Kristy Sharkey

Kristy Sharkey earned a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Michigan Technological University in 1998. She spent the first 10 years of her career working in engineering roles in both the automotive and aerospace industries and then transitioned to UX design and research in 2009. 

Sharkey has held several customer-focused roles since the start of her career. She launched her career as an automotive applications engineer designing custom press automation systems for OEM customers. After the automotive downturn of 2001, Sharkey decided to pursue her interest in aerospace and accepted a position as a flight controls systems engineer for Honeywell Aerospace. During that time, she worked on-site with Honeywell's OEM customer, Embraer, to ensure successful delivery, test, and implementation of their fly-by-wire systems. In 2005, she moved to Seattle to work for Boeing as a manufacturing engineer and it was there that she was introduced to the tech industry and software development. At Boeing, she was responsible for working with internal users, Boeing engineers, to define and implement software solutions for both final assembly and delivery and flight operations and training.

Sharkey discovered and transitioned to the field of UX in 2009. Without many formal programs of study available at that time, she pieced together a mosaic of UX education through university coursework, continuing education, and professional workshops. Since 2009, she's delivered user research and design for a wide variety of digital products, users, and clients. She has built up her UX practice over time and has developed a varied skill set that includes user research, UX strategy, UX design, UI design, and product management. She's worked both in-house and in agency settings but for several of the past 13 years has been a freelance consultant serving clients and industries including manufacturing, healthcare, education, food and beverage, consumer products, and banking and insurance. Sharkey enjoys bringing high-value UX research, design, and strategy best-practices to companies and industries that haven't had the opportunity to adopt UX as a part of their ethos.

Sharkey is also an amateur nature, wildlife, and storm photographer. She has a long-time interest in Earth's systems and ecosystems and enjoys discovering and documenting both through photography. She has completed college courses in meteorology and climate change and is a volunteer severe weather spotter for the National Weather Service.

Updated September 2022