DIGITAL MACGYVER

85

Resume

Scott Ellis

Digital MacGyver started in 1985 as a joke that stuck: fix the thing with what’s on the table. That is still the work. Brand Center, SharePoint, Copilot, product design — same muscle, better tools.

I live in the Portland area. I still do the work myself.

DIGITAL MACGYVER

85

Field Work

Experience

My expertise ensures every project is executed with precision and creativity.

Full profile on LinkedIn

Founder, Head of Design & Digital Workplace Experience
Portland, OR (Remote from Damascus, OR)

DEC 1985 - PRESENT

Lead all product design, UX strategy, and system architecture initiatives across Digital MacGyver, driving enterprise transformation for global clients. Oversee end-to-end user experience for complex workflows, delivering AI-enhanced, scalable solutions across hybrid cloud, SaaS, and identity management platform.

Key Achievements & Responsibilities:

Directed design leadership for enterprise SaaS, financial forecasting tools, and AI-enhanced content management systems, improving workflow efficiency by 45% and accelerating time to market.
Designed and delivered Microsoft 365 intranet solutions supporting 10,000+ users, reducing search friction by 40%, boosting collaboration, and driving adoption of underutilized M365 features.
Spearheaded secure, scalable application integrations across on-premise and SaaS platforms, enabling unified employee experiences and driving digital workplace modernization.
Established and implemented enterprise design systems and UI pattern libraries, ensuring design consistency and accelerating developer velocity across cross-functional teams.
Leveraged data-driven UX strategies, usability research, and iterative testing to improve product satisfaction scores by 30%, while driving measurable business impact for enterprise clients.
Partnered with executive stakeholders, product management, and engineering leaders to define product roadmaps, align user experience goals to business outcomes, and champion customer-centric design across the organization.
Managed design team operations, including budget planning, cross-functional collaboration, team mentorship, and process optimization aligned with Agile and SAFe methodologies.
Drove enterprise UX transformation by introducing agentic AI design workflows and AI-augmented knowledge management systems, enhancing end-user productivity and driving business adoption of agent-led experiences.

Terracon Consulting

Director of Product - M365 & Copilot AI | OpEx

Olathe, Kansas (Remote from Damascus, OR)

DEC 2025 - PRESENT

Leads the M365 product strategy and enterprise Copilot AI adoption program for Terracon, a top-ten national engineering and technical services firm with 6,000+ employees across 175+ offices. Embedded within the Operational Excellence (OpEx) department, this role drives platform modernization, AI-first culture change, and measurable productivity outcomes at enterprise scale — bridging executive strategy with frontline adoption across engineering, operations, and business unit teams.

Key Achievements & Responsibilities:

Owns the enterprise M365 product roadmap across Microsoft Teams, SharePoint Online, and OneDrive — aligning platform capabilities to Terracon's operational model across highly distributed, field-and-office hybrid teams spanning engineering, environmental, and infrastructure disciplines.
Architects and leads the firm's Microsoft Copilot AI adoption strategy, including governance frameworks, responsible AI policy, rollout phasing, and change management programs designed to build sustainable AI fluency across a workforce of engineers, scientists, and project managers.
Builds and maintains an enterprise use case library and prompt engineering guides tailored to Terracon's core service lines — enabling practitioners to apply Copilot to real project workflows, proposal development, report generation, and knowledge retrieval.
Designs and implements ROI measurement frameworks that quantify Copilot productivity impact across business units, enabling executive reporting and investment justification aligned to operational efficiency goals.
Serves as the internal Microsoft relationship lead, coordinating with Microsoft account teams, FastTrack, and product groups to accelerate feature adoption, resolve tenant-level challenges, and align Terracon's roadmap with the M365 platform evolution.
Partners with IT, Legal, Compliance, and Information Security to establish Copilot data governance standards, sensitivity label taxonomies, and AI usage policies that satisfy both enterprise risk requirements and engineering regulatory obligations.
Develops and delivers executive briefings, lunch-and-learn programs, and adoption enablement content — positioning AI adoption as a strategic differentiator and competitive capability for Terracon's growth objectives.
Drives cross-functional collaboration across business unit leaders, HR, and OpEx stakeholders to embed AI-enhanced workflows into onboarding, knowledge management, project delivery, and internal communications.

Bluerock Consulting

Principal Product Designer | Design Systems & Enterprise UX - Contract

Washington, DC (Remote from Damascus, OR)

OCT 2023 - PRESENT

Lead the strategy, development, and governance of BlueRock Consulting’s enterprise design system, driving consistency, scalability, and accessibility across digital products. Collaborate with product, engineering, and data teams to align design system standards with enterprise architecture, ensuring efficient workflows and seamless user experiences.

