👋 Hi, I’m Alëna, pronounced Ah-lyo-nah, like “alone” with an “a” at the end. If you’re reading this, it’s because we’ll be working together and I want to set us up for success. Think of this as a shortcut past the small talk into the stuff that really matters. My Enneagram says I’m a (7) Enthusiast and (8) Challenger, which translates into an optimistic sparring partner biased toward action. I thrive on healthy debate, candid feedback, and a level of creative energy that sometimes borders on unreasonable, all in service of great user experience.

I’m relentless in the pursuit of clarity. I love taking a pile of messy, confusing information and shaping it into something clear and actionable. More is rarely better. Curating and stripping back to what’s essential is where real improvement happens. Details matter. Padding matters. Color tokens matter. Poor resolution, sloppy sentences, or overly wordy decks slow us down and chip away at excellence. If it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing right.

I’ll always push for clarity on the outcome we’re trying to achieve and look for ways to collapse the distance to impact. Bureaucracy and “because it’s always been this way” thinking kills me inside. I’m not precious about the route we take, as long as we keep our integrity, humanity, and values intact. 

Context is everything. No decision exists in isolation. Even the best ones have a shelf life. When the environment changes, we should be ready to revisit and improve them, otherwise we risk falling victim to cargo culting. There are no sacred beliefs; everything can be challenged.

I tend to zoom out and look for the ripple effect of decisions. It’s rare that a problem is an isolated domino. The faster we connect the dots to the bigger picture, the more momentum we’ll have. 

I have strong opinions, but they’re always up for debate. If there’s no opposing view in the room, I might ask you to take that side or do it myself. We rarely get it right in one go, and that’s fine. Iteration is part of the process.

My brain works best when I can see something. A working prototype beats everything else, followed by a Figma prototype, a system diagram, or a FigJam sketch. A slide deck with words and screenshots is fine, but it will get the most scrutiny. 

Jam sessions beat hand-waving every time. Bring your messy WIP, your three best options, recaps, sketches, explorations. The more context I have, the faster we’ll align.

I hold a high bar for craft and believe we can build the best work in the world. That comes from well-rested people with charged-up resilience and omnivorous curiosity. Creative minds need nature, books, pop culture, history, and exposure to the latest tech. Share the weird article, the unexpected experiment, the tangent. It all feeds the work.

Despite my name, I believe teams are stronger than individuals, and leadership is about creating the conditions for others to do their best work. My job is to catalyze the potential in those around me, to share in their wins and losses, and to help trust compound over time. I found these books on leadership particularly impactful, and would suggest any people leader should check it out. 

The best people I’ve worked with are experts in their area but never fenced in by it. Many of the most important problems need deep horizontal collaboration, and I see “areas” as responsibility and expertise, not ownership.

When working with me, bring intent. If something feels off after a meeting or review, raise it right away. Fresh context makes for better conversations. Slack is fine; a quick 1:1 is better. I appreciate people who are courageous in their self-reflection and own the impact of their decisions – it’s true leadership. A book that encapsulates this well is “Turn the ship around” by L. David Marquet.