I positively impact individuals, company cultures, and clients.

 

I love to activate people, and align organizations.

I’ve spent the last twenty years honing my organizational and leadership abilities, including private business coaching. More importantly, I care about the people and clients in my employ. From clients to colleagues, I ask how I can make others successful, and then I set about making that happen with everything I have to offer.

  • “Laura is a rockstar and a genius at leading people.”

    FORMER MANAGER AND EXECUTIVE LEADER

    Mark Rolston, founder of argodesign, and former Chief Creative Officer at frogdesign

  • “Working with you was one of the highlights of my time at frog. You challenged me and inspired me - and your unique view of the world added enormous value to frog and me.”

    FORMER EXECUTIVE LEADER

    Tim Leberecht, former Chief Marketing Officer at frogdesign

  • "One of Laura is like two of everyone else."

    FORMER EXECUTIVE LEADER

    Doreen Lorenzo, former Chief Operating Officer at frogdesign

  • “Laura embodies innovation and creativity and is one of the leading voices across all design and tech industries. Laura is very clear that the foundation of her long list of impactful projects is the people on her team. Everyone, including myself, is dedicated and inspired to produce exceptional results when they’re being led by Laura. While working with Laura, my skills and expertise grew exponentially, which is ultimately why I am at Meta today. If you hired Laura, she would bring a wealth of knowledge and would win the hearts of her colleagues with her dedication to team culture and well-being."

    FORMER DIRECT REPORT

    Daniel Hutcherson, former argodesign Senior Designer, and current Senior Designer at Meta

  • “Laura is a visionary. I’ve seen her do everything from invent a way to encode chemicals with ultraviolet light to develop a globally relevant model for understanding customer emotional values. We all have the same assets to research, but Laura sees better, hears farther, and understands deeper than most. This plus her ability to think without bounds and to create without restraint are what make her an unstoppable creative force. She is also an infinity mentor, meaning anyone can learn from her for any length of time. Laura is our secret weapon, and we don’t like everyone to know that.

    FORMER DIRECT REPORT

    David Schwartz, former argodesign Creative Director and New York Studio Lead

  • “Most of us are content to simply adopt practices and frameworks created by others and adapt them to the problems we are trying to solve—not Laura. She looks at the problem and invents new practices and frameworks (firmly grounded in her previous training and experience) to get at understanding users’ context, desires, attitudes and needs. In addition, she is fearless. She’s never one to worry about failing or letting obstacles stop her. If something doesn’t work out, she simply takes that lesson with her onto her next project. It’s this determination that makes her a leader among her peers."

    FORMER COLLEAGUE

    Kevin McDonald, former argodesign partner

  • “Laura’s contributions to the myCTCA Experience program were invaluable. Many new patient insights were unearthed and leveraged to shape an ideal experience that would allow CTCA to better serve an emerging market that is demanding more from their healthcare providers.  Much of the success of the program to-date can be attributed to Laura’s efforts and I would welcome any opportunity to work with Laura again.”

    FORMER CLIENT

    Dan Kotecki, Director of Operational Planning, CTCA

  • “Thank you for your hard work and for bringing your energy and deep experience in this area. The consumer personalization project generated a lot of discussion and will form the basis of a critical component of our growth strategy. Your unique perspective made this a success, and we’re grateful. We love working with you and hope to have the opportunity to tackle another challenge together in the future.”

    FORMER CLIENT

    Sonia Yamada, VP Consumer Insights at The New York Times

  • “From beginning to end I was incredibly impressed with the thoroughness, intellectual rigor and focus of your work. Your research was some of the best I’ve ever participated in. Throughout the process you were transparent, took feedback well, articulated a strong point of view and were all around fun to work with.”

    FORMER CLIENT

    Prateek Sarker, former Director Creative Services at Disney

  • "You are authentic, smart, and passionate about the work you do. Inspired by you, I introduced the concept of engineering for emotional outcomes with my Creative Good Council."

    FORMER CLIENT

    Von Wright, former Vice President of Digital at AT&T

  • "I love the passion, integrity, and organizational fortitude you bring to everything you do. Your drive is a valuable and formidable gift."

    FORMER COLLEAGUE

    Lindsey Mosby, former Executive Strategy Director at frogdesign

  • "I read through your letter and can't tell you how meaningful it is to have a mentor that is so dedicated to listening, advising, and sharing. Your words of wisdom from day one set me up perfectly for how I should navigate and find opportunities."

