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AI transformation · engineering leadership · accessibility

I help product and engineering organizations turn new technology into useful, inclusive systems.

I'm Rick Boardman, an engineering leader at Zendesk working across AI transformation, executive operations, product accessibility, and design systems. Recently I've also been acting as chief of staff to an SVP, helping connect strategy, execution, and organizational change.

Leadership focus

AI transformation

Helping teams build practical fluency, operating rhythms, and product judgment for an AI-shaped shift.

Executive operations

Turning strategy into follow-through as a trusted partner across planning, decisions, communication, and delivery.

Inclusive systems

Building product habits, tooling, and engineering systems that include disabled people from the start.

Current focus

Transformation that reaches the work.

AI enablement

I have been helping teams move from AI curiosity to confident, hands-on adoption through practical learning, tools, and shared language.

Strategic execution

Chief-of-staff work has sharpened how I create clarity around goals, surface tradeoffs, and keep cross-functional work moving.

Accessible product quality

Accessibility is a product quality discipline. I care about the operating model, not just the audit.

Scaled product systems

Design systems and platform teams make good decisions easier for every product team that depends on them.

A little more context.

At Zendesk, I lead engineering work across Product Accessibility and Design Systems while contributing to company-wide AI transformation efforts. The products are complex, customizable, and used by teams that need software to be both powerful and understandable.

I have also been acting as chief of staff to an SVP, which means spending a lot of time on the connective tissue of leadership: planning, communication, decision-making, and helping teams turn ambition into durable execution.

Before engineering leadership, I worked across the UX end of web development: research, information architecture, frontend engineering, prototyping, and the occasional questionable personal website redesign. My PhD explored personal information management and overload, which still feels very current in an AI-shaped world.

Away from work, there's family, Star Wars, getting out and about, and a hopeful return to more concerts and travel.

Let's talk.

I'm especially interested in senior engineering, product platform, AI transformation, accessibility, and strategy-and-operations leadership roles.