Hi! I’m Steve.

I have worked for great brands at great times in their growth and evolution. I was asked to deal with problems nobody else had been able to solve. I got curious. I showed up at our suppliers. I realized that the root cause of many problems was that we did not know enough about the materials our products were made with or the supply chains where they were made.

MATERIALS FIRST is an approach to understand our materials and our supply chains before designing products with them. After adopting a MATERIALS FIRST mindset we had fewer problems. We had a deeper understanding of our products, how they were made, and who made them. Timelines got shorter. There were fewer design changes after samples. Teams had more bandwidth. We found new value and stories to tell. Products sold better. We understood the impacts and were able to reduce them.

I partner with clients to face their challenges, look in, and focus on the materials and processes where challenges begin. Once we understand the root cause, we can design new, and maybe unexpected, solutions.