About

Elise Maddox, Design Strategy UX professional, woman with dark brown hair blue-gray eyes wearing a white shirt

Strategic design for a fast-moving world

I turn ambiguity into action through research-driven design strategy, systems thinking, and elevated visual design.

I partner with founders, brands, and product teams to scale digital experiences with clarity, speed, and measurable impact.

I’m your next founding designer or global design consultant.

Elise Maddox Logo Illustration Blue and Black Bird Icon

What I offer

  • Actionable clarity: turn ambiguity into decisive direction through research, systems thinking, and rapid synthesis

  • Scalable design: experiences and systems that grow with the product—consistent, intentional, and measurable

  • Strategy + aesthetics: unify business strategy, user needs, and elevated visual design to create products that are both beautiful and highly usable

  • Speed with rigor: operate at startup velocity while maintaining enterprise-level quality, structure, and design maturity

Focus areas

  • Strategic design consulting

  • Partnering with founders

  • Design for emerging technology or creative industries

  • Opportunities bridging digital design with physical form

Elise Maddox in academic regalia giving a speech at a podium during a graduation ceremony at the Beckman Center of the National Academies of Sciences and Engineering.

Leadership

  • Peer-elected commencement speaker: 2025 Human Computer-Interaction degree at UC-Irvine

  • Workshop facilitation: plan, budget, and facilitate high-impact workshops for alignment, prioritization, and strategic planning

  • Design advocacy: for user-centered design at the executive level, influencing product vision and long-term strategy

  • Led cross-functional initiatives: by creating shared language, reducing friction, and accelerating decision-making

A group of young women at UW-Madison sitting in a classroom or conference room, attentively listening to a presentation or lecture.
Elise Maddox, a woman with long dark hair standing next to a laptop on a lectern, speaking and gesturing with her hands in a presentation or lecture setting. She is wearing a white knit sweater. There is a water bottle on a table in front of her.

Mentorship

  • Guest lecturer for undergraduates at UW-Madison, UC-Irvine

  • Mentor junior and mid-level designers into stronger strategic thinkers and communicators

  • Managed UX team and fostered collaborative, psychologically safe environments to learn, grow and suceed

  • Build and scale design processes, frameworks, tools, best practices, and systems across teams

  • Facilitate learning by designing presentations, group activities, lunch and learns, documentation and workshops

I’m currently at capacity for mentees.

Trusted by designers, engineers, and leaders

Abby Getman, a black and white close-up portrait of a woman with long dark hair, wearing glasses, smiling slightly.

“She is a motivated design leader who not only excels in identifying opportunities . . . but supported our team in how to best elevate these needs to our business leaders. She is a team player, holding productive and clear communication in high regard. ”

Abby Getman

Lead Product Designer at Northwestern Mutual

Ian Hoch, a grayscale photo of a man with glasses, a beard, and a mustache, wearing a suit and tie.

“She fearlessly championed the needs of the user, and went out of her way to fight for their best interests, even if that meant more work or winning over a skeptical room of stakeholders. She's also one of the most motivating people I've ever worked with and has the ability to elevate both the drive and performance of those lucky enough to work with her.”

Ian Hoch

UX Researcher at Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Patrick O'Brien, a person with short hair and glasses smiling, wearing a dark sweater.

“She comes at design and research from a unique, analytical perspective that is conducive to iterative enhancements and frequent testing and validation. As a developer, it was quite unique to work with someone that could “speak the language” and understand technical limitations in a solution, enabling her to pivot and find a compromise that ends up still working for the user.”

Patrick O’Brien

Director of Engineering at Zywave