In my eyes, a strong design manager needs to be a strong designer, an expert in creating an efficient design pipeline, a great recruiter, and an empathetic manager. Ethan has proven that he meets all requirements with flying colors.

Ethan was the first hire at my startup where we were building a next-gen Fantasy Sports product.

His first project was the right the disaster that our design contractors made before he started. Ethan took the challenge head on with no complaints. The original design was problematic for a few reasons:

- No consistent design language
- Poor information hierarchy
- Poor extensibility
- Horrible Figma organization

Ethan identified these issues are pointed out that they were slowing down development time as engineers had a harder time implementing these quirky designs. Since we were a fast moving startup, we had to prioritize new features over a consistent design. Ethan agreed with this feedback but also made the case that design should work on these quality tasks while ENG was busy building the new features as a clean design system would speed up development time. Thanks to Ethan we were able to meet the deadlines for our new features while also reducing ENG time for future features. As the CTO, I am incredibly grateful when our design partners can prioritize quality work that improves engineering efficiency.

Besides fixing our design process, Ethan also contributed significantly to our hiring effort. Since we were a gaming product, there was a lot of design work to cover across brand, product, and content. Ethan couldn’t do it all by himself so we had to hire another designer. Ethan tapped into his network and recommended a truly amazing designer to join the team. The recommended designer was thrilled to have the opportunity to work with Ethan again. The quality of work from the recommended designer was truly best in class. We would’ve never hired them if not for Ethan.

Hire Ethan if you want a proven design manager capable of managing a design process and hiring out a high quality design team.

From day one I've been impressed with Ethan's motivation to make things happen. He takes ownership of his projects and consistently finds ways to innovate. Over the years I've worked with Ethan, I've seen him develop into a strong leader who's exceptionally well liked and trusted by everyone he works with.

I have worked under Ethan for about two years at two separate companies, and out of all of my managers, he is easily my favorite. Ethan is an excellent manager. He inspires, consistently drives up creative quality, and can handle and set realistic goals and timelines with ease. He has never suffered from hovering director syndrome, and always makes sure to support and motivate his team to focus and deliver results. Plus, he is an incredibly polished designer and animator himself. His understanding of the entire teams needs (from junior developer to ceo) is outstanding, so much so that everyone working with Ethan finds it hard to operate when hes not there. Ethan is an absolute must on any creative team!

Ethan was one of the first people to join the team at Fast Break Labs. He was responsible for our 0 to 1 product, scaling it, and building the design team as we grew. Along the way, he set up efficient design systems/processes and excelled in a managerial role as more designers joined. Ethan also moves incredibly fast while showing great craft in all his work, which I think is critical for designers in any fast paced environment. I would highly recommend Ethan to any company looking to bring on a design manager or lead.

Ethan is one of the best product designers I have worked with. He is extremely talented and organized. He is a master in creating design systems and solving any design problem with a smile. He is efficient and turns around work fast and with attention to detail. Ethan can present anything to any client with extreme ease. He is well spoken and very knowledgeable. He is amazing being hands on design or motion and also being a lead. His positive outlook makes working with him an absolute pleasure. His leadership skills and easy going personality will make him an amazing manager and mentor. I miss working with Ethan and hope I get to work with him again in the future.

Ethan is a motivated, well-rounded designer with a diverse set of skills. He’s able to take any project and run with it, whether it’s a motion graphics piece for broadcast, an app intro animation, a Wordpress theme needing to be built from scratch, or a logo redesign. A project is never done upon handoff, as he’ll keep going back and find ways to continually improve and refine it.As a person, he’s optimistic and is always able to find and focus on the good in every situation. He’s universally well-liked by everyone across different departments and brings a refreshing, uplifting type of energy to any group he’s a part of.