John Morkes

About John Morkes

Experienced UX design and research leader. Player-coach who balances strategic leadership with hands-on execution for B2B SaaS, B2C, and complex domains. Expert in building high-performing teams, establishing design systems at scale, driving WCAG accessibility, and integrating mixed-methods research into product decisions. Proven track record delivering measurable user and business outcomes across multi-product portfolios. Advisor on creating AI-powered products and services that provide value to users and organizations. Former technology and business journalist for WIRED, R&D Magazine, Contractor Magazine, and Foodservice Equipment & Supplies Specialist.Some of my startup clients / acquiring companies- Briggo / Coca-Cola - Broadway Technology / Bloomberg - Click Forensics / Adometry/Google- data.world / ServiceNow - ExamSoft / Turnitin - Lombardi Software / IBM - OJO Labs / Lower.com - PeopleAdmin / PowerSchool - Portico Club / Inspirato/American Express - Retek / Oracle - The Great Courses / Brentwood Associates - Troux / Planview - WholeSecurity / Symantec - Wireless Valley / Motorola - Zelus Analytics / TeamworksSome of my enterprise/large clients- ADP- Coca-Cola- Crate & Barrel- Dell- eBay- European Central Bank- Ford- HP - Hyatt- Intel- Nissan- Norwegian Cruise Line- PayPal- Texas Dept. of Family & Protective Services- UNICEF USA- U.S. Dept. of Energy- Varian

Experience

1. Advisor

   Appmap

   Jun 2021 — Present

   AppMap instruments your application to capture real-time snapshots of code execution, data flow, and behavior — every time your app runs, with zero effort and no code changes.This gives AI tools like Navie, Copilot, and Cursor the runtime context they\'ve been missing. Not just what your code is, but what it just did.With this live understanding of your app\'s behavior, you get smarter suggestions, faster debugging, and fewer code defects, right in your code editor and CI.

Education

• Stanford University

  PhD, Communication Theory and Research

• Northwestern University

  BA, History

• Northwestern University

  MS, Journalism

Skills

• Persona
• User Experience Strategy
• Usability Testing
• Mobile Applications
• Usefulness Testing
• Heuristic Evaluation
• Agile Methodologies
• User Experience
• Content Strategy
• User Research
• Contextual Inquiry
• Scrum
• Training
• Survey Research
• Focus Groups