Margaret Shear is an independent Creative Director with 15 years experience working from strategy to pixel. For over a decade she has run a solo consulting business in both New York and San Francisco giving her exposure to widely diverse range of design teams and challenges.Margaret’s consulting clients have included design studios (Doberman, Frog, Smart Design, Adaptive Path), established organizations (OpenTable, Nokia, Jawbone) and early stage start-ups. From 2016 – 2018, she was Design Director at Condé Nast’s Co/Lab where she led a team of 20+ product designers working to establish the practice of user-centered design.Over the years, Margaret has also been a regular guest lecturer and critic in various educational programs including past visits to California College of Arts (CCA), Fordham University, Syracuse University, Parsons School of Art & Design, and General Assembly.She started her career in 2004 as the first in-house designer for scientific publishing startup and open-access innovator PLoS, which has since grown into the world’s largest resource for peer-reviewed academic literature. Margaret holds B.A.s from Stanford University in Science, Technology & Society and Studio Art.