Why I Started Aligned Experience Design
A few months ago I was at a physical therapy appointment — the kind where you’re lying on a table have nothing to do but talk — and I asked my PT if she’d been using AI in her practice.
“Yes — I used it today to write a job description for a new virtual assistant.”
I instantly switched to consultant mode – the value in AI is being the assistant, not finding one. I asked what she needed the assistant for.
She started listing things: answering calls when she’s with patients, following up with people who’d inquired about appointments, staying on top of scheduling, sending reminders. The list kept going.
I just sat there thinking: almost everything on that list could be handled by AI. Not eventually, not in theory — right now, with tools that already exist.
She didn’t know that. Not because she isn’t capable, but because she’s a physical therapist. She spends her days helping people move better. Figuring out which AI tools exist, how to connect them to her scheduling system, and what to actually build — that’s not her job. It’s not what she should be spending her weekends on.
This was exactly the conversation I’d been eager to have. I’d been building AI tools through my work with Nonprophet AI, figuring out how nonprofits could use this technology in their work. And in my own workflows, I’d been experimenting with AI long enough to have a clear sense of what it could do. The gap I kept seeing was between what the technology is capable of and what most people running small businesses actually know about it.
Most small business owners I talk to have tried ChatGPT. They’ve used it to draft an email or write a job description. That’s genuinely useful — but it’s a small fraction of what’s possible when you build systems around how your business runs.
The issue isn’t that they’re not interested. It’s that connecting those dots takes time they don’t have, and a specific kind of thinking that’s not everyone’s natural mode. Fifteen years in UX design taught me to approach technology from the human side first: what does this person need, and what’s the most useful way to build it? That’s the thinking I’m bringing to this.
Aligned Experience Design is what I’m building for the people who are too busy doing their actual work to figure out which tools to use, how to connect them, and where to start. Not templates. Not tutorials. Working systems, built around how your specific business runs.
My PT is one of my first clients. We’re building her an AI assistant that answers her inbound calls, handles common questions, and books appointments directly into her calendar. She doesn’t have to think about how it works. She gets to go back to doing what she’s good at.
That’s what I’m here to do.
If you’re running a small service business and you’ve had a version of that conversation — where someone asked what you needed help with and the list got long fast — I’d love to talk. The strategy call is free, and I’ll tell you honestly whether AI can help or not.