Handrail Announces Appointment of Doug Powell to Board of Directors

Handrail is pleased to announce that Doug Powell, Vice President of Design at IBM, has joined founder Sean McKay on the Handrail Board of Directors, effective May 10, 2019.

Doug Powell is a design leader currently responsible for integrating and scaling IBM’s design thinking practice across the company’s global network of design studios and more than 2,000 formally-trained designers. Throughout his career as a designer, entrepreneur, and industry leader, Doug has successfully built and scaled effective organizations based on thoughtful and effective design and research practices.

Prior to his design leadership at IBM, Doug was the long-time creative director for the award-winning design firm Schwartz Powell. In 2004, he co-founded HealthSimple, which developed well-designed tools to help kids and families manage the daily complexities of living with Type 1 diabetes. In 2007 HealthSimple was acquired by McNeil Nutritionals, a division of Johnson & Johnson. From 2011 – 2013, Doug was the national president of AIGA, the 25,000 member professional association for design in the United States. He joined IBM in 2013 as the company was launching its renewed user experience design program.

Doug is a respected keynote presenter and lecturer at leading professional conferences and academic design programs worldwide. He’s a recipient of the 2014 Distinguished Alumni Award from the Sam Fox School of Design at Washington University in St. Louis, and the 2014 Fellow Award from AIGA Minnesota.

“Doug brings a great understanding of the importance of scaling design, research, and insights to improve product and service effectiveness,” said Handrail founder and CEO Sean McKay. “We are pleased to integrate Doug’s expertise as an entrepreneur, community builder, and global design expert, as we continue to develop an innovative research and insights platform that will help product teams organize and scale.”

“I am honored to serve on the Handrail Board of Directors,” said Doug Powell. “Handrail is a critical component that will enable design and user research organizations to work with more efficiency and agility. As design organizations mature at the enterprise level, they need to find new ways to scale their operations; Handrail makes that happen.”

To learn more about Handrail, go to www.handrailux.com or call 319-248-6054.

Contact:

Matt Arnold, Marketing Director

2658 Crosspark Road

Suite 200

Coralville, IA 52241

t: 319-248-6054

e: matt@handrailux.com

About Handrail, Inc.

Founded in 2015, Handrail is an end-to-end user research and insights platform for product teams who want a better way to organize, execute, and integrate user research. Handrail’s cloud-based solution increases productivity and enables insight-informed product decisions, to deliver enterprise research at scale.

The Handrail platform allows research teams to work efficiently, collaboratively and effectively while creating long term value for organizations. Handrail has offices in Coralville, IA and St. Paul, MN.