Our Lead(H)er series features impressive women leaders in the tech industry. In this Q&A, we are featuring Nicole Hildenbiddle, VP, User Experience at Rue Gilt Groupe.
Where did you grow up and how would you describe yourself as a child?
I grew up on the eastern end of Long Island, New York, in a small town called Amagansett. It's a beautiful part of the country with a thriving art and design community, which captured my attention at a very young age. I would describe myself then and now as a deep thinker with an appreciation for beauty and detail. When I was thirteen, I began training with a local artist named Linda Capello, who focused on figure drawing. The five years I spent working with Linda motivated me to pursue a formal design education.
This is a photo of my son and me last summer in my hometown:
What did you study in college?
I studied industrial design at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) in Providence, Rhode Island. I went to college thinking I wanted to focus on painting, but during my first year at RISD, I was exposed to human-centered design and fell in love with it. I found it fascinating that a well-designed object or experience could influence behavior and positively impact the daily lives of others. Every project was an opportunity to connect with new users, understand a unique problem space, and use creative thinking to develop a solution.
Can you share the details on your career path and what were the critical moments that got you to where you are today?
The beginning of my career was not glamorous. After working hard in college, I graduated during a recession, and finding work as a junior designer was very difficult. I took freelance jobs and did contract work where I could find it and eventually joined a design agency in Seattle, WA. As a young designer in a small but growing agency, I had to wear multiple hats. I managed client relationships, conducted research, designed web experiences, and wrote code. It was a challenging period in my life, and I often felt like I was burning the candle at both ends, but I learned a broad set of valuable skills that helped differentiate me from my peers later on in my career.
I joined a luxury department store chain in 2013. It was an exciting opportunity to help establish user experience as a new discipline for the popular retailer with a growing e-commerce platform. For the first time in my career, I was working on a single product suite with a team of designers at a large organization. As I grew into a leadership role, I became more confident in my abilities and learned how to drive transformational change within a corporate structure. I was also introduced to the philosophy of servant leadership during my time at this company, of which I'm an advocate to this day.
I moved to Austin, Texas, to join an online marketplace for coupons and deals in 2019. My role was to support a growing team of designers, establish a strong design culture, and deliver impactful changes on an aggressive schedule. Within the first year, my team redesigned the complete product suite, which put the company on a new growth trajectory and played a significant role in its 2020 acquisition. This opportunity challenged me in new ways and helped me grow into a stronger people manager and business leader.
These experiences have led me to my current role at Rue Gilt Groupe. Each one has shaped who I am today and compelled me to push through self-doubt and self-imposed limitations.
What is your current role and responsibilities?
I'm the VP of Product Design at Rue Gilt Groupe. Rue Gilt Groupe is a leading off-price eCommerce portfolio company that operates three complementary sites: Rue La La, Gilt, and Shop Premium Outlets. I joined the company last year to establish an influential user-centered design, research, and writing discipline. I'm excited to be part of the leadership team focused on accelerating the company's growth by connecting with customers and supporting top talent. My day-to-day activities consist of helping my team navigate design challenges, identifying opportunities for the product, promoting our discipline throughout the organization, and connecting with our customers to gain insights. I love my role at Rue Gilt Groupe because there's a ton of opportunity to influence and significantly impact the customer experience.
For people who are looking to be in a similar position, what advice would you give to others in terms of helping them achieve their career goals?
As a leader in the design industry, I believe it's essential to understand your craft and stay curious. We are in a quickly evolving field, and I think people do themselves a disservice when they become too comfortable. It's also imperative to be kind and respectful inside and outside your professional life. Relationships matter. Positive relationships do more than grow your network; they improve the quality of your work and your day-to-day life by making collaboration more efficient, enjoyable, and ultimately more rewarding.
What do you find most interesting/rewarding about your work? What’s the most challenging?
I love demonstrating the power of design and bringing people from other disciplines into the creative process. I've led multiple companies through design transformations at this point in my career, and the first phase is always focused on building trust. You need to inspire your colleagues to innovate and push past established norms, which can be challenging because there are many different personalities, agendas, and working styles to navigate within an organization. I've successfully built trust by bringing cross-functional partners into the creative process and working with them to create an inspirational vision that we can work toward incrementally. Getting in a rhythm of incremental delivery is when the magic happens. The organization begins to see how gradual design changes can dramatically impact the customer experience and business, and they want more. There's a dopamine effect when a new design, feature, or copy change goes live, and the numbers start to climb in the right direction. When I see that shift happen and people within the organization begin asking for more design and user research, I'm reminded why I love this industry so much. It is incredibly impactful and rewarding!
What is your proudest professional accomplishment?
If I had to choose one, I would say I will always be proud of my work on the e-commerce platform of the luxury department store chain. When I joined the company, it was funding major renovations to the retail stores, but there was little investment behind re-envisioning the e-commerce space, which was lagging behind the competition. I initiated and drove an effort to demonstrate the importance of modernizing our customer-facing, digital experiences, resulting in full funding for redesigning our digital product suite. This redesign generated significant wins for the company year over year. A future-thinking concept from the initial board presentation also evolved into a product, which was a big success.
I look forward to leveraging my learnings from past experiences like this one and making a significant impact at Rue Gilt Groupe. I believe the best is yet to come!
Q&A
What do you enjoy doing in your free time?
I'm very interested in health and wellness and I’m currently studying nutrition. I think it's remarkable how seemingly small changes we make to our lifestyle add up and have the potential to transform our health. I also highly value the time I get to spend with my family. My husband, son, and I have a very close bond and enjoy exploring new places together.
How do you manage stress?
Poor relationships are a significant source of stress in the workplace; therefore, I prioritize building positive relationships with my team and colleagues. I also make time for a walk each day and practice breathing techniques to reduce anxiety. The power of breath is impressive! Here's a good book recommendation on the topic: Breath The New Science of a Lost Art, by James Nestor.
How many cups of coffee do you have in a day?
I don't drink coffee. I gave it up two years ago when the pandemic started because I noticed it triggered anxiety, so I now opt for caffeine-free herbal teas. My new favorite is a Lavender Mint blend by RISHI teas. You can still find me in coffee shops though because I like the ambiance, and my son is a hot chocolate connoisseur.
Any book or podcast recommendations?
Two books that shifted my perspective recently are Atomic Habits by James Clear and Untamed by Glennon Doyle. My team is also reading Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action by Simon Sinek right now, and I'm enjoying it.
Do you have any open roles?
We have a Product Manager role on our Business Intelligence team open right now, and our Engineering organization has several open positions as well. It is an opportune time to join Rue Gilt Groupe because it's on an exciting growth trajectory, and there's a strong appetite to innovate and improve the customer experience.
What advice do you have for recent college graduates?
There's a Martin Luther King Jr. quote that I revisit, which is: "You don't have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step." I felt so much pressure to have it all figured out when I graduated college, but there was no way I could have foreseen how my journey would unfold. Each step introduces you to new people and opportunities, so forget about the five-year plan, focus on the now, and take your first step. The steps will build upon each other organically, and one day you will be looking back on your life from a new vantage point and appreciate all the twists and turns.
