Designer
Researcher
Manager

Hello. My name is Daniel Ritzenthaler. Most people call me Dan or Ritz. I'm at my best when helping people to improve things. At my second best when improving things to help people.

Here's a few career highlights to get to know me professionally.

The big ones:

Recent responsibilities as a consultant with DEPT®:

Previous responsibilities:

Curious about personal stuff? Here's a bit more about me.

Is everyone a professional designer? No (including many with ‘designer’ in their titles).

The goal shouldn’t be to have all design decisions be made by people with the word “designer” in their title. The goal is to make sure every design choice is made with rigor. With skin in the game.

Hey, designers! Stop fighting for users.

Stop fighting for users. Stop fighting for the business. Start fighting for every single choice to be made as though the business and its users are inextricably linked.

The problem with problems

Don’t talk about problems (or solutions). Instead, talk about progress. Only then can we be precise without dictating implementation details.

Writing a good objective

Working with abstract concepts doesn’t make us more strategic. It doesn’t mean we understand the big picture. It doesn’t mean we’re doing something more valuable.