Key Achievements & Responsibilities:

Owned end-to-end design system development and maintenance, delivering reusable UI components, interaction patterns, and accessibility-compliant guidelines that accelerated product delivery cycles by 35%.
Led the enterprise redesign of GE Vernova’s application suite, enhancing usability by 25% and driving a 30% uplift in user engagement through streamlined workflows, intuitive UI, and data-informed interaction models.
Partnered with SymphonyAI to create AI-driven dashboards and analytics experiences, enabling data-driven decision-making and improving operational efficiency by 20%.
Collaborated with engineering to integrate scalable design systems into enterprise tech stacks, ensuring system compliance, performance optimization, and seamless component implementation.
Advocated for design systems adoption across teams, providing hands-on mentorship, workshops, and documentation that improved design-to-dev handoff velocity by 30%.
Drove enterprise-wide accessibility initiatives by embedding WCAG 2.1 AA compliance into design system patterns and contributing to inclusive design practices.
Facilitated cross-functional collaboration with product management, engineering, and executive leadership to ensure design systems align to business goals, customer needs, and product strategy.

NRI North America

Principal Product Designer - Contact
Motion Recruitment, Seattle, WA

JUL 2025 - FEB 2026

Led the end-to-end design of employee experience tools and workplace platforms across web and mobile, driving improvements in productivity, engagement, and workflow efficiency. Owned design execution and strategy for key initiatives, collaborating with Product Management, Engineering, and HR stakeholders to deliver high-impact, user-centered solutions.

Key Achievements & Responsibilities:

Owned end-to-end product design across discovery, IA, UX/UI, and delivery for SharePoint Online, Viva Connections, and React + Tailwind components. Built a modular Figma design system with tokens, patterns, and usage guidelines that increased design to dev velocity by [25 to 40 percent].
Re-architected navigation, taxonomy, and metadata to improve search success and reduce time to task by [30 to 50 percent].
Established Brand Center standards and reusable page templates to scale consistent publishing across departments. Embedded WCAG 2.1 AA checks in the publishing workflow and raised accessibility scores across priority templates.
Implemented governance and lifecycle rules with content owner workflows that reduced content debt by [20 to 30 percent].
Instrumented analytics for time to find, search refinement rate, and task completion; created KPI dashboards that informed quarterly priorities.
Facilitated multi-disciplinary workshops and mentored designers to align stakeholders on outcomes and roadmap.

Motion Recruitment - Freelance

Senior Product Designer – Employee Experience
Motion Recruitment, Seattle, WA

APR 2024 - MARCH 2025

Key Achievements & Responsibilities:

Spearheaded the design and launch of a SharePoint intranet platform for a national charter school organization, delivering a seamless experience for over 5,500 users and enhancing information access and communication across distributed teams.
Directed usability testing and iterative design processes, reducing task completion times by 30% and increasing employee engagement through optimized workflows and intuitive interfaces.
Led the integration of new features into the Motion Recruitment design system, ensuring accessibility (WCAG 2.1 AA), scalability, and consistency across employee-facing tools.
Collaborated cross-functionally with Product Managers, Engineers, and Operations to prototype, validate, and launch solutions that improved employee satisfaction, onboarding experiences, and self-service capabilities.
Advocated for inclusive, accessible design standards and mentored junior designers, elevating design culture and fostering a collaborative, feedback-driven environment.
Conducted research synthesis, journey mapping, and persona development to drive design strategies grounded in user insights and business objectives.

Welocalize

Senior Manager, Enterprise Applications Architect | AI/ML, UX, EX, CX
Welocalize, Portland, OR

JUNE 2015 - MAY 2023

Directed the strategy, architecture, and design of enterprise-grade applications with a core focus on human-centered design, multilingual content transformation, and AI-driven user experiences. Served as the primary bridge between technical architecture, product innovation, and customer experience, enabling scalable solutions that supported global operations across 250+ languages and cultures.

Key Achievements & Responsibilities:

Architected and delivered AI-native applications leveraging natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning (ML), enhancing Welocalize's localization services and reducing manual processing time by 30%.
Led the design and deployment of Microsoft 365 solutions, streamlining enterprise user experiences, improving employee engagement by 25%, and driving adoption of AI-powered workflows across teams.
Spearheaded design thinking programs across the enterprise, fostering innovation culture, accelerating project delivery by 40%, and driving user-centric solution development.
Elevated the digital workplace experience through the implementation of Intranet, Extranet, and Microsoft Teams UX/UI enhancements, boosting user satisfaction and collaboration by 30%.
Led enterprise technology teams in achieving GDPR, ISO 27001, and ISO 9001 certifications, ensuring compliance, data security, and operational excellence across global platforms.
Mentored cross-functional teams on UX strategy, system design, and AI-enabled application development, establishing best practices for accessible, inclusive, and scalable enterprise applications.

Slalom Consulting

Senior SharePoint Solutions Architect - Digital Media Consultant

DEC 2009 - APR 2014

Led the strategy, architecture, and delivery of enterprise-grade SharePoint solutions focused on digital media integration, content management, and collaboration platforms. As a key leader in Slalom’s Digital Experience practice, drove complex technology transformations, aligning enterprise clients’ business objectives with scalable, modern workplace solutions leveraging Microsoft 365 and emerging technologies.