    FORMER COLLEAGUE

    Jennifer Dunnam, Former Associate Creative Director, frogdesign

  • "Laura is one of a kind. A multi-talented designer, thinker, artist and fearless leader who led our team to solve incredibly complex problems—covering industries from healthcare to retail—for clients such as Eaton, Thermo Fisher, United Rentals and Sam’s Club. Laura has the superpower to guide any team and consistently deliver exceptional and innovative design solutions due to her profound knowledge, enthusiasm, and years of experience in the field. Additionally, Laura is a leader who is genuinely interested and connected to her team. She is always willing to go the extra mile to support, and give each member a voice and space to grow—by making sure everyone feels included and confident in their skills to thrive within the team. As a woman, I look up to Laura as she has inspired and motivated me. Not only by being an important example to follow, but also by pushing me out of my comfort zone and highlighting my conviction and hope of becoming a great leader like her. As Laura continues to carve the way for future thinkers and leaders, it is my honor to write this recommendation on her behalf. I know she would make an incredible addition to your team and organization."

    FORMER DIRECT REPORT and FORMER DESIGN PARTNER ON PLAY POSSIBLE

    Martha Fierro, former Senior Designer at argodesign

  • Throughout my 15 years of experience as a design strategy consultant, Laura simply stands out as the most well-rounded and capable Creative Director I’ve ever worked with. Drawing from her vast design experience across diverse industry verticals, Laura is highly proficient in whitespace thinking, sense-making, and organization building. Further, she is highly effective at developing and leading interdisciplinary teams of designers, researchers, strategists, and operations managers. She is a dedicated mentor who creates an inclusive and transparent environment that fosters knowledge transfer and personal growth. Laura frequently serves as a strategic partner to senior executives, advocating an experience-centric approach that enables our clients to connect the dots, and “see beyond” to reimagine what’s possible. She excels in navigating siloed organizations and is masterful in building dynamics that keep functional leaders aligned, inspired, and empowered to drive change for their organizations.

    FORMER DIRECT REPORT

    Viktoria Wang, MBA and current Senior Strategist at argodesign

  • "It’s an absolute pleasure for me to offer my recommendation for Laura Richardson. I find her to be one of the most methodical, caring, and considerate leaders that I’ve had the opportunity to work with in my career. As a mentor and manager she has repeatedly demonstrated the importance of lifting up those around her while ensuring that everyone is aligned around a common goal. Her expertise in leading complex, early stage research and design efforts has played a huge role in the success of numerous programs at argo. One word comes to mind when I think about Laura’s abilities as a design leader, that word is ‘peerless’. I couldn’t imagine a better addition to your team."

    FORMER DIRECT REPORT

    Eric Wicks, current Creative Director at argodesign Munich

  • Just wanted to express gratitude and appreciation for the way you always make a point to shine a light on the work people are doing. I think you set a powerful example and I've been lucky enough to work with people in my career that understand the importance of it but I don't take it for granted. Thanks for the way you go about that and the culture it encourages.

    FORMER COLLEAGUE

    Scott Gerlach, current argo Principal Designer

  • Your subject expertise in healthcare, design research, and strategy plus all the business development and mentoring means you’re worth more. We need you more than you need us, that should be acknowledged.

    FORMER COLLEAGUE

    Kevin McDonald, former argodesign partner

  • I’ve thoroughly enjoyed getting to know you and having you as a manager. Even in our short time together, I can see that you lead with curiosity and empathy. Our conversations and the support that you offer and provide has been some of the best I’ve encountered in my career. I find myself furiously taking notes on your style of engagement after our connects and trying to use those same methods in my interactions.

    GROUP CREATIVE DIRECTOR AND DIRECT REPORT

    David Oberst, Publicis Sapient

  • Laura was an absolute joy to work with. Laura is a visionary, and her ideas and insight consistently pushed ideas to the next level. Every question or concern I had was addressed with understanding, compassion, and most of all a spirit of collaboration. Laura would pull from her years of unique experience to give new ways of looking at a problem. Even when projects had very little direction from a client, she would give us a foundation that would allow for creativity and true collaboration. I truly hope to work with her again in the future.

    SENIOR UX DESIGNER

    Jordan Johnson, Publicis Sapient

  • Laura Richardson is a true creative and a strong leader. In the two month span that I worked with Laura, I saw first hand her creative approach to problem solving and ability to generate ideas. Laura was able to push the boundaries of conventional thinking to help myself and our team create engaging, imaginative, and meaningful designs. The work that Laura produces keeps the customer’s experience first, while still catering to business goals and needs. Beyond her creativity, Laura’s compassionate leadership created an encouraging work environment. When I worked with Laura, I saw her as a mentor and leader, as well as an approachable equal I could turn to for help. Despite her busy schedule, she frequently checked in with me and the rest of the team, and I felt extremely supported and comfortable being transparent with Laura. She always made sure to recognize achievements and hard work on the team, and I felt truly valued the entire duration I worked with Laura.

    UX DESIGNER

    Cheri Wang, Publicis Sapient

  • [The client] particularly spoke highly of her interactions with you, Laura. She acknowledged and appreciated the pro bono work that you provided. You know I'm very appreciative of your passion and everything you handled over the last year. I've gained a tremendous amount of respect and admiration for your approach, knowledge, and client interactions. It's important you hear this from me directly.

    SENIOR DIRECTOR BD, ENERGY

    Arjun Davda, MBA, Publicis Sapient