I’ve had the absolute pleasure of working closely with Darren Hood on several initiatives at BD and I highly recommend Darren for any principal-level User Experience position. Darren is an exceptional UX professional with a deep understanding of the design process. His ability to seamlessly navigate the entire spectrum of UX activities, coupled with his keen eye for detail and unwavering commitment to excellence, consistently results in impactful solutions. Darren’s exceptional collaboration and communication skills make him an invaluable asset to any organization. He excels at bridging the gap between cross-functional teams, fostering meaningful collaboration, and ensuring that all perspectives are valued. Furthermore, his dedication to mentorship and empowering others demonstrates his commitment to fostering professional growth. Overall, Darren’s comprehensive expertise and remarkable contributions to the field of User Experience make him an outstanding candidate for any principal/leadership-level role. Beyond his work, Darren is an exceptional human being with a stellar EQ. He serves as a mentor to me on many topics and has been an invaluable source of practical advice, and helped me to become a better leader along the way. I can’t recommend Darren enough for any UX Position.

I would recommend Darren Hood to any organization who is serious about user experience design for web. He has deep knowledge of his discipline and can give you solid reasoning for why a design will work or not work for end users as well as keep you up to date with the latest on-line trends. Darren places an extremely high value on making sure his customers are informed and given the highest quality product. Plus, he values your creative input while architecting your project. It was a pleasure working with Darren who set me on the right path to success in the development of my company’s IT website and I wouldn’t hesitate to work with Darren in the future.

Darren is a very knowledgeable and motivated UX advocate and practitioner. While at Bosch I saw him direct the international UX group towards new design methods and help foster cross-team communication. Darren also has a strong academic background and is generally a pleasure to have on the international team.

This past year we launched a major initiative to redesign our e-Learning platform for our global ELT (English Language Training) business. Darren who is part of our UX team in Michigan was assigned to our project with the task of helping us improve the user experience and the overall look and feel. This was our team’s first experience working with a UX professional so we didn’t know what to expect. After a careful heuristic evaluation, Darren proposed changes that have totally transformed our platform improving not only the appearance, but more importantly the functionality. His work has had a profound impact on how our customers and ultimate end-users, the instructors and students, access and use our learning content. Something that was appreciated by everyone on our team was Darren’s expertise and his ability to manage a group of stakeholders with varying opinions about what was right. Darren is unflappable and he has one of those personalities that makes what has the potential to become a contentious workgroup experience into a pleasant, collaborative experience. I highly recommend Darren for the UX professionalism and expertise he brings to an organization.

I had the pleasure of having Darren Hood as my professor for an Information Architecture class at Brandeis University. He stands out as an exceptional and influential leader and instructor. He always made himself available to answer questions and provide additional learning opportunities. In addition, his weekly office hours were engaging and insightful. His passion for the UX discipline shows because he went above and beyond to give feedback to ensure we were learning. I am thankful to have had the opportunity to learn from Darren.