Key Achievements & Responsibilities:

Architected and delivered SharePoint and Microsoft 365 solutions that improved content management efficiency by 43%, including designing a Digital Playbook that standardized Intranet deployments across client organizations.
Directed the creation and scaling of the Portals Practice in the Portland office, driving $3M in annual revenue growth and positioning Slalom as a market leader in digital workplace consulting.
Led the SharePoint 2010 implementation and deployment of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Games digital platform, ensuring high-availability, scalability, and seamless end-user experiences for global audiences.
Spearheaded technical leadership for large-scale, enterprise SharePoint migrations, upgrades, and digital media ecosystem integrations, providing strategic vision, architecture, and governance frameworks.
Partnered closely with Microsoft, delivering joint innovation workshops, proof-of-concept engagements, and digital media workflow optimizations.
Mentored and upskilled cross-functional teams in modern collaboration tools, UX design best practices, accessibility standards, and content governance.
Supported pre-sales activities, executive stakeholder engagement, and solution workshops, contributing to Slalom’s trusted advisor status with key Fortune 500 clients.

A few brands that I have had the privielege to work with:

Core Competencies

Core Competencies
Agentic AI Workflow Design, Generative AI (GenAI), AI-Augmented User Journeys, AI-Orchestrated Knowledge Management, Agent-Led User Experiences, Prompt Engineering for LLMs, Intelligent Process Automation, Conversational AI, Human-Centered Design, UX/UI Design, Design Systems Leadership, Scalable Experience Architecture, Strategic Product Vision, Enterprise Information Architecture, Application Architecture, M365 Copilot Adoption & Enablement, Copilot Studio Consulting, Cloud Migrations (Exchange, SharePoint, OneDrive), Lifecycle & Asset Management, Enterprise Design Systems Development, Cross-Functional Collaboration, Agile & SAFe Leadership, Stakeholder Engagement, Usability Research & Testing, Workflow Optimization, Data-Driven Design & Decision-Making, Microsoft Modern Workplace Strategy, AI-Powered Employee Experience, System Thinking, Platform Ecosystem Design, Digital Workplace Innovation

Technology & Platform Expertise
M365 Copilot, Copilot Studio, Microsoft Power Platform (Power BI, Power Automate, Power Apps), Microsoft Entra, Intune, Azure, AWS, VMware, Exchange, Microsoft Fabric, Viva Connections, Dynamics 365 Business Central, SharePoint Online & 2019, ServiceNow, QlikView, Smartly, Salesforce Pardot, Workday, OneDrive, Okta, LDAP, OAuth, MFA, SQL, Data Factory, Logic Apps, Camtasia, Zoom, Webex, Slack, MS Teams, Smartsheet, Asana, ClickUp, Zapier, HubSpot, Wix, Framer, WebFlow

Tools, Methods & Technologies
Tools: Figma, Adobe Creative Cloud, Sketch, Framer, Origami, InVision, Maze, Hotjar, Miro, Confluence, Jira 

Methods: Agentic AI-Driven Design, GenAI UX, Conversational UX, Voice UX, User Research, Rapid Prototyping, Usability Testing, Accessibility (WCAG 2.1 AA/AAA), Interaction Design, Design Systems Leadership, Atomic Design, Storyboarding, AI-Augmented Personas, Customer Journey Mapping 

Technologies: React Collaboration, CSS3, HTML5, API-First Design, AI-Enhanced Process Optimization, Enterprise DesignOps, Automated Knowledge Flows, AI Workflow Orchestration, Prompt Engineering

Recently participation in achieving the GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS™ title for the most users to take an online multi-level artificial intelligence lesson in 24 hours on April 8, 2025. This is a huge achievement, and couldn't have done it without a wonderful community. Now it's time to celebrate.

Check out the video of the official awards ceremony, where we celebrated this milestone together and shared highlights from the record-breaking event.

Guinness World Record contributor

Social UCG

Content Creator - Freelance

JAN 2013- PRESENT

As the Digital MacGyver, I am on a two-decade journey of crafting impactful content on LinkedIn to educate, inform, and inspire diverse audiences. My work is deeply rooted in strategic thinking, digital marketing, consulting, and user experience design. I develop engaging content that resonates with professionals across industries by leveraging my expertise in design systems and brand development.
In addition to my freelance work, I contribute regularly to the field through articles on UX/UI and product design. These writings explore innovative approaches and insights into creating intuitive and user-centered digital experiences. My publication, "MacGyver Design Magazine," serves as a platform for sharing cutting-edge ideas and inspiring others in the design community.
As a team leader, I manage projects with a focus on innovation and efficiency, ensuring that each piece of content aligns with broader business goals while fostering meaningful connections.

Core Skills & Tools: 

Strategic Thinking · Digital Marketing · Customer Experience Design · Business Leadership · Design Direction · Consulting · Design Systems · User Experience (UX) · Team Management · Brand Development · Paid Content