Minneapolis / service design, brand, marketing, applied AI
A big career, cut into pieces a small business can buy.
I came up in the Minneapolis ad agencies and won some awards there. Then I spent about fifteen years leading design and technology inside places like U.S. Bank, BMW, and Principal, and started a few companies of my own. Now I sell that work by the hour, the day, the project, or the month, to businesses that could never have afforded the whole thing.
Taking new clients Based in Minneapolis. I come to you anywhere in the Twin Cities. Remote works for everyone else.
Clients over the years: U.S. Bank, Target, BMW, Principal Financial, Medtronic, GE, and a lot of companies you have never heard of that are doing just fine.
Selected clients and engagements
Start here
What are you trying to do?
Each one goes to a page with what it costs and what you get.
Who I work with
Small jobs, monthly seats, and the occasional big one.
Local business, co-op, or nonprofit
Starts at $150
A second opinion on your site, your campaign, or the quote somebody gave you, $150. The AI you already pay for, switched on with your team watching, $450. A one-page website, $1,500. A day in a room finding where the hours go, $3,500. What you spend on a small job comes off the bigger one if you go on.
Growing company
Starts at $3,500 a month
A fractional CMO, CTO, or AI lead a couple days a month. I set the plan, then find and manage the people who build it. Three months at the least, two years at the most.
Big company or agency
Scoped per project
Service design sessions, team training, or a contract running a team through something new. I built digital at Olson, led UX at U.S. Bank, and ran service design for BMW, so the hallways will look familiar.
What I do
The main things. The full menu is longer.
Each of these has a page with the price on it. The whole menu, from brainstorming to illustration →
Find where AI fits
A service design session with your team. We map how the work moves, find the hours that disappear, and pick the ones a tool could take. You leave with a ranked list and one thing decided.
See the day →Service design
How a customer, patient, or employee gets through your business, start to finish: the website, the phone, the front door, the signs on the wall. I find where people get lost or give up, and we fix those first. Cooper-trained. Ran it for BMW.
Map it →Branding, campaigns, and websites
The name, the identity, the voice, the website, the campaign, the printed things. One person doing it, so it all sounds like the same company. Award-winning since 2000.
See the work →Prototypes and odd jobs
The idea that does not fit anyone's service list. A prototype you can put in front of a customer, a new way to find buyers, an app, a game, an animation, a kiosk at an event. If it is weird and has a chance, I am interested.
Pitch me the idea →Fractional CMO, CTO, or AI lead
A couple days a month of someone who has done the job before. I set the plan, pick the vendors, and answer for the result. Three months to two years.
How the seat works →Getting your people to use it
You bought the tool. Nobody uses it. I find out why, fix the workflow around it, and train the team on the work they do every day.
How that goes →Put me on the team for a while
Your agency lost its digital lead, or your company is launching something and nobody owns it. I take the seat, or run one study, then hand it back.
Cover the seat →Build the AI thing
The pilot that never made it out of the demo. I get it into daily use with the guardrails on and the monthly bill under control. Forty-nine of these run every day for one client.
Get it built →Get found by AI assistants
When someone asks ChatGPT who to call, your name should be in the answer. Answer pages, listings, structured data, and a weekly number. Done on my own firm first: new LLC to first call in 90 days.
Get found →Students in design, tech, marketing, multimedia, or art: portfolio reviews are free →
Proof
What I am running today.
Three fractional seats, and the work that came before them.
2026 to present · Fractional
Fractional CAIO · Appraisal Dream
Built their AI software from nothing. Every number in a report traces back to the photo, the document, or the sale it came from. Fifty-plus appraisers are waiting to use it.
2024 to present · Fractional
Fractional CTO · Quartz Importers MN
A small sales team with 49 automated workflows finding and researching leads for them every day. I picked every vendor and built every piece.
2025 to present · Fractional
Fractional CTO · U.S. Asset Appraisals
Running the marketing technology and AI rollout for an appraisal firm working in 35+ states. The plan, the vendors, and the training.
