Steven worked for me as a UX Design Manager, overseeing a large suite of internal and customer-facing solutions spanning from native mobile to websites, to enterprise web applications. In addition, I put him in charge of shaping global UI standards for all of CDK’s products. I was impressed with the way Steven orchestrated the work and enrolled his team. There were three competencies in particular that I witnessed Steven shine in. First was collaboration. Steven’s ability to identify and enroll stakeholders was impressive. He quickly and successfully identified their hurts and got their energized agreement toward the solution that he and his team put forward and tested. His collaboration was multi-directional and with regard to global standards, included the CTO as well as international product and engineering leaders.

Second was strategic orientation. Steven showed a strong ability to discern which direction to go for the biggest business impact with the least amount of effort. He used data-driven evidence, user research, and industry best practice to shape his decisions and he was right.

Third was his get-it-done mentality. Steven drove for daily results. His military background showed in his time efficiency and sense of urgency – all the while keeping his team motivated and empowered.

One of the very best hires I’ve made in my career, Steven is a true UX leader and future company executive.

Steve is one of the best bosses I’ve ever had during my UX career. I had the pleasure of working under Steve when I joined the Standards team at CDK in the Spring of 2018. Steve is a phenomenal mentor and leader with a keen talent for prioritizing work in big projects. I am impressed with the sheer amount of progress he made with building out CDK’s common design system. As someone who was not co-located with Steve’s team in Seattle, he made sure I felt like a welcome addition regardless. I learned a lot from his UX expertise and acumen, which continues to inspire me today. He was always available for questions, guidance or as a thoughtful listener. I am grateful for the time I spent working with him – Steve will be an asset to any company lucky enough to hire him.

Steven was my manager for a little over a year at CDK Global. In that relatively short time he proved himself to be a fantastic manager and a real force for good within the company. My primary project during that time was building a massive design system for a company that was still sporting applications from 20 years prior. Creating and evangelizing the design system was very difficult as it required a complete change in thinking by the design, product, and engineering teams; Steven’s tireless assistance and mentorship helped us to overcome the many hurdles in our way. If I needed his help, he was always available for any meeting, any difficult conversation, any planning session with widespread implications. All I had to do was ask and he would do everything he could to help me complete my tasks.

He also worked hard, and succeeded, in creating a positive culture on our UX design team. Our team meetings were always full of laughter and a sense of camaraderie that got us through the bad times. All of us wanted to work for him, all of us wanted to repay his efforts with hard work. Eventually we all got used to designers from other teams asking how they could get on our team.

Steven also built great relationships with people in other departments. Those relationships helped make our jobs easier and smoothed the difficult transition that comes with drastic changes within a company. Throughout the company, he championed us as designer experts and got us a place at tables that we hadn’t had before. He worked hard to make sure that CDK Global understood the importance of design thinking and that his team of designers were capable of backing that up.

Steven empowered us to do our jobs, taught us to do them better, and told everyone about our success. Working with him has made me a better designer and I’m not the only one.

As a UX manager, Steven provided unprecedented guidance, was consistently trusting of his team and brought tremendous strategic value to the team and company on a daily basis. Steven is a leader as true as they come. There’s not a task out there I don’t think he could accomplish and all that he has accomplished is an inspiration. Upon joining the team, his ability to build rapport quickly inside and outside of the team proved to be an asset immediately. Beyond that, grappling an extensive product list (100+) and complex corporate structure without hesitation proved his aptness to assess the company UX maturity and start providing targeted value as fast as possible. Stevens willingness to adapt and try new processes brought excitement and learning to the forefront of our team. With him we were able to pioneer the use of design sprints in the organization and proliferate this application of design thinking throughout the company. I’m confident that any team Steven is a part of in the future will see that same indispensable value he brings to the table and experience the passionate team building culture that he radiates.

I had the pleasure of working with Steven at CDK Global. As a UX Design manager, he brought many things to the table: excellent design chops, effective communication skills, enterprise management savvy, and strategic thinking. On top of that, Steven is a genuinely inspiring person to work with, and one of his most palpable contributions to the UX organization was building a great team culture where we were all empowered and proud to do our best work.

In a relatively short time, Steven and team were able to stand up a robust design system, CDK Radial, that supported over 40 designers globally in an organization with over 100 products. Moreover, the design system was equally embraced by the engineering organization who appreciated the well-thought component structure, global reuse, and the quick-to-test, and quick-to-market nature of working with a design system.

Steven’s clear communication, honest transparency, and daily humor made him a great asset in a highly-changing and sometimes stressful environment. He actively sought out the right people to bring to the conversation and often served as the even-tempered bridge in difficult or controversial topics to help unite all stakeholders towards a positive goal. I learned a lot from Steven just by observing and working with him, especially about leadership style and team dynamics. I know he will be successful in his next endeavors and his next team will be lucky to have him. I will miss working with him.

I worked with Steven during his time leading the user experience design team at CDK Global. He embodied everything you could ask for from a manager, he led by example, he managed upwards by advocating for UX design with upper management and stakeholders, he was communicative, collaborative, and confident. He hired excellent designers, set goals, and provided input as needed. He trusted his team to do the job without micro-managing. He contributed to the team’s success by encouraging collaboration and openness. He created a team culture that fostered camaraderie and trust without competitiveness. The motto for the team was “no one on the team fails.” He encouraged the team to work together to make sure no one did fail. I was honored to work with Steven and anyone else who works with him can count themselves lucky.

I had the opportunity to work with Steven for several months as a contributor to a comprehensive design system he deployed that supports 40+ global UX professionals and a legacy ecosystem of 100+ products. He is a great leader and professional mentor with a strong understanding of how to effectively scale the impact of design inside a large organization. While Steven is an excellent designer of systems and products, what I respect about him most is his ability to hire experienced designers that enhance team dynamics and potential. As a member of his team, you can always depend on actionable UX feedback, unwavering professional support, and to be surrounded by genuinely good people. To sum up Steven Meyer: builds great teams, great systems, and great products.