I’m a senior design manager for HubSpot in Dublin, Ireland, where I lead the global content design discipline. I’m a Webby Award-winning designer and keynote speaker who’s built and led design and content teams at Facebook, Intercom, IBM, REI, and The Nature Conservancy.

Previously, I was a senior group design manager at Intercom, where I redefined content design to maximize its impact. I led UX content strategy for Facebook Marketplace and was the first principal user experience architect at REI. I also served as a Peace Corps volunteer focused on public health in Burkina Faso, West Africa. I currently volunteer with 81cents as a pay equity advisor for marginalized communities of people in tech.

A few career highlights:

• Defined the practice of transparent recruiting at HubSpot
• Transformed content design at Intercom to maximize its impact
• Led an organization of 15 UX content strategists at Facebook
• Co-led and edited the Facebook Design writing collection
• Built UX standards as REI’s first principal experience architect
• Won two Webby Awards for my work at The Nature Conservancy
• Served as a Peace Corps public health volunteer in Burkina Faso, West Africa

I earned a master’s degree in information management from the University of Washington (2013), certification in human-computer interaction at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (1998), and a bachelor’s degree in scientific and technical communication from Michigan Technological University (1997).

I’m married to the artist Marja Huhta and we live in Dublin, Ireland with Prim (a.k.a. #bestdogever).

You can find me on Twitter @jcolman and connect with me on LinkedIn.

Photos of Jonathon Colman

Jennifer Jefferson took this photo at the 2014 IA Summit. I met her at my first IA Summit waaaaay back in the heady days of 2011—we were both n00bs then, so it was great to meet up again.

Jenn took this photo on what ended up being a very bad day for me; I think you can see some of that sadness in my eyes here, even though I’m smiling. That’s why I use this photo in all my profiles now—it’s a way to remind myself that it’s OK to be open and vulnerable. When you let people in, good folks (like Jenn!) will be there to help you out.

Erika Nortemann took this photo for a feature that the Chronicle of Philanthropy was doing about online fundraising. They contacted us at 4pm on a Friday afternoon asking for a high-res photo. I tried so hard to look like I knew something about the Internet, about fundraising, about anything. Not sure I succeeded.

My friend Chris Wolz runs Forum One. He invited me to speak at an executive seminar they hosted at the National Press Club. So I gave this talk two days before leaving for a three-month fellowship in Australia and then relocating to Seattle… and was even able to sneak in a Battlestar Galactica reference on stage.

How am I even staying upright here?! Kerry-Anne Gilowey took a big risk in asking me to speak about SEO and content strategy at the 2012 Content Strategy Forum in South Africa. The talk went great and helped link the two communities together—it’s one of my most-viewed presentations.

Also: if you’ve never been this honest and transparent on stage about something you don’t know, then I suggest you try it. It got a big laugh and set everyone at ease (including me!).

Here, I’m listening to Marja read her wedding vows to me. We hand-wrote them while traveling in New Zealand and I had no idea what she was going to say. But about 10 seconds after this photo was taken, she said something that made me burst into tears. I love my wife.

Here Marja and I are creating a sort of human yin-yang (阴阳). Even when we’re apart, we’re still together because we’ve taken from each other’s souls and left something new behind.

Marja accompanied me on a three-month fellowship I did in Australia for The Nature Conservancy. We loved Oz so much that we came back for vacation just a couple of years later to explore the Great Barrier Reef.

Prim (AKA #bestdogever) joined our family in December of 2011 when we found her at the Seattle Humane Society. She likes food, snorgles, and walks to the park. She dislikes squirrels, baths, and home invaders, not to mention anytime when her people aren’t giving her enough attention. Speaking of which… gotta go!