Testimonial from Ericka Seastrand O'Connor

All the traits I see across designers, in a developer! Steve and I worked together at Bounteous on a few internal accessibility and design system initiatives as well as on a client project for a furniture website. Steve has always had a keen eye for design. When we were on our project together he brought forth great ideas about integrating design thinking into the FED process from the start. We were able to accomplish so many great things on that project, going live with a personalized quiz and design elements I hadn’t yet seen go live on other projects including some sparkly animation. He’s brought that consistent and reliable foundation across his other projects and I know other designers I talked to got to experience his FED magic.

When he started leading teams, his signature positive energy permeated across his team. Wizard Steve in action! His teams started feeling enabled to talk across channels about their interest in design/development handoffs, taking empathy breaks and accessibility not for the sake of legal compliance, but for the humans behind the screens. His talents didn’t stop there! His skills enabled my own journey to leadership, empathy building and accessibility learning too and I will always appreciate him sharing his journey on LinkedIn or through company slack channels for great conversation starters or thoughtful questions beyond the initial ask. I cannot emphasize enough how much he contributed to Bounteous and would bring to his next endeavor.