Design for delight, function, and community

Cal Brackin is a Product Designer in Boulder, CO.

Portfolio presentation

Product Designer

Cal Brackin

Cal Brackin

307-413-1726

Westminster, CO

cbrackin@gmail.com

Currently, I'm a Sr. Product Designer at LuckyTruck where our team is designing the first all-in-one retail platform exclusively focused on the trucking insurance market.

Currently, I'm a Sr. Product Designer at LuckyTruck where our team is designing the first all-in-one retail platform exclusively focused on the trucking insurance market.

I was born and raised in Jackson Hole, WY and grew up with a passion for playing ice hockey with my brother. I love backpacking, rock climbing, mountain biking, and doing art with my family.

I was born and raised in Jackson Hole, WY and grew up with a passion for playing ice hockey with my brother. I love backpacking, rock climbing, mountain biking, and doing art with my family.

Practicing the triple deke

01

Outline

01

Insights

02

Path

03

Design

Insights

Approach

01

Clay on the table. I prefer to share rough ideas sketched out early to visualize the team’s ideas and explore divergent solutions.

Clay on the table.

I prefer to share rough ideas sketched out early to visualize the team’s ideas and explore divergent solutions.

02

Bias for action. I create artifacts and interactive prototypes to learn faster and reduce production time.

Bias for action.

I create artifacts and interactive prototypes to learn faster and reduce production time.

03

Work in systems. Whether it’s a tiny feature or an entire design system, I create reusable components for the team.

Work in systems.

Whether it’s a tiny feature or an entire design system, I create reusable components for the team.

Insights

Experience

Depth

Breadth

User Research

Interaction Design

Visual Design

Illustration

User Research

Prototyping

Prototyping

Rapid Prototyping

01

Insights

02

Path

03

Design

Path

01

Human-centered

Helping People

MA-Int’l Relations

Anthropology & Social Science Research Methods

Interviews

Surveys

Strategic Sketching

What People Do

How They Do It

Why They Do It

Motivations

& Circumstances

Path

02

Design-centered

Design as a Method

Founded Design Consultantcy

Gov, Legal, & Corporate Clients

Design-Led Community Campaigns

Empathy

Design

Business

Path

03

Human-centered product design

Solving Human Problems with Design

MA-UX/UI Design

Design Agency

Sprints

In-House

Shipping Products

Dev Team & Handoff

Discussion

Let's hear from you

What are you looking for in a person for this role?

01

Insights

02

Path

03

Design

Pepsi - Agency

Pepsi - Agency

Pepsi - Agency

Pepsi - Agency

iFit - Agency

iFit - Agency

Sauza - Agency

Prototyping Specialist

Sauza UX/UI and brand strategy

Prototyping

Outdoorsy - Agency

Interaction & Visual Design

Design System

Icon Development

Illustrations

Jiffy Lube - Agency

Strategic Design

Drawing is strategic thinking

Stays closer to ideas

Encourages divergent ideas, "what if…"

Approachable

Design - Consulting & Agency

Personal Superpower to Team Superpower

LuckyTruck - Design Lead

The first all-in-one insurance platform focused on the trucking market

Design Lead

2021-Present

LuckyTruck - Design Lead

The first all-in-one insurance platform focused on the trucking market

Design Lead

2021-Present

LuckyTruck - Design Lead

Let's Imagine…

LuckyTruck - Design Lead

Let's Imagine…

LuckyTruck - Design Lead

LuckyTruck Platform - Product Design

Re-design of existing platform

Creating Flows

Wireframes

Prototyping

User-Testing

Design System

Before

Now

LuckyTruck - Design Lead

LuckyTruck Platform - Product Design

LuckyTruck - Design Lead

LuckyTruck Website

Built company’s website on Framer (low-code web builder)

Email Campaigns

Partnership Designs

Before

Now

LuckyTruck - Design Lead

Accomplishments

Results and impacts from my work

Platform

  • Designed and shipped LuckyTruck app

  • Increased customers getting a quote on the platform by 8%

  • Increased avg. rating of broker UX by 85%+ (level of ease, usefulness, adoption, learnability)

  • 85% increase in user-testing sessions resulting in significant product improvements

Website

  • Designed and launched Framer website, reducing engineering resources to 0 and increasing capabilities

  • Conversion rate (site to sign-up) from V1 to V2 +7%

  • Conversion rate from V2 to V3 +7%

  • Improved SEO with content, pages, backlinks, +100 blogs, leading to 48%+ organic lead generation

Partnerships

  • Managed collaboration between design teams to white label our product for additional revenue

  • Collaborated with 9 companies to build additional revenue streams (ex: fuel card leading to 20+ leads and commission on their partnership purchase)

Marketing

  • Increased marketing journeys by 135%. Average open rate of 27%, click through of 2.7%.

