Simonie Wilson
About
Detail
Designing conversations since the 1900s
Colorado, United States
Résumé
Jobs
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Associate Director - Voice Conversational AI DesignUnitedHealthcareMar 2026 - Current (8 months)Lead a team of 9 Voice AI Conversation Designers.- LLead Singer, Manager, Co-Founder at ReClineOct 2023 - Current (3 years 1 month)ReCline, 2025 Colorado Country Music Hall of Fame Nominees for Newcomer and Female Vocalist of the Year is a 4-piece, rockin' honky tonk tribute to the outlaw women and men of country western music from Loretta and Merle to Miranda Lambert and Brooks and Dunn, with a strong foundation of (Re)ba McEntire and Patsy (Cline). To quote a recent venue: "ReCline ain’t your grandma’s country show (but she’d still love it). It's Reba attitude, Patsy soul, and Miranda sass - a mashup of twang that hits just right!"
- UX Design Manager, Conversation Design - Voice | ChatAllstateJan 2022 - Feb 2026 (4 years 2 months)
- UX Strategist - Conversation DesignAllstateApr 2021 - Jan 2022 (10 months)Help formalize the Allstate Conversation Design program, employing CxD across multiple channels...IVR, chatbots, etc.
- Principal Voice User Interface DesignerPindropDec 2019 - Apr 2021 (1 year 5 months)
- Senior Voice User Interface DesignerPindropApr 2019 - Dec 2019 (9 months)
- Voice User Interface DesignerPindropJun 2017 - Apr 2019 (1 year 11 months)
- NFilm CriticNPG Newspaper GroupAug 2015 - Current (11 years 3 months)I write a weekly movie review column for the Kansas City Northland - The Courier-Tribune, Gladstone Dispatch, mycouriertribune.com.
- Senior VUI DesignerDigital DataVoice DDV is NOW Waterfield TechnologiesJun 2012 - Jun 2017 (5 years 1 month)VUI design and tuning, grammars, callflows, coaching voice talent, customer presentations, managed services, customer coordination.
- GOwner, Driver, Baker, Co-FounderGirls Cupcakes A Mobile CupcakeryJun 2010 - Jun 2013 (3 years 1 month)Award-winning, media darling 3 Girls Cupcakes was eventually bought by Simply Frosted.
- VUI Design & TuningSelf EmployedMay 2010 - Jun 2012 (2 years 2 months)
- VUI TunerIntervoiceJan 2008 - May 2010 (2 years 5 months)Intervoice was bought by Convergys which was bought by Concentrix.
- VUI Practice ManagerOpen MethodsOct 2006 - Jan 2008 (1 year 4 months)
- SVUI Design & Tuning - ContractorSimputational LLCMay 2003 - Jan 2006 (2 years 9 months)
- VUI CreatorMicrosoftNov 1999 - Apr 2003 (3 years 6 months)
- EVUI DesignerEntropic CorporationMar 1999 - Nov 1999 (9 months)Entropic was purchased by Microsoft 9 months after I went there to use my graduate degree.
- Member Of Technical StaffHughes Aircraft CompanyRaytheon SystemsMay 1993 - Mar 1999 (5 years 11 months)First job out of college, mostly building XWindows interfaces.
Education
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- Master of Science, Computational LinguisticsGeorgetown UniversityJan 1996 - Jan 1999 (3 years 1 month)Fellowship from Hughes Aircraft while working parttime
- Bachelor of Arts (B.A, