Welcome to Halftank Studio
Whether you're navigating workplace dysfunction as an individual or trying to build better systems as a leader, you're in the right place.
I help people survive broken organizations and help organizations become less broken. Sometimes that means coaching individuals through toxic dynamics. Sometimes it means consulting with teams to fix systemic problems. Often it's both.
How I Work: The OOUX Framework
Most workplace dysfunction stems from a simple problem: people using different words for the same concepts. Teams waste months arguing about terminology while actual problems go unsolved. Individuals get scapegoated because they're "difficult" when really, they're just speaking a different language than leadership.
I use Object-Oriented User Experience (OOUX) as my core framework—not just for designing products, but for making decisions, analyzing systems, and cutting through organizational confusion. The ORCA process (Objects, Relationships, Calls-to-action, Attributes) helps identify what actually matters by defining shared vocabulary before conflicts arise.
For Individuals
OOUX helps you see patterns in workplace dysfunction by identifying the core "objects" in toxic systems: the scapegoat, the missing authority, the systemic problem everyone ignores. When you can name these patterns clearly, you stop internalizing blame and start making strategic decisions about where to spend your energy.
For Organizations
OOUX prevents the communication failures that derail product teams. Through collaborative workshops, we define your system's core concepts (nouns), actions (verbs), and relationships before anyone writes code or creates designs. This shared vocabulary eliminates the conflicts that waste time and money.
Think of OOUX as solving a puzzle rather than forcing a solution. By breaking complex systems down into their essential components, we can see what's actually broken and fix it—whether that system is a product, a team, or your career strategy.
Two Paths Forward
For Individuals: The Bad Fit Alliance
A community for senior engineers, designers, and product managers who've been labeled "difficult" for identifying problems that need solving.
- Pattern recognition workshops
- Red flag detection strategies
- Exit planning frameworks
- Portfolio career development
For Organizations: OOUX Consulting
Strategic consulting using Object-Oriented UX to help your teams build shared understanding before confusion and conflict arise.
- OOUX-based product discovery
- Shared vocabulary workshops
- User-centered design process
- Strategic roadmapping with ORCA
The Bad Fit Alliance
For people who've survived workplace dysfunction and want to stop blaming themselves for it.
Do Any of These Sound Familiar?
These aren't character flaws. They're signs you've been scapegoated for systemic problems you didn't create and can't fix alone.
You're the one who keeps speaking up about obvious problems
Everyone else sees them too, but somehow you're the only one who won't let it go. Your attempts to address dysfunction get labeled as negativity or not being a team player.
You were hired to fix things, then fired when you tried
They brought you in with promises of change, gave you responsibility without authority, then blamed you when systemic issues persisted. Your firing was proof they "took action" without actually changing anything.
You keep ending up visible around failures you didn't cause
Because you care about solving problems, you're always near the wreckage trying to help. Leadership mistakes your visibility for culpability and uses you as the convenient explanation for why things went wrong.
Your honest feedback gets weaponized against you
You give the constructive criticism they asked for, then suddenly you're "difficult" or "not coachable." Speaking truth to power didn't lead to promotion—it led to elimination.
You've been through this pattern multiple times
After the third or fourth layoff, you started wondering if maybe you're the problem. But what if the real issue is that you keep landing in organizations that need scapegoats more than problem-solvers?
What the Community Offers
A space for senior engineers, designers, product managers, and other individual contributors who've been labeled "difficult" for having integrity.
Shared Recognition
- Pattern identification workshops
- Story sharing without shame
- Learning to separate dysfunction from your worth
- Building vocabulary for what happened to you
Strategic Navigation
- Red flag detection before you accept the offer
- Boundary-setting that protects your sanity
- Documentation strategies for your protection
- Exit planning that preserves your leverage
Alternative Paths
- Building portfolio careers beyond W-2 work
- Consulting models that leverage your expertise
- Creating systems that deserve your talent
- Financial independence strategies
Join the Pilot Program
We're launching with a free 6-week pilot for a small group of hand-picked participants. This is your chance to help shape what this community becomes.
What to Expect:
- Weekly group sessions exploring workplace dysfunction patterns
- Private community space for ongoing support and discussion
- Frameworks for recognizing and navigating toxic dynamics
- Practical strategies from someone who's survived nine layoffs
- A place where being a "bad fit" is reframed as having standards
Starting in early 2026. Limited to 12 participants.
