Hi! I'm Kat Richards.

I design customer experience and product strategy that earn trust in the moment and sustain it over time.

For over a decade, I've guided high-stakes decisions at the intersection of digital strategy, customer experience, and product, in environments where priorities compete, incentives misalign, and the cost of misjudgment is real. My role is to bring clarity to ambiguity and align organizations around a direction that holds.

I've built from zero more than once. I stood up a CX and digital strategy practice from scratch at Hoffman York, serving global brands including Wahl, Yamaha Outboards, and Napoleon Grills. At GMR Marketing I delivered connected digital strategy across experiential programs at Super Bowl, NFL, Lowe's, and Austin City Limits. At Digitas I've aligned CMOs and CTOs, built frameworks adopted agency-wide, and led strategy on solutions now in market.

Work with me

- Assess existing digital capabilities and identify gaps across tools, processes, and organizational readiness
- Define a forward-pulling digital strategy that connects business objectives to consumer and stakeholder experience
- Serve as the primary strategic voice across cross-functional teams, client partners, and leadership
- Map and design experiences that work across digital and physical touchpoints without losing brand coherence
- Translate complex products, systems, or innovations into clear consumer benefit narratives
- Build the strategic foundation for long-term engagement, not just the launch moment
- Stand up strategy and CX functions from zero, service model, team structure, delivery standards, and client buy-in
- Build frameworks and research methodologies that outlast the engagement and scale across teams
- Coach and develop strategists at all levels, closing capability gaps and positioning people for growth

Let's Chat

Some clients I’ve partnered with:

“Left brain? Right brain? Kat is ambidextrous. She flawlessly balances strategic, analytic and methodical thinking with inspiring, creative and experiential ideas. She brings order to chaos and innovation to the norm. I thoroughly enjoyed every opportunity I’ve had to collaborate with Kat.”

Tyler (Account Director)
"I’m very impressed... at how you turned my hours-long ramble into a cohesive presentation, backed with credible and quantitative research. Absolutely love this work.”

Joe (Napoleon Marketing Director)
“Thanks for great work and for all the great discussion. Your research, professional approach and frankly, awesome work transformed our product.”

RC (Microsoft Product Owner)
“So impressed with your team’s thinking about this massive undertaking! I’m seeing a lot of change recommendations from all our conversations, so thank you… thank you for listening and hearing us.”

Antonio (Client Lead on MSK)
“The amount of details in this research, leading into the strategy. This is great stuff. Thank you to you and your team for the diligence.”

Amy (CXO - Global Markets and Global Research at BofA)
“These personas are well-rounded to depict the enterprise as a whole. Appreciates that they all come from different points vs one forced and centralized gated experience on this Women’s Ecosystem”

Rachel (SVP Business Marketing at BofA)
“This is awesome. Thanks again for pulling together this accessibility x strategy playbook. Super impressive, comprehensive and important thinking!”

Josh (Head of Experience Strategy)
"This is really smart thinking. I love that you guys are showing us aspirational goals to achieve."

Jessica (SVP Small Business Digital Tools)
“Great job on the discovery workshop. The findings and presentation were smart and well received by the clients, but the real surprise was how engaged the client team was with the prioritization investing game. In the two years I’ve worked on the wealth team, this is the most engaged client call I’ve been a part of.”

Ashley O. (VP, Account Director)
“So fantastic! Thank you so much. This is exactly what we need. It’s so insightful to help us move forward. It’s really impressive to see how on point the pain points are visualized. I’m jumping out of my skin with excitement. ”

Karli (BofA Marketing Chief Executive)
“You are a super great partner. I think others would be watching designers design by now, but you’re in there pitching in. Always helpful when you have a collaborator with a POV!”

Michael (VP/ Director of UX & CS)
Kat is really good at listening and wrangling people to deliver on the work. I saw her actively listen and engage our leadership client, and it was reassuring to see her defend her thinking.

Angela (SVP - Account)
The GOAT. Kat is walking the talk. Way to freaking go! Thank you for facilitating and having a great discussion on Asian Representation in Media.

Ali (CSO- Strategy)
Working with her has been a fantastic partnership.

She meticulously planned and executed multiple complex studies, each with staff focus groups, survey deployment and analysis, and deep-dive family interviews that led to clarifying and impactful journey maps. The tremendous amount of high-quality work captured the emotional complexity families face before they even walk through our doors. That depth in storytelling gave our leadership the confidence we needed to move forward with action plans.
One of the doctors who reviewed the work even noted it was the best set of recommendations he'd seen in 18 years. Beyond the data, Kat is a seamless partner who felt like an extension of our own team. I would gladly recommend her to any organization looking for strategic experience insights.”
— Jeremy (Experience Manager - Children’s Hospital)

Community Involvement

MSOE University

Advising the UX program on industry trends and driving industry needs into their 4 year curriculum. Assisting in networking events and co-authoring a scholarly article on AI’s impact on future students.
Disability:In

Mentor emerging leaders with disabilities through Disability:IN’s NextGen program to support their career growth for the past year.
FoXX Health

Women's Health Advisory Committee, supporting Foxx Health's mission to advocate for women's health by providing strategic guidance on their soon-to-be-released app, giving every woman the tools, knowledge, and confidence to be heard in every healthcare setting.
Badass Mamas

Co-founder of Badass Mamas, a community and storytelling platform for modern mothers redefining what leadership and legacy look like.

https://www.thebadassmamas.com

Let's build something together

I design customer experience and product strategy that earn trust in the moment and sustain it over time.

Work with me

Digital Strategy Transformation

Connected Consumer Experience

Practice Building & Team Leadership

Some clients I’ve partnered with:

“Left brain? Right brain? Kat is ambidextrous. She flawlessly balances strategic, analytic and methodical thinking with inspiring, creative and experiential ideas. She brings order to chaos and innovation to the norm. I thoroughly enjoyed every opportunity I’ve had to collaborate with Kat.”

"I’m very impressed... at how you turned my hours-long ramble into a cohesive presentation, backed with credible and quantitative research. Absolutely love this work.”

“Thanks for great work and for all the great discussion. Your research, professional approach and frankly, awesome work transformed our product.”

“So impressed with your team’s thinking about this massive undertaking! I’m seeing a lot of change recommendations from all our conversations, so thank you… thank you for listening and hearing us.”

“The amount of details in this research, leading into the strategy. This is great stuff. Thank you to you and your team for the diligence.”

“These personas are well-rounded to depict the enterprise as a whole. Appreciates that they all come from different points vs one forced and centralized gated experience on this Women’s Ecosystem”

“This is awesome. Thanks again for pulling together this accessibility x strategy playbook. Super impressive, comprehensive and important thinking!”

"This is really smart thinking. I love that you guys are showing us aspirational goals to achieve."

“So fantastic! Thank you so much. This is exactly what we need. It’s so insightful to help us move forward. It’s really impressive to see how on point the pain points are visualized. I’m jumping out of my skin with excitement. ”

“You are a super great partner. I think others would be watching designers design by now, but you’re in there pitching in. Always helpful when you have a collaborator with a POV!”

Kat is really good at listening and wrangling people to deliver on the work. I saw her actively listen and engage our leadership client, and it was reassuring to see her defend her thinking.

The GOAT. Kat is walking the talk. Way to freaking go! Thank you for facilitating and having a great discussion on Asian Representation in Media.

Working with her has been a fantastic partnership.

MSOE University

Disability:In

FoXX Health

Badass Mamas