Resume | Charla Myers
Professional Experience
OVERVIEW
Zendesk | San Francisco, 2020–2024
Lead Content Designer for Growth & Monetization (G&M)
City National Bank / Apex Systems | Los Angeles, 2019–2020
Lead Content Designer / UX Writer
Elastic | Mountain View, 2017–2018
Content Strategist / Copywriter
Pardee Properties | Los Angeles, 2016–2017
Client Experience Manager
Lead Content Designer
Viking Ocean Cruises / Phenomenon | Los Angeles, 2012–2013
Lead Content Designer
LG / Publicis Modem | New York, 2013–2016
Lead Content Designer
Grey Worldwide | New York, 2008–2009
Creative Director
Digitas | New York, 2005–2009
Lead Content Designer
Early Career: Producer and Senior Engagement Manager with Organic in both San Francisco and New York; plus, Communications Director for Amalgamated Bank’s Trust & Institutional Investments division.
- Content design expert with 15+ years experience building user-focused products, with expertise in growth and feature discovery across platforms.
- Influential cross-functional partner who builds consensus across disciplines by translating user insights into systematic design workflows that deliver measurable engagement.
- Globally experienced colleague and team builder, primarily remote since 2013, with teams across North America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific.
Zendesk | San Francisco, 2020–2024
Lead Content Designer for Growth & Monetization (G&M)
- Led content design for Growth & Monetization, partnering with cross-functional teams (product, engineering, research, data science, marketing) to drive feature discovery and engagement that influenced purchasing decisions.
- Developed a scalable Trial framework by providing the design strategy, IA, content map, microcopy, and messaging that supported the company’s growth objectives.
- Created and implemented the Adoption framework that brought design consistency across all product teams by establishing principles, guidelines, voice, and tone for initial onboarding and ongoing feature discovery.
- Achieved 55% increase in product activation rate by creating a contextual Help panel with specialized onboarding content that streamlined the setup experience.
- Listened to user pain points and developed a design solution to add a contextual Help panel with specific onboarding content—this increased the product activation rate by 55%.
- Ran A/B tests for product messaging and UI copy, using the insights to refine content for increased engagement and conversion.
- Conducted UX research on terminology, navigation, and microcopy to understand diverse user behaviors, preferences, and pain points across geographies, improving localization for global audiences.
- Championed user-centered design across all UX disciplines through office hours, crits, workshops, 1:1 mentor sessions, and a “buddy” program.
- Produced a cross-organizational global symposium that brought together 10+ teams and included regionally-focused programming, the outcome led to comprehensive in-company launch resources on adoption best practices.
- Facilitated numerous cross-functional ideation sessions and led design projects that had multi-faceted partnerships and deep collaboration with Marketing, Brand, Documentation, Localization, and Accessibility.
- Developed design solutions that addressed user needs, while acknowledging design debt constraints.
City National Bank / Apex Systems | Los Angeles, 2019–2020
Lead Content Designer / UX Writer
- Delivered all content for a new mobile banking app 53 features in 15 weeks, demonstrating the ability to execute rapidly on complex initiatives. This work included creating IA, workflows, navigation, copy, and UX research.
- Established voice, tone, language, and style to be implemented for all post-authentication digital experiences.
- Led cross-functional workshops to uncover user needs and establish strategic design direction, facilitating collaboration between product, design, and business stakeholders.
- Built strong partnerships with Risk Management, Legal, and Compliance teams to gain content approval while ensuring regulatory requirements remained accessible and user-friendly.
- Served as long-term interim UX Manager for team of 9, overseeing daily operations and project resourcing.
Elastic | Mountain View, 2017–2018
Content Strategist / Copywriter
- Increased employment applications by 25% with recruiting content that focused on culture and work environment.
- Developed content strategy for global employee handbook (100+ pages) to serve a remote-first workforce.
Pardee Properties | Los Angeles, 2016–2017
Client Experience Manager
- Boosted staff retention by 35% through quantitative and qualitative analysis that led to operational improvement, such as reducing CRM workflow by over 50 steps.
- Created materials and conducted weekly CRM training for over 30 sales agents, developing instructional content and documentation for complex workflows.
Lead Content Designer
- Developed editorial standards (style, voice, tone) and content for 8 internal apps serving multiple companies within the WMG organization.
- Created content architecture, UI text, technical documentation (data dictionaries, system responses), and training materials for Warner/Chappell financial platform processing $1.5B in annual transactions.
- Led product development and content design for a new Helpdesk app that, once implemented, achieved a reduction in IT support requests by 25%.
Viking Ocean Cruises / Phenomenon | Los Angeles, 2012–2013
Lead Content Designer
- Launched Viking Ocean Cruises: a $5mm global initiative for a new “affordable luxury” brand, developing UX strategy that included mental models, experience map, and wireframes.
- Created comprehensive taxonomy for 2600+ cruise options that ensure content continuity across all channels: print (catalog), web, video, email, mobile.
- Led freelance writing team, providing creative direction and establishing brand voice and content strategy.
LG / Publicis Modem | New York, 2013–2016
Lead Content Designer
- Provided creative direction and product management for the internal copy team.
- Increased post-purchase engagement of product education that led to an 8% increase in customer satisfaction.
- Developed personas, created messaging plans, and worked collaboratively with designers to define UI features.
Grey Worldwide | New York, 2008–2009
Creative Director
- Acted as creative lead in developing interactive concepts for a variety of clients: E*Trade, Playtex (infant care), Lilly (Evista), Purolator (oil filters), Pantene, Penguin Books, and Longhorn Steakhouse.
- Managed ~12 direct reports and resource allocations for all digital projects
Digitas | New York, 2005–2009
Lead Content Designer
- Acted as digital creative lead for a variety of American Express properties and projects.
- Managed 2 direct reports, responsible for department-wide copywriter resource allocations, plus created Portfolio Club.
Early Career: Producer and Senior Engagement Manager with Organic in both San Francisco and New York; plus, Communications Director for Amalgamated Bank’s Trust & Institutional Investments division.
Skills
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User experience & content capabilities
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Marketing experience
Working competencies
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Education
- Bachelor of Science in Broadcasting & Film | Boston University, College of Communication
- Certificate in Data Analytics | University of Southern California, Viterbi School of Engineering
- Certificate in Coaching for Life and Work | University of California, Davis, Continuing and Professional Education
Clients + Agencies
Working on significant projects in a variety of industries helped me learn the fundamentals for many businesses.
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Clients
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Agencies
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