I'm Nicole, a product design leader based in Portland, Oregon. Over the past decade I've led design at the intersection of systems thinking, organizational design, and emerging technology, building the infrastructure that lets product teams move faster and design better.

My day job is leading product design at Lithia & Driveway, where my team owns the design infrastructure and customer-facing products behind America's largest automotive retailer. That's meant building Sequoia, an enterprise design system now operating across two product organizations, shipping consumer products like the My Driveway customer portal, and integrating AI into how our team works.

Outside of work I co-founded AI Portland, the largest and most active AI community in the Pacific Northwest, now 3,000 members strong. What started as a conversation over a bottle of wine became something I'm genuinely proud of: a space where designers, engineers, founders, and curious minds show up consistently to learn, debate, and figure out what AI actually means for the work they do. I also co-host the podcast (Super)charged by AI.

When I'm not working you'll find me mentoring designers, playing with new tools, or hanging with my kids and bulldogs, probably with my nose in a good book. I've called North Portland home for over a decade. We've got the best bridge in town, just saying.