I go toward the problems nobody owns
and build the systems everyone uses.
I build content infrastructure for the gnarliest problems — ambiguous product spaces, high stakes, no playbook. My use isn't just the words. It's the frameworks, governance models, and standards that stand the test of time.
As an eldest daughter, first niece and grandchild — first granddaughter, too — I hyper-focus on details, consider myself to be reliable beyond reason, and I'm always prepared for the worst and hoping for something better. Guess that makes me not quite a pessimist?
"Ashlee's documentation serves as a gold standard for cross-functional partners, effectively reducing churn and empowering Product Design and Engineering to move faster."
Najwa Smith, Manager — H2 2025 Performance Review
One content designer. Dozens of engineers, multiple PMs, a full design team. I built the systems that made that sustainable — and shipped with zero content blockers at code freeze.
90+ terms across hardware, health, UX, and AI — with rules every writer, engineer, and localization partner could actually use.
I became the Content Design Accessibility Lead — not because someone posted the role, but because I saw the gap and filled it.
Nobody had defined how AI agents should communicate on a wrist. I wrote the framework anyway.
Custom AI agent. Content standards. Office hours. All before anyone asked. I'm the one defining how AI writes.
Created and taught a course on prototyping specifically for content designers — giving content designers the tools to show their work, not just describe it.
Served as a new hire mentor, helping incoming content designers navigate the org, find their footing, and build the relationships that make the work possible.
Started as an Associate UX Writer and grew into Content Designer across B2B and B2C products on web and mobile. Also wrote for BBPoS, a Bluetooth point-of-sale device — the beginning of my device experience, long before wearables.
Navigating permissions work across PXFN, Legal, and multiple geos. Learning to be the person who knows the ins and outs of every flow so that being in the room matters.
"Ashlee was meticulous in her information gathering... making sure that she was the one who knew the ins and outs of each permission and user flow."
— Peer review, H2 2021
The CYOA redesign simplified the entire onboarding flow and moved UX KPI scores from 3.6 to 3.9. It was adopted for another product's out-of-box experience prototype — the moment the pitch became part of the work.
"You proposed and led a ground-up overhaul of the out-of-box experience flow that simplified the experience and improved its UX KPI score from 3.6 to 3.9."
— Christine Mana, 2022
Built the Accessibility Hub, multi-device content strategy, and settings IA — all self-initiated, none on the roadmap. Owned settings content across the entire glasses product line throughout this period. Each became a canonical reference for the org.
"RL's accessibility hub page is now the canonical source for all information regarding accessibility in RL... Ashlee went above and beyond expectations."
— Erin Leary, PM
Single-threaded leader for out-of-box experience and all wrist wearable content. 150+ deliverables, 3 terminology systems converged into 1, settings IA redesigned. Promoted to Staff after earning "Significantly Above Expectations" — driven by H1 2025 standards and settings work.
"Ashlee's wealth of knowledge and attention to detail make her an expert in how certain experiences work — paired with the fact that she has a birds eye view of the flows by being across multiple teams she is uniquely positioned to have a strong POV of how everything should work together. Plus, she is usually right."
— Jake Hargadon, Staff Content Designer
The same pattern — chaos into infrastructure — now running at staff level, across an AI-first product platform, through launch.
I think self-awareness is part of the job. This isn't a confession — it's something that's been consistent across five years and two managers, which means it's genuinely how I'm wired. I'm naming it because I've also figured out what to do about it.
I go deep. I do exceptional work in the weeds — frameworks, governance, playbooks — and the broadcasting part doesn't come naturally. For most of my career I assumed that if the work was good enough, it would speak for itself.
It doesn't. Or at least, not as loudly as it should.
This showed up in every review cycle — not as a blocker, but as a consistent growth area. I got to staff-level IC6 with this pattern intact. The systems impact always outweighed it. But I've learned that the ability to tell the story of your work is as important as the work itself.
The Choose Your Own Adventure redesign wasn't assigned to me. I saw a problem in the wearable out-of-box experience, proposed a ground-up overhaul, and made the case for it. It moved UX KPI scores from 3.6 to 3.9 and got adopted for another product's prototype.
That project taught me that the idea and the pitch are inseparable. The work only traveled because I narrated it — to stakeholders, to cross-functional partners, to the next team who needed it.
"Your 'Choose Your Own Adventure' concept was also adopted for the another product out-of-box experience prototype, which dogfooding feedback suggested was a clear improvement over the previous out-of-box experience due to its brevity and optionality."
— Christine Mana, 2022
"Building the system isn't enough. But I've learned that proactive storytelling is part of the craft, not separate from it. That's the version of me I'm building toward."
Click the pancake to get a hot cake hot take.
I'm always open to a chat, especially about wearables, content systems at scale or accessibility. If you're working on something messy and undefined, that's my kind of problem and conversation.