JenStrickland.design listening for the right “it” before we build it right

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Bridging Human-Centered Design, Public Policy, and Front-End Technology. I practice “delivery as diplomacy” — listening and observing first, ensuring every deliverable reflects what agency partners and users genuinely need. Respecting the complex constraints public sector and enterprise teams navigate daily is key to building deep, lasting trust. Explore Case Studies

Jen says Hi!
“Jen’s ability to bridge Quality Control’s concepts for a system redesign to improve the SNAP Payment Error Rate into reality is entirely unprecedented.” — Quality Control Director, MD DHS

Value & Proven Impact

25+ years bridging UX design, research, front-end dev, and public sector policy

Public Sector Modernization

  • Co-led award-winning emergency response end-to-end UX design and rapid prototyping for the VA’s digital COVID-19 screening tool across web and mobile platforms. Enabled millions of Veterans, caregivers, and staff to safely access facilities under extreme timelines, earning the VHA National HeRO Award and the Service to the Citizen Award.
  • Spearheaded an agency-wide culture transformation and strategic shift to an “Accessibility & Mobile First” standard for the VA.gov modernization.

Enterprise Impact

  • Responsive redesign of Fidelity.com Accounts & Trade that increased mobile visitors by 75%. Architected a custom CSS solution that unblocked a complex, data-dense Positions grid, allowing the project to deploy on schedule.
  • Executed a full mobile-responsive conversion for Motovy.com (now UsedCars.com), driving a $500,000/day increase in mobile revenue per arrival for a high-volume ($1M/day) platform.
  • Researched and established an in-house mobile device testing suite for a small start-up and Fidelity Investments to anchor responsive web design practices.

Governance & Leadership

  • W3C Invited Expert and active contributor to Accessible Platforms Architecture (APA), Sustainable Web, Web Performance, and Accessibility Guidelines (AGWG - 2019–2025). Chair of the W3C Equity Community Group, drafting a novel Equity Maturity Model for the Web.
  • Graduating in May 2027 with an MPA from Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of Citizenship & Public Affairs, specializing in responsible technology, sustainability, data analytics for public policy, and conflict/collaboration.
  • Internationally recognized speaker and writer on accessible technology and sustainable web design. Founded cross-functional mentorship initiatives, including internal “Lunch & Learn” passion-project series.

Strategic Philosophy & Process

“ ‘Exceptionally strategic’ is the phrase I would use to describe Jen. She has an incredible ability to walk into a room and immediately bring empathy and compassion to the forefront of any challenge. Her ability to balance strategy, empathy, and attention to detail made her an invaluable part of the team.” – Starling Jaquan, former colleague at MITRE

Process adapts to people, resources, and goals

My approach relies on four continuous stages:

  1. Understand: Research deeply, audit existing systems, gather stakeholder inputs, clarify constraints, and validate core problems.
  2. Plan: Strategize cross-functional workflows, coordinate with agency/product leadership, collaborate on roadmap targets, and align on success metrics.
  3. Design: Ideate, sketch, craft accessible UI components, build functional prototypes, test with real users, and solve technical edge cases.
  4. Iterate: Validate outcomes against metrics, gather structured feedback, refine, document standards, and scale institutional knowledge.

Read about my process at Fidelity