaign execution.

Senior Interactive Designer

Corbett (a former Omnicom Health Agency) — 2003 to 2007

  • Acted as a senior interactive designer and rich-media developer, engineering early digital sales materials, patient games, and high-visibility digital detailing platforms.
  • Guided junior designers and developers while collaborating with copywriters and information architects to translate complex scientific data into engaging digital layouts.

Education & Skills

Michigan State University

B.A., Advertising

Depaul University

Masters-level coursework
E-commerce Technology

Google AI

Professional Certificate

Product Strategy & Innovation

Agile Product Discovery, Strategic Solution Design, Cross-Functional Team Leadership, Business Requirement Unpacking, Competitive Usability Analysis, De-risking Product Roadmaps.

Brand Strategy

Visual Communication, Corporate Typography, Brand Identity Systems, Creative Direction, Omni-Channel Campaign Cohesion, Multi-Disciplinary Team Mentorship

Emerging Technologies

AI-Supported UX Workflows, Rapid AI Concept Validation, Engineering-to-Design Handoff, Technical Solutioning, Frontend Feasibility Analysis.

Domain Expertise

Health-Tech Software, Clinical Workflow Optimization, Patient & HCP Digital Promotion, Secure Consumer Health Portals, B2B E-Commerce Architectures, Enterprise CRM/CMS Environments.

UX Design & Prototyping

Interaction Design (IxD), Information Architecture (IA), Logic-Based Rapid Prototyping, Mobile-First Responsive Design, Corporate Design System Contribution, Accessibility (WCAG) Alignment.

User Research

Qualitative & Quantitative Testing, Contextual Inquiry, Field Research, Usability Testing Scripting, User Journey Mapping, Behavioral Data Interpretation.

Design Software

Adobe Creative Cloud
(Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign, Dreamweaver)

UX Software/Platforms

Figma & Figjam
Axure RP
Miro
UserTesting/User Interviews
Adobe XD

Vibe Coding Platforms

Google Stitch
Claude
Google AI Studio
Loveable

Accolades

Innovation Award Winner

Corbett
(Former Omnicom Company)

4x Innovation Award Finalist

Wolters Kluwer
(Among 500+ annual global entrants)

Outstanding Student Award, Advertising

Michigan State University
Communication Arts & Sciences

Epilogue

The landscape of digital product design is undergoing a massive structural shift. We are moving past static layouts and predictable user flows into an era dominated by intelligent, data-dense ecosystems and AI-driven workflows. Tomorrow’s digital solutions will not just respond to human inputs; they will anticipate them. As interfaces become more autonomous and backend architectures more complex, the challenge is no longer just about making things look clean—it is about designing trust, clarity, and seamless human-computer collaboration within highly sophisticated, logic-driven environments.

Navigating this next frontier requires moving at the rapid pace of technology itself. As systems automate and abstract, we risk building opaque “black boxes” that alienate users, compromise data integrity, and create fragmented digital environments. We must meet these risks head-on by blurring the line between design intent and rapid engineering. By leveraging advanced prototyping and emerging AI development tools, we can construct highly functional, logic-backed simulations to stress-test complex data frameworks in real time. Exposing vulnerabilities early in a safe, sandbox environment eliminates guesswork, de-risks product roadmaps, and ensures we build intelligent interfaces that are both highly innovative and inherently trustworthy.

Navigating this evolution requires an open-minded approach with a relentless focus on adaptability. We must be prepared to design more elastic systems that are capable of evolving alongside technological breakthroughs and shifting user behaviors. By bridging the gap between deep technical capability and human-centered intuition, we will continue to ensure that as systems grow more powerful, user experience remains grounded, transparent, and effortlessly impactful.