About me

Hi, I’m Mary

A generalist at heart, lover of good food, rock climbing, and a certified yoga instructor. Deeply passionate about equality, removing plastic from my life, and reminding humans that we live on this rock called Earth.

A Product & Design Leader with over 8 years of experience working with early-stage startups, a generalist with deep expertise in product design, product strategy, and user research.

A dedicated people manager, coach, and mentor. I have experience hiring and managing a design team, contractors, and agencies. We all know people don’t leave companies, they leave managers. I aim to be one of the good ones. But don’t take my word for it…

“I would jump at the opportunity to work with Mary again. She is a kind, confident, and thoughtful leader who encouraged me to grow not only as a designer but also as a human being.

She has all of the best characteristics of a great design team lead and champion for users. She's an excellent communicator and I've seen her put in extra time to make sure her team feels heard and supported. Mary is an outstanding people and design leader and I can't recommend her enough!”

Stephanie Liang - Product Designer
- I hired and managed Steph at Wellio

I also have experience supporting and coaching founders of early-stage start-ups. I’ll let them explain…

  • Alexandra Ruiz

    “Mary is a true powerhouse! As the Product Designer for the ideas42 Venture Studio, she led the product design process of Poder Capital's MVP, website, and pitch deck. She is an incredible designer and a wonderful human.”

  • Justin Campbell

    “Mary is excellent at helping you define goals and vision and thinking through the steps to get there. Mary has helped me explore a couple of SaaS product ideas and guided me as I connected with target users for idea validation and user research. Her experience in the start-up space is invaluable for founders.”

  • Derrius Quarles

    “WOW! It has been such an amazing experience to have you as a team Member. Thank you for all the value and perspective you have provided over this time. Undoubtedly, my time at the [venture] studio could not have been as productive and momentum-filled without your touch. My deepest appreciation!’

  • Sangadore Julia Wallace

    “Thank you for your thoughtfulness and the way you engage with me. I really appreciate it and not everyone does that.”

I know what you’re thinking, but is she a team player? Here’s what my colleagues have to say…

“Mary is an adept product designer and leader with an impressive breadth of skill sets, able to not just lead the charge on product, but to thoroughly explore and define what makes specific solutions worthwhile using best (and constantly updated!) practices across UI/UX design, research, and agile methodologies, in close concert with engineering, leadership, and in the spirit of entrepreneurship.

It’s rare and special to find a colleague so skilled in taking in new information and rolling it into an always-improving product vision, building team clarity and cohesion, and cutting through uncertainty.”

— Rachael Serur, Software Engineer

“Mary goes out of her way to help others understand her decisions, documenting and sharing her teams' processes. She works hard to understand and question decisions across teams and across functions. She sits with tough questions and explores multiple paths before committing. She tells the truth, even when it is inconvenient, and she gives meaningful feedback. She listens with curiosity when others give her feedback. She focuses on the outcome of what is built and shipped. She leads user research and regularly grounds her teams' work in user feedback.”

— Jason Reeder, Software Engineer

“Mary effectively and clearly guided us through our three days together for a design sprint that stretched the very definition and boundaries of a design sprint. The scope and ambition of our challenge is hard for anyone to process, and Mary made the seemingly impossible, possible.”
— Marc Laitin, Venture Studio Lead

“Mary has pushed me to be a better version of myself and has been really direct about it. I’ve spent my whole career in growth and she has immersed herself in this space as well and continually brings up good ideas.” 
- Arti Mansbach, Growth Marketer

Want to work together?

Curious to learn more? I’d love to hear from you. You can reach out at maryknight723@gmail.com

Interested in coaching or mentorship? Check out my profile and plans on Mentorcruise.