Alyssa Jones Portfolio

I studied ethnomusicology. Not design, not business, not computer

science. And honestly, it's the best thing that ever happened to my

career.

I studied ethnomusicology. Not design, not business, not computer science. And honestly, it's the best thing that ever happened to my career.

Alongside it, a minor in Culture and Media. Between the two, I

spent four years learning how to embed in communities, listen

past the surface, understand how people make meaning, and trace

how that meaning travels through systems and media. It turns out

that is almost exactly what good design, strategy, and systems

work requires. I just came at it from a different direction than

most.

Alongside it, a minor in Culture and Media. Between the two, I spent four years learning how to embed in communities, listen past the surface, understand how people make meaning, and trace how that meaning travels through systems and media. It turns out that is almost exactly what good design, strategy, and systems

work requires. I just came at it from a different direction than most.

The tools change. The domain changes. The fundamental act of

understanding how people experience something, and then

making it better, never does.

The tools change. The domain changes. The fundamental act of understanding how people experience something, and then making it better, never does.

Based in

New York, NY

Education

BA Contemporary Music, Concentration in

Ethnomusicology and Music Technology

Minor in Culture and Media

The New School, 2018

Years of experience

9+, across design, strategy, and production

Open to

Full-time, contract-to-hire, and freelance

The longer version

A career built on showing up where the work actually is

I started my professional life managing academic technology labs at The New School. That

job taught me something that no design program would have: that the most important

systems are the ones nobody thinks about until they break. I spent five years building

documentation, training people, and making chaotic environments run smoothly. I didn't

have a name for what I was doing. It was just work that needed doing.

The most important systems are the ones nobody thinks about until they break.

From there I moved into product design at Mesh Communities, a creator platform where I

ended up owning design across the entire product surface: the community experience, the

internal tools that admins used to run their platforms, and the design system that held

everything together. Three years of building in a fast-moving environment with real users

and real stakes.

Since then I've brought those same instincts to institutional service design at John Jay

College, where I'm redesigning the administrative workflows that faculty and staff navigate

every day. And at Partlii Creative House, where I'm building the operational infrastructure

of a studio from scratch: the systems, pipelines, and strategic frameworks that let a small

team produce consistently at a high level.

The common thread isn't the industry or the deliverable. It's the question I ask every time:

what is this actually like for the person living it, and what would make it genuinely better?

How I think

A few things I believe about this work

Context before solutions

The fastest way to build the wrong thing is to skip the

part where you actually understand the situation. I

always start by embedding: talking to people, watching

what they do, mapping what's actually happening

before I form any opinions about what should change.

The fastest way to build the wrong thing is to skip the part where you actually understand the situation. I always start by embedding: talking to people, watching what they do, mapping what's actually happening before I form any opinions about what should change.

Systems over surfaces

A beautiful interface on top of a broken system is still a

broken system. Good design accounts for what

happens before someone touches a screen and what

happens after. I think in flows, structures, and handoffs,

not just moments.

A beautiful interface on top of a broken system is still a broken system. Good design accounts for what happens before someone touches a screen and what happens after. I think in flows, structures, and handoffs, not just moments.

Work that outlasts you

I care about documentation, governance, and

knowledge transfer not because I'm obsessive about

process, but because I've seen too many good systems

collapse the moment the person who built them

leaves. The work isn't done until it can run without me.

I care about documentation, governance, and

knowledge transfer not because I'm obsessive about process, but because I've seen too many good systems collapse the moment the person who built them leaves. The work isn't done until it can run without me.

Community as a design material

The people most affected by a system should shape

how it works. I've spent a lot of my career designing for

communities that are often underrepresented in the

rooms where decisions get made. That's not a side

interest. It is a design principle.

The people most affected by a system should shape how it works. I've spent a lot of my career designing for communities that are often underrepresented in the rooms where decisions get made. That's not a side interest. It is a design principle.

Range is a feature

I've worked across product design, service design,

digital transformation, and creative production. That

breadth isn't a detour. It's the reason I can see problems

that specialists miss, because I've been in enough

different rooms to know how things connect.

I've worked across product design, service design, digital transformation, and creative production. That breadth isn't a detour. It's the reason I can see problems that specialists miss, because I've been in enough

different rooms to know how things connect.

Honest over impressive

I'd rather tell you what something actually cost and

what I'd do differently than package everything as a

win. The work I'm most proud of came from projects

where things went sideways and we figured it out.

That's where the real learning lives.

I'd rather tell you what something actually cost and what I'd do differently than package everything as a win. The work I'm most proud of came from projects where things went sideways and we figured it out. That's where the real learning lives.

Right now

What I'm working on

Creative Systems Strategist

Partlii Creative House

May 2024 to present

Building the brand strategy, production pipelines, and

operational infrastructure of a growing video studio

focused on culturally resonant storytelling for

emerging artists.

Service Designer, Digital Transformation

John Jay College, CUNY

May 2025 to present

Leading human-centered redesign of institutional

workflows, building SharePoint knowledge systems

and Power Automate automations that reduce

administrative burden across multiple departments.

Outside the work

Still curious about everything

The same quality that makes me effective at work: a genuine desire to

understand how things work and why people do what they do, tends to show

up in the rest of my life too.

The same quality that makes me effective at work: a genuine desire to understand how things work and why people do what they do, tends to show up in the rest of my life too.

I read a lot of autobiography and narrative nonfiction. I'm interested in

people who built things in unconventional ways, who operated across

disciplines before that was a brand, who figured things out by doing them. I

find that more useful than most business books.

I read a lot of autobiography and narrative nonfiction. I'm interested in people who built things in unconventional ways, who operated across disciplines before that was a brand, who figured things out by doing them. I find that more useful than most business books.

I play instruments, travel when I can, and pay close attention to how cities,

communities, and creative industries organize themselves. Most of what I

know about systems thinking came from watching things that weren't

I play instruments, travel when I can, and pay close attention to how cities, communities, and creative industries organize themselves. Most of what I know about systems thinking came from watching things that weren't designed by designers.

Currently reading

Autobiographies of people who built things in unconventional ways

Background

Music, ethnography, and a deep appreciation for how communities

organize themselves

Music, ethnography, and a deep appreciation for how communities organize themselves

Certified in

Asana Workflow Specialist · Project Management Basics (Pendo.io)

Always thinking about

How systems fail people, and what it would take to fix them for good

Let's make something worth

making