Swati Sehgal Product Lead at Northstar

“As a Product Lead at Northstar, I worked with Dennis for over two years and many shared projects. Dennis is an empathetic teammate and a communicative and effective designer. He's able to build a vision for the most intuitive user experience and takes care to balance ideal design, scope, and ultimate project goal when he works. He's been a great design partner, a trusted friend, and a fun member of our team. He's one of the most organized designers I've ever worked with. Whenever he shares his work, I know he's taken time to think about the different states we need to think through, open questions we may not have answered, places we should iterate more. He has strong ownership, curiosity, and a drive to really understand the user's needs in whatever we've sought to solve for together. He's also a strong collaborator across teams making sure he's also seeking and incorporating perspectives from engineering and our other cross-functional partners in Northstar.”

Erin Donahue Senior Manager of Advice Strategy at Northstar

“Dennis and I worked together at Northstar for almost 3 years. In that time I had the pleasure of witnessing Dennis share his unique Design leadership, philosophy, and skillsets in countless ways. He took a scattered and disjointed set of colors, fonts, and graphics and built a thorough and robust design system. He asked thoughtful questions and considered each design problem from multiple perspectives. He listened - Oh, what a great listener he is! He handled complex design problems, overlapping deadlines, conflicting priorities, and exacting stakeholders with grace and calm. Dennis excelled at collaborating cross-functionally and both integrating and iterating on feedback. Dennis never shied away from a challenge, no matter how ambiguous or ill-defined the ultimate goal was. He shined in the startup environment, and I am thankful for the time I was able to spend working with him and learning from him.”

Christopher Pimpo Director of Financial Planning at Northstar

“Dennis is a brilliant and thoughtful Design leader. I had the distinct pleasure of working with Dennis for 3 years during his time with Northstar in a cross-functional capacity. Dennis excels at cross-functional collaboration and coordination on design builds, I always looked forward to working together as he always took the time to explain design concepts, user experience, and optional paths within wire frames. He built the Northstar design team from the ground up and always delivered high quality work. His dedication to the Northstar mission and personal finances was evident daily and you cannot ask for a more passionate Leader & Designer who believes in what he is doing. I highly recommend Dennis and hope to have the opportunity to work together again in the future.”

Eli Lauffenburger Senior Software Engineer at Northstar

“I worked with Dennis on a multidiscipline team where I was developing the software of the product that Dennis provided designs for. Dennis is a visionary designer and a great teammate. He is proactive and takes responsibility for ensuring that designs are provided ahead of time, consider user edge cases, and follow an accessible pattern of UX. Any team would be fortunate to have a designer like Dennis.”

Rowan Clements Principal Agent at Creative People

“I had the profound pleasure of collaborating with Dennis on his move to Head of Design at Northstar.

From my first call with Dennis it was immediately apparent that he was truly passionate about Product Design and pushing boundaries within it. I speak with designers day in and day out but there was something so special and refreshing about Dennis’ low-ego approach to telling me about his career journey, when quite frankly it is something to BRAG about! To say I was excited to get the chance to represent him is an understatement.

I have such respect for Dennis both personally and professionally. He trusted me to take him on a journey and I’ll always be grateful for that. Dennis is incredibly thoughtful, a natural and empathetic leader, and a critical-thinker who is true to his heart. Would be my #1 choice any day.”

Rowan Kurnett Senior Engineer at Mothership

“Dennis was an absolute pleasure to work with at Mothership. As an engineer developing the company's web-based dashboard, I quickly discovered that - in addition to being an excellent designer - Dennis is a great communicator who understands the technical challenges that his coworkers deal with and takes them in stride. That, I think, is part of his greatest strength: a breadth of competence that extends past his core responsibilities and into all of the miscellaneous odds and ends that come up when you're wearing many hats at a startup.