We have a healthy drive to make things better.

Bringing a medical device to market requires planning, regulatory expertise, and attention to detail. Designing one that helps people requires empathy. Emily has deep experience in the human factors work that’s needed to clear FDA hurdles, but her motivation comes from the humans who will someday see the benefit. She loves partnering with clients on formative research, when there’s still time to have an impact on usability and safety, and along the way she helps engineering teams understand patients as people with broader needs. Emily’s an avid crafter and quilter, and enjoys the Twin Cities music scene.

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Fathom’s super-planner, Shana knows how to get things done and keep them moving. Executing user research involves hundreds of moving parts; thankfully, Shana is happiest doing three things at once. She works behind the scenes to find people to talk to, locate (or fabricate) props and equipment, and pitch in on recording and synthesizing findings. She puts her many talents to use planning Fathom’s infamously complex team events, and when the pandemic hit she became the heartbeat of the company, keeping us connected despite the physical divide while finding ways to support local and minority-owned businesses.

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Bret brings tangible leadership to projects. From start-up to enterprise, clients depend on him for a clearheaded vision and practical direction, and say he paints an excellent picture of how all the results fit together. An alum (and ardent booster) of the University of Minnesota, Bret holds an MBA with a marketing emphasis from the University of Saint Thomas and has been building ties with marketing and technology leaders in his community for more than 25 years. He also holds the Fathom record for most miles run in a day, most races completed, and highest number of calories consumed.

Design is how Lucy relates to the world. Her vacations are spent people-watching, learning about her new surroundings by observing her fellow humans interact with them. She’s fascinated by the things that people build to influence others’ behavior, and loves talking to people to understand where these interactions fall short. A former costume designer, Lucy is used to constraints that many UX folks don’t worry about (air temperature, portability, weight, ease of cleaning in a sandy environment) and she intuitively questions norms that others don’t see (“I want to try new ways of cooking a pizza”).

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A lot of us are good listeners (honestly, it’s kind of the job) but Kat has an ear for what’s important and the confluence of talent and empathy to draw it out. In a parallel universe she may be an outstanding therapist; in ours, we are lucky to work alongside this veteran UX researcher, information architect, and strategist who thinks deeply about her clients’ challenges and homes in on the insights that matter most. Kat holds a Master of Library and Information Science from The College of St. Catherine, and her love of taxonomies probably explains her deep knowledge of trivia.

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Greg likes connecting the dots. His idea of fun is digging into a hard problem, the kind that’s a little bit nebulous, where you have to talk to a lot of different people and figure out where they’re coming from. That’s one of the reasons he enjoys user research, though he’s also happy to collect ideas from stakeholders of all levels and perspectives. One interview, one prototype test, one whiteboard session at a time, Greg gathers perspectives in order to question assumptions, refine his view of the actual issues that need addressing, and create considerate, insightful solutions.

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Laurie Le Moine is a healthcare leader. For 20 years she’s been advising clients through the choppy waters of value-based care partnerships, care delivery redesigns, business transformation, and the creation of digital products and services. Unfazed by organizational dynamics, Laurie’s a skilled facilitator who takes genuine joy in engaging with people and helping them develop a shared view of what could be. Leading a team, she somehow manages to be endlessly adaptable as things change while remaining focused on results.

Making complex ideas tangible is vital to getting good feedback, but the risk of drawing a picture is that your thousand words are not well-chosen. Eddie’s designs illustrate user interactions and requirements with the right detail needed to get his clients speaking the same language: “customer.” A former software developer, he now focuses on usability testing, research, and his favorite: UI design and rapid prototyping. He’s brought his sharp mind to the finer points of banking, technology, government/military, and healthcare designing web, mobile, and device experiences, with the lion’s share in the medical device space. Outside of work he explores as much of the world as possible with his family, and happily allows his wife, a travel enthusiast, to handle those details.

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Kate provides strategic leadership to Fathom Consulting and our client engagements. She brings a genuine love of learning about people and things, a collaborative low-ego style, and a belief in setting the bar high—then kicking it higher. With her M.A. in Organization Development, Change Leadership and Conflict Management, Kate never shies away from tough conversations, and she has fostered a culture of candor and trust that makes them possible. As she will remind you, “Feedback is a gift!”

Kate serves on the executive committee of the Minnesota Children’s Museum board, and is a founding member and chair of the Minnesota Women Presidents Organization’s Equity initiative, a cross-chapter collective of leaders committed to advancing equity and driving change within ourselves, our organizations, and our communities. She laughs a lot, sings even more, and is a sucker for a good chocolate chip cookie.

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Big ideas touch a lot of people. Daisy is a strategist and service designer who believes that the best results come from putting those people at the center of decision-making. She revels in the “fuzzy front end” of design, making sense of the early swirl of challenges, hopes, and fears; finding the opportunities; and building empathy for users by including them in the creation process. On the way, she leads her teams past abstract notions to an appreciation for how decisions made today will actually affect people’s lives tomorrow.

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Julie helps her clients do the right thing. She is a trusted confidant for her partners when the stakes are high. Drawing upon her work with providers, carriers, patients, and tech companies (not to mention a master’s degree in healthcare administration from the Carlson School of Management), Julie brings clarity to confusing concepts and makes healthcare a better place by ensuring that decisions not only make business sense but do right by all the people who will be affected.

