Hi, I'm Jessica Versaw.
My career has always centered around users – I've worked as a quality engineer, sales rep, and customer support rep. These days, I continue to focus on users while incorporating my passion for research and design as a designer at Square.
I enjoy work most when I get to tackle complex problems with a cross-functional team. I believe the best design is created when product, engineering, and other stakeholders come together to uncover opportunities and work together to make them happen. I believe everyone has a place in the design process, and that you have something to learn from everyone.
I really enjoy platform design. I like to spend time thinking about the downstream impacts of a design, and working across different teams to ensure that things I design fit into a complex ecosystem and use re-usable patterns. Forcing a user to learn three different ways of accomplishing a similar job gives me the ick.
I love breaking down something complex and making it easy to understand. I think the best type of communication uses plain language when possible, tells stories around user impact, and has a not zero number of really dumb jokes. Being a little silly helps focus, understanding, and comprehension – I like bringing some levity to my work.
I will talk to literally anyone, and have been known to strike up conversations with random people who use the things I build. Don’t ask my partner how many times he’s looked up from a table to find out I now know the name of the owner’s dog, and I’m behind a counter looking at how they’re using Square (or do, if you’re impressed by that sort of thing).
I'm a sucker for solid microcopy and love detangling a tricky Information Architecture problem. I have a strong interest in cognitive psychology and how to design for the way people’s brains work, and leveraging research to solve complex problems makes me downright giddy.
The Personal Quick Hits:
👶🏻 I have a preschooler, Adelaide, one dog, Felicity, and two cats, Gwendolen and Cecily. On a related note, I consider my wyze stick vac to be my trusty sidekick.
🌽 My dad was in the Air Force, so I lived all over. In 5th grade, I told him I couldn’t move to Nebraska because I’d die. I then went to college here and have been not-dying in Nebraska for 15+ years.
🚴🏻♀️ I love functional fitness training (BFT Lincoln is my jam), hot yoga, and being outside in basically any capacity expect mowing.
🎨 It’s probably not surprising that I’m into creative/crafty hobbies. I also think about my vegetable garden a lot, and take great pride in my water-wise and pollinator friendly yard. (Is this the year I get bees? Maybe!)