Lars Hacking

Leadership, Strategy, and Innovation - Product Design and User Experience

With over two decades in User Experience, I am committed to advancing strategic practices that create results. As a Director of UX at Cox Automotive, I taught teams to navigate complex portfolio investments and evolve design thinking into delivery stream discovery processes. My mission aligns with empowering organizations to integrate innovative design strategies, ensuring alignment with user needs and business objectives while driving collaboration and inclusivity.

  • + 10 years in UX/Product leadership (Director, Senior Manager, and Creative Director)

  • + 5 years integrating UX as a strategic partner in business portfolio development

  • + 10 years building, mentoring, and guiding strong performing teams that produced results

  • + 20 years focused on designing experiences for B2B, B2B2C, and B2C

  • + 20 years focused on consumer websites, applications, and mobile experiences

  • + 15 years focused on design systems, style guides, and normalizing experiences

  • Formerly a full stack developer

  • Certified PMC I-IV (Pragmatic Institute's Management Curriculum)

  • Certified Practitioner and Facilitator of Human Centered Design (Luma Institute)

Experience

Cox Automotive

Director, User Experience (UX)

Feb 2023 - Mar 2024

  • Established the discovery process for Portfolio Investments and their journey from idea/discovery, to budget ratification, to post ratification, and eventually into epic discovery.

  • Directed the formation and adoption of HCD/UX strategic practices at the delivery stream level, resulting in a reduction of waste by approximately 10x.

  • Implemented lean UX approaches to streamline design involvement within the product development lifecycle.

  • Worked with UX principals to identify AI tools that could enhance UX workflows. We leveraged early AI tools (including ChatGPT) to speed up the creation of UX prototypes.

  • Leveraged business model canvases to structure value conversations between our leadership and product teams.

Senior Manager, User Experience (UX)

Mar 2018 - Feb 2023

Managed a UX team comprised of Architects, Researchers, Designers, and Content Strategists. Our design portfolio consisted of fixed operations(xtime), mobile services(Dickinson Fleet Services), Dealertrack DMS, and the next generation of DMS Plus products.

  • Represented UX in the company-wide effort to rework departmental career paths. I designed the first career path for UX that over 100 UX professionals now use.

  • Conducted the first design sprint in our department. We evolved the teams from design sprints to HCD workshops - which are now a staple for the department.

Product Owner

Mar 2018 - Dec 2019

Under my guidance, we united the direction of several disparate design system teams, systems, and roadmaps to establish a cohesive vision for the retail B2B design system. By the end of my tenure, we had incorporated design, content strategy, usage metrics, LTS/STS support, storybook integration, and visual regression testing, etc... into a progressive React tool that incorporated over 150 engineering opinions. With the use of our tools, a development team could reduce the early stages of a project from two weeks down to 20 minutes.

  • Fostered a community of engineers who evangelized the design system across 150 disparate
    development teams. Within 18 months, we had adoption in over 400 applications.

  • Our flexible B2B design system laid the foundation for future expansion - which now encompasses
    B2B2C and B2C usage.

  • Ensured that the design system complied with accessibility/a11y standards

Senior UX Architect

Jun 2016 - Mar 2018

Managed a small team of UX designers to provide key UX design coverage across four Agile release trains in the company. We gathered information and provided design direction via the following activities: stakeholder interviews, needs/task analysis, story maps, journey maps, storyboards, task flows, wireframes, visual mockups, and testing for the next generation of web and mobile applications. Our design portfolio consisted of VinSolution's CRM and Dealertrack's F&I products.

  • Led a focused team to re-imagine our product-line. We researched and designed a holistic, persona-based ecosystem, information architecture, and AI-driven dashboards.

H&R Block

Experience Designer (UX | CX)

Apr 2015 - Jun 2016

Operated as an experience designer within one of three incubator teams invested in innovating the future services and products of H&R Block's tax office applications and services. Our team utilized Design Sprints and Human-Centered Design best practices to navigate product discovery.

  • Leveraged Service Design and Lean Startup practices to provide strategic and tactical direction in an Agile environment.

Manager, User Experience (UX)

Dec 2012 - Mar 2015

Guided a team of visual and interaction designers focused on crafting the design system and implementing it within the digital products and services of the company. I provided ecosystem-level art direction across the entire portfolio of H&R Block's digital products - from client-facing (mobile, web, and desktop) to retail applications (web and desktop).

  • Fostered a culture of iterative design by integrating user feedback into the HRB Digital Product line, resulting in improved user engagement and satisfaction.

  • Helped to design, build, and facilitate the HRB User Research Design Lab

T-Mobile (Sprint)

Managed innovative design practices as the lead designer for the research and development team. My conceptual portfolio consisted of clients ranging from Chrysler U-Connect, Oprah, Google, Yahoo!, Best Buy, Notre Dame, etc...

  • Prepared and effectively sold ideas using storyboards, visual mock-ups, video, and other presentation
    mediums.

UX Architect / Concept Designer / Technology Development Strategist

Sep 2008 - Dec 2012

UX Designer

May 2002 - Aug 2008

Worked on the User Experience Design team, maintaining consistency and enhancing the experience of the customer throughout all touchpoints. In addition, I served as the lead Flash Developer and provided direction for Flash 'best practices' within the company.

  • Created interactive Flash demos to support the launch of 3G and PCS Vision.

  • Worked on the re-branding effort of the Sprint and Nextel merger.

Certifications

Pragmatic Institute

  • PMC I - IV

  • Issued 2021

LUMA Institute

  • Certified Facilitator of Human Centered Design

  • Issued 2022

LUMA Institute

  • Certified Practitioner of Human Centered Design

  • Issued 2022

Patents

Method and system for call setup with databaseless address translation

A method to translate between Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) numbers and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) addresses without performing an address translation database lookup. A network gateway receives and translates a first endpoint identifier associated with a destination client device to a second endpoint identifier associated with the destination client device. The first endpoint identifier is either a PSTN number or a VoIP address comprising at least the PSTN number and a predefined suffix and the second endpoint identifier is the other of the PSTN number and the VoIP address. The network gateway translates the first endpoint identifier to the second endpoint identifier without performing an address translation database lookup, by either adding the predefined suffix to or removing the predefined suffix from the first endpoint identifier. The network gateway generates and transmits a second session initiation message containing the second endpoint identifier to facilitate establishment of the session.

Dynamic loading, unloading, and caching of alternate complete interfaces

A processor-implemented method is provided. The method comprises determining that a portable electronic device is within a coverage area of a local wireless communication network. The method also comprises automatically sending information about accessing the local wireless communication network to a mobile wireless communication network. The method also comprises receiving a request to access the local wireless communication network from the portable electronic device, wherein the request comprises at least some of the information about accessing the local wireless communication network. The method also comprises transmitting an interface pack to the portable electronic device.

Broadband Wireless Router

A communication device is provided. The communication device comprises a short range radio transceiver, a cellular radio transceiver, a speaker, and a microphone. The short range radio transceiver wirelessly receives dialed digits, the device establishes a voice call via the cellular radio transceiver based on the dialed digits, the cellular radio transceiver transmits voice received from the microphone, and the device presents voice received via the cellular radio transceiver over the speaker.

Education

Oklahoma State University

  • Web Design and Development / Graphic Design

  • Graduated 2001

BYU - Idaho

  • Graphic Design / Illustration

  • Graduated 1998