Ariel McNichol
Creating products that inspire action shift mindsets solve problems build empathy improve outcomes delight spark awe
Career Summary:
A technophile/data-loving/product design leader who delivers groundbreaking experiences for companies like CVS Health, Apple, Disney, Scilearn, IMG/TWI, Now.com.
I co-founded, designed and successfully scaled 2 tech companies, mEgo Avatars and MotiSpark, personalized video nudges.
Mission:
Create scalable products that improve our lives by synthesizing human centered design, brilliant research, cutting edge technologies with a bit of magic.
Be the best colleague that you’ve ever worked with.
Case Studies
Dive in to case studies of recent work. Contact me to explore earlier work in streaming, shopping, and digital identity for Disney, Apple, The NBA, Dressipi and mEgo avatars (co-founder.)
CVS Health Innovation
How our pilots succeeded in helping patients manage coverage changes and improved revenues.
Role: UX Design & Strategy Lead > Product Lead
CVS Health: Accounts
Improved critical KPIs for registration, login, payments and account management and wrote roadmap for unified CVS ID to ensure smooth transition from multiple legacy systems
Role: UX Design & Strategy Lead > Product Lead
MotiSpark, personalized video nudges
How a need to keep myself motivated inspired me design & patent a platform that combines the draw of delightful videos, personalization & behavioral science that helped diverse patients in 7 states to stick to their doctor’s orders and triple provider revenues
Gymboree Play & Music
Modernize design system, marketing and web templates while migrating to Sales Force Marketing Cloud to increasing revenue and give client an easy-to-use platform primed for growth
Custom GPTs
Designing products that leverage AIs feels like using magical powers with sometimes hilarious results. Our collective biases laid bare. I am currently playing with a personalization ‘layer’ that begins with stored tuning, but aims to put preference ownership in the hands of end-users. Meanwhile, some simple custom GPTs below.
About
Feeling like I’m useful is my soul’s food. I love making complex or new things feel friendly and finding unique fixes. I am accidentally funny and ask questions that put things in motion. I’ve floated between innovation for entertainment, gaming, education, telecoms, healthcare, consumer internet +.
I was raised by a lady of the canyon, a multi-ethnic mutt descending from academics and entertainers.
I love being an advisor, judge, resource+ for startups at Techstars, BioScienceLA, ScaleHealth, UCLA and UCI.
During the pandemic lockdown, my son helped create MotiSpark mini-series to join our clinical programs.
Tens of millions of people watched our interactive video series that were shared by governments and non-for profits, giving us a sense of power during uncertainty! Click here to see examples of kids helping seniors in English, Spanish, Portuguese and French.
GenAIs will be a part of advertising and ambient computing, swaying our behaviors. I want to help make guardrails to prevent short sighted thinking and instead design to improve human EQ.
What are the ethics our designs inspire? I helped create attention destroying addictive features and want now to fix that. The pull of the endless scroll makes it highly unlikely anyone will read this much copy 🤔
Experience & Skills
I can do & have done a lot
yikes that feels very not-humble 🤔
I’ve closed big business deals, launched and scaled startups based on inventions I needed and brought them to millions of others. I’ve launched new product categories across four continents. I have an unusual level of energy, curiosity and need to get things done
My love of working with clients and diverse teams in tandem with relentless curiosity about market trends, new technologies and human centered design has led me to spearhead innovation at Fortune 5 companies, launch companies and community groups and be a go-to consultant to help floundering startups.
I can ideate and make and share presentations faster than anyone I know. I love impressing people by eagerly processing feedback and data and quickly making improvements. I’ve written winning grant proposals, business plans, strategic roadmaps and made prototypes. I write, direct and edit videos, and create marketing campaigns and define conversion funnels.
I can do all of the above but often feel like an imposter and think humor is a secret sauce. Think of me as a eager working dog – born to work hard and made happy by being helpful.
In the press
It's my pleasure to contribute to fast-paced dialogues about innovations in digital health, identity, behavior change and building consumer trust.
Testimonials
Contact
Please feel free to reach out. And, now, may you see beauty around you. May you ask yourself questions that create positive momentum. When was the last time you felt proud of yourself or knew you helped someone?
imperfectly made by Ariel McNichol, © 2024