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The best digital products have a balanced interactive strategy. Or so says Craig, that guy with the background that includes digital product management, software development, digital media, and interactive marketing, so maybe we should listen to him. Behind that unassuming smile, Craig has a genuine enthusiasm for technology, a career built on helping organizations find consensus, and a fixation on iterating to nudge the current state that much closer to the vision. Also, dad jokes. So many dad jokes.

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Waist-deep in the weeds is Elizabeth’s happy place. An MBA, an analytical brain, and a commitment to making technology work for humans makes her the hub of her projects—she talks to business people, engineers, and designers in their own languages as she builds a detailed plan and then manages execution against it. She’s a superfan of Excel, and also of the Pittsburgh Steelers, and it’s probably best for everyone that the two will never face off for a championship ring.

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Toccara thrives on addressing complex organizational problems by listening deeply and bringing teams together. A lifelong learner and teacher, she leverages her expert organization skills and endless curiosity to manage teams through organizational development. Toccara is a natural team cheerleader, always listening and looking for opportunities for every team member to contribute. Clients count on Toccara’s sharp editing pen, reservoir of anecdotes, and deep experience blending change management techniques with effective communication in support of their highest-pressure initiatives. Her love of discovery and insight is also why she loves antique hunting and estate sales—every item has a story, a history, a chance to be renewed.

“Can this be better?” A natural optimizer, that’s the question Lynsey brings to all her work—from client challenges like detangling a complex app, streamlining a customer experience, or simplifying a wonky process, to personal pursuits like renovating her mid-century modern home or perfecting the classic cocktail. What keeps her motivated (along with the list-making, personal workflow-tuning, and the copy-editing everyone asks her to do) is the chance to find the pearl in the oyster—and then polishing it until it shines. Clients recognize Lynsey for her sense of fun and (sometimes) the backdrop provided by her Airstream trailer, the comfy getaway where she and her husband make their summer weekends just a little better.

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If Sydney had a superpower, it would be transforming data into a clear narrative by uncovering the nuances and patterns within it. She loves to see where the data can take her, following her natural curiosity to explore information at a deep level and uncover the details that bring user needs into focus. She often finds herself asking, “Ooh, should we follow that trail? Or maybe this one …” Once she chooses a direction, she brings the research findings together into a thoughtful and informed structure that allows others to understand, ask questions, and feel that they are part of discovering what the data can tell us. This knack for uncovering and using patterns is also present in Sydney’s love for sewing. A former costume designer, she enjoys creating sewing tutorials and reviewing sewing patterns so others can join in the fun.

Got a big, ambiguous problem? Taylor is ready to solve it for you. He thrives in cavernous, vague spaces that require clarity. As a former instructor of user experience (UX) and human-computer interaction (HCI), he knows how to ask smart, intuitive questions that immerse him in a situation and the context behind it. His motivation? Understanding how things work and allowing smart solutions to emerge. The deep knowledge Taylor gathers helps him to leave things not just better than he found them but exceed expectations in ways others might not have imagined. This passion for understanding and improving the things around him also shines through in his work mentoring the next generation of UX designers.

PaJai enjoys stretching her brain to identify patterns and solve problems. She has a terrific sense of arrangement and balance that she brings to her UI designs, and her clear, intentional thinking shows up in other creative outlets, such as event decorating, beauty, and cooking. In collaborations she’s able to balance her own sensibilities with the preferences of teammates and the goals of the project, emerging with a vision that builds consensus. PaJai has a B.A. in Graphic Design from the University of St. Catherine.

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Ben loves a meaty project that lets him use all his research tools. (We’re pretty sure his workshop has a pegboard with the painted outlines of contextual inquiry, surveys, focus groups, and the rest of his trusty methods.) As much as he enjoys the data collection, though, it’s always in service to answering important questions: How to position a new offering? Features that will excite customers? What needs to be in place to deliver a superior experience? Ben enjoys working alongside his clients to build a shared perspective and define the way forward.

Aimee’s secret weapon is empathy. Consulting brings you into contact with a range of people, she says, “and as long as we’re in this specific relationship, we may as well have fun.” Not your typical consultant, Aimee’s curiosity about people—and everything else—has led her to roles in community impact, policy, and startups, where she’s had opportunities to nudge the world toward what it should be.

Aimee has a B.A. from Brown University and an Executive Certificate in Social Innovation Design from the University of Pennsylvania. A proud resident of St. Paul and a self-proclaimed foodie, Aimee's on a mission to drive St. Paul's economic development by reminding everyone that there's a world of restaurants beyond Minneapolis.

You’d think we’d be used to complexity, given the healthcare work, but we’re still all very happy that Cindy is managing our finances. “There is no wiggle room,” she says—you have to fall in love with the laws of taxation, accounting, and mathematics, and Cindy has kept Fathom on an even keel through business transitions and pandemic turbulence on top of the more predictable cycles of client services. Clients and colleagues know her as a responsive partner as she listens, always, for an opportunity to make someone’s life easier, and the office dogs know her as the lovely aunt who will spoil them when they visit.

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