Why "Halftank"?
Because we're not running on empty, and we're not running on full. We're operating at that honest middle place where you have enough fuel to keep going but not enough to waste on bullshit. You're selective about where you spend your energy because you've learned the hard way that some destinations aren't worth the drive.
Being on half a tank means you're still in motion, still capable, but you're strategic about it. You're not the person who burns out trying to save every dysfunctional organization. You're the person who's learned to conserve resources for the work that actually matters.
Book Coming Soon: Bad Fit
A memoir about surviving nine layoffs and learning to recognize workplace dysfunction as a feature, not a bug. It reframes being labeled a "bad fit" as integrity in action.
For fifteen years, I survived nine layoffs as a UX designer in tech. Each time, I was told I wasn't a "good fit"—that I was "too direct," that I "didn't understand how things work here." But here's what I actually did: I identified broken systems. I spoke up when processes failed users. I refused to pretend dysfunction was normal.
Free Articles on Medium
Insights about workplace dysfunction, scapegoating, and what it really means to be a "bad fit."
FOMO, FOLS, and how it contributes to enshittification
TI have been re-reading Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds by Charles Mackay. I first encountered this book as assigned reading from one of the last classes I took for my Bachelors degree, a Sociology class on group behaviors that I took to fulfill a degree requirement. This has been the most important, consequential class that I took in my entire college career.
Read on Medium →Don’t Take Creative Career Problems Personally
The systematic workplace dysfunction no one talks about — and how to navigate it without losing yourself
In the United States, 40% of workers have experienced at least one layoff. Nearly half of all adults worry they’ll be laid off in the next year. Yet browse any career advice platform and you’ll find the same recycled career “wisdom”: network better, optimize your LinkedIn, be authentic, find your passion.
.
My Stomach Made Fart Noises During a Job Interview. It Saved My Career.
Living day by day on unemployment is awkward and frequently dull. After three months of one unemployment stint, my world had shrunk to the size of an Aldi parking lot. The Aisle of Shame — that center section filled with random seasonal items and kitchen gadgets you didn’t know you needed — had become my daily entertainment. I’d wander past inflatable pool toys and camping chairs, pretending I had somewhere to use them.
Read on Medium →OOUX Consulting & Product Strategy
For organizations ready to prevent dysfunction before it starts by building shared understanding from day one.
OOUX-Based Creativity Coaching
Guided brainstorming using object-oriented thinking to identify what actually matters to your business. Through collaborative noun foraging and definition workshops, we cut through confusion and get your teams aligned on shared vocabulary before work begins.
Product Discovery with ORCA
Using the ORCA process (Objects, Relationships, Calls-to-action, Attributes) to map your system's core concepts before anyone designs screens or writes code. This prevents the costly miscommunications that emerge weeks into development when different teams discover they've been talking about different things.
Shared Vocabulary Workshops
Building collaborative environments where everyone speaks the same language. Most team conflicts stem from using different words for identical concepts. Our workshops use visual color-coding (blue for nouns, green for verbs, pink for metadata) to force explicit discussions about terminology before disagreements escalate.
User Experience Design
Creating user-centered designs grounded in systematic object mapping rather than subjective opinions. By defining your system's core objects and relationships first, we build interfaces that match how users actually think—not how different stakeholders assume they think.
Strategic Product Roadmapping
Prioritizing features based on object relationships and user needs, not internal politics or the loudest voice in the room. OOUX thinking helps identify which capabilities actually drive value and which are just organizational wish lists dressed up as requirements.
Process Development & Systems Thinking
Building scalable processes that work regardless of who's in the room. By documenting decisions and shared definitions from the start, we create institutional knowledge that survives personnel changes and prevents the "we've always done it this way" trap.
OOUX Case Studies: #PoweredByORCA
Real transformations across industries—from 10-person operations to Fortune 100 enterprises. Here's how ORCA has helped businesses cut through confusion and build better systems.
National magazine added value to their mobile app
How would you make sure that your magazine's mobile app provide clear value on its own?
Read case study →
Fortune 100 financial powerhouse simplified their workflow
How would you incorporate 60 databases into one complete financial journey?
Read case study →
Small consultancy firm updated an overwhelming old system
How would you provide the most modern service possible with historical documentation in a 20-year-old system?
Read case study →Want to learn more about OOUX?
Download my free eBook detailing how OOUX and the ORCA process can prevent four common product design mistakes.
Free Download