  • Launched successful postcard campaign resulting in +26% leads during campaign month

LuckyTruck - Design Lead

System Designs

Components

Speed

Consistent user-experience

Quality

Engineer Documentation

Design System

Brand Book

LuckyTruck - Design Lead

Major Problems

User Adoption & Conversion

User Drop-Off Throughout Flow

LuckyTruck - Design Lead

UX Design Process

My illustrated process map

LuckyTruck - Design Lead

Quick Context Research

Zoom & Phone Interviews

Discover anxieties and contexts

Insurance Brokers

Customers

LuckyTruck - Design Lead

Product User Testing

In Person

Get Outside (GO) Design

Encounter Real (and Many) Problems

Relationship Development

Jot Notes

Customer Interaction

LuckyTruck - Design Lead

In-Depth Product Research

Task-Based Testing

8 research sessions with 158 points to redesign

85% increase in rating (ease, usefulness…)

User Testing Script

Analysis

LuckyTruck - Design Lead

Alignment Mapping

Customer Journey Maps

Service Blueprints

Connecting customer motivations with business processes

LuckyTruck - Design Lead

Customer Conversations and Marketing Research

Informal Conversations

Motivations and Circumstances

Customer Personas

Story Crafting

LuckyTruck - Design Lead

Landing Page Revamp

Split URL tests

Increase in Hitting CTA by 7%

More Call Activity

LuckyTruck - Design Lead

Account Creation - Current

HotJar

User error during login (username and pass)

33% dropoff from website to sign up

LuckyTruck - Design Lead

Account Creation - Revised

Thank you

DEI

Being an engaged community member

Engaging in DEI

AmeriCorps

  • 99% Latino community

  • Extensive DEI & leadership training

City Kids

  • Worked with inner-city DC youth

  • Led outdoor experiences

Leadership Jackson Hole

  • Led community-wide mental health awareness campaign to promote a sense of belonging

Peace Corps - Mongolia

  • Developed cross-age peer-mentoring program for dormitory, non-dormitory to promote belonging and inclusion

  • Chosen to represent Mongolia PC at gender-based violence training in Thailand

  • Presented school social work programming focusing on belonging at International School Social Workers Conference

  • Selected as Trainer for Peace Corps Volunteers

  • Created and showed in public gallery a trafficking in persons awareness comic

Boulder County Leadership Fellows

  • Emphasized inclusive leadership from a DEI lens

  • Selected for the program as an emerging community leader

William J. Clinton Fellowship to India

  • Focused on equal and inclusive environment for girls

  • Worked in rural India in community development sector

Pocket Slides

Testimonials

Kaitlin Lewis

AmeriCorps peer

The thread that connects leadership, collaboration, and flexibility is a commitment to others and an ability to be truly present in any given situation. That’s Cal. Whether decorating a gym for an elementary school Christmas celebration, starting a grassroots effort to showcase youth art in community installations, or mediating debates among colleagues, Cal’s compassion for others and intense consideration of how an act will affect others, makes him an asset to any team.

Mateo Juan Barroetavena

Stay Gold Design colleague

As a team leader Cal inspired trust and collaboration throughout our projects, leveraging his expertise and understanding to create innovative solutions that added immense value to both the client and the work delivered. His transparency, honesty and empathy bleed into every meeting and checkpoint, letting people in his team know that they can count on him 100%. Collaboration and versatility are a major part of his DNA, being able to occupy any and all roles at any given time, with a will to help find the best in everything we did.

Caleb Hammel

Sr. Product Designer, Hertz

In several instances working with Cal, he learned a new skill because no-one on the team knew how to accomplish what we needed. While working with a client who wanted graphic motion in their UI, Cal seemed to empress the opportunity to learn a new tool to in order to get the team where it needed to be. Whether it is a UX/UI problem, learning how to laser cut a lamp, or create a bike trailer so his daughter can join for rides; Cal is persistent in learning new tools to solve problems.

Pocket Slides

Talents

Rank

Theme

Summary

Domain

01

Intellect

Intellectually motivated, introspective, and multi-perspectives

Strategic Thinker

02

Empathy

Able to imagine themselves in others' lives or situations

Relationship Builder

03

Maximizer

Focused on strengths to stimulate excellence in self and others

Influencer

04

Learner

Desire to learn and improve

Strategic Thinker

05

Achiever

Hard work and stamina

Executor

Out of 34 themes and 4 domains of the Gallup-CliftonStrengths talent/skills evaluation

Pocket Slides

Prototyping & Rapid Design Product Tools

Approach - Bias for Action

Reduces production time

Maintain momentum from prototyping to production

Wrote tutorials for ProtoPie