Quartz Importers MN
A knowledge graph the sales team can walk
Appraisal Dream
Every value traces back to its evidence
U.S. Bank
The mortgage funnel on one wall
BMW eMobility
Range as an experience problem
Twenty-five years of clients before these, from U.S. Bank and Principal Financial to Medtronic, Target, and BMW. See the work itself → Or read the case studies: the Phillips UV site, the U.S. Asset Appraisals brand, and getting a new firm cited by AI assistants.
How a job goes
Prices up front, so neither of us wastes a week.
Step 1
A 30-minute call
You tell me what is stuck. I tell you straight whether I can move it, what it would cost, and if I am the wrong guy, who the right one is.
Step 2
A fixed price or a monthly number
Workshops and projects are a fixed price. Seats are a monthly number. Anything over $3,000 can be paid by the month across the months it takes, no interest. Hourly only when you ask for it, $150 an hour.
Step 3
We do the work, and I stay through the landing
If we find something grimy along the way, I lock arms with you and we dig out. Nonprofits, co-ops, arts groups, and startups before revenue: there is a sliding scale, down to nothing.
I do the work myself, so the plan only includes what can be done. The whole process, and how to check me →
About
A normal Minnesota guy who has been doing this a long time.
I started building websites in 2000 at Olson and earned a One Show Merit there in 2002. Then Carmichael Lynch, then a partner seat at Catalyst Studios, then agencies of my own. After that came the corporate years: UX at U.S. Bank, service design for BMW, Principal, GE Digital, Thomson Reuters, and a few startups and pivots in between.
I have hired from just about every design school in the Twin Cities and taught at seven of them. These days I hold three fractional seats and take on the smaller jobs I used to be too busy for. I still do the hands-on work.
If something is a bad idea I will say so. If it is a good one, I will help you get it done with the people and the budget you have.
What people say
Word for word, from people I have worked with.
At BMW, Jared was the design lead on the e-mobility project and brought in a fresh perspective, new service design tools and had a quick impact on, not only the design, but also on the ways of working of the entire organization, including the stakeholders. One of Jared's key super powers is that he can identify the problem at hand very quickly when it might not be that obvious to others. He is always ready to help out anyone else in the organization. Great leader and an asset to any company.Pawel BakAssociate Director UX, AI Experience Strategy
Jared is not a traditional director who pulls the strings to make things dance. Instead, he is an enabler and coach who pushes the team to achieve a common goal. Jared augments his management style with the unique ability to detect problems, then uncover tools and talent to solve them often long before anyone else on the team realizes the problem exists. I've yet to meet another person who can assess talent the way Jared can.Bryce HowitsonProduct / UX Design leader
Here's the thing about Jared, he's brilliant. People claim to be either left brained or right brained. Jared is a hybrid of both. He is a creative thinker and technical wizard. He combines his creative and technical skills for the purpose of solving his client's business problems. His goal is to help his clients, and he succeeds.Mike MuggliSitecore Consultant
Jared is a strategic thinker who is excellent at using technology to provide creative solutions to business issues. He works to obtain in-depth knowledge of the client's business needs and pushes solutions beyond what the client asks for.Beth MurphySr. Director, Target Creative
His ability to see not only the "big picture," but future implications of plans and decisions really make him unique. His technical expertise is stellar, but he also understands it's crucial how users interact with technology.Kristen FindleyOperating Architect / Chief of Staff
Jared and I worked on several large client engagements together. He was an exceptional thought leader and added an extraordinary amount of value to the team. His knowledge and grasp of UX is second to none.Michael KraabelVP, Head of Digital Experience
Jared is great at building a strategy from the ground up and then staying close to the details throughout the process to ensure quality and consistency from conceptual design, to production, to deployment. He is a fast study and an endless generator of cool ideas.John MillerFractional CFO
Deeply interested in solving a problem not just filling an order. Jared is honest, smart and creative. His work in two words: Over Deliver.Gary KoellingDigital Product Development & Marketing
Jared is a strong, strategic partner from start to finish. He seeks excellence at every step, pushes for innovation, and is an excellent communicator.Peggy MunnagleStrategic Consultancy Leader
Let us talk
Tell me what is stuck. I will tell you straight if I can move it.
Thirty minutes on the phone is usually enough to know. Use whichever of these is easiest.
Based in Minneapolis. I come to you anywhere in the Twin Cities. Remote for everyone else, and I have been working that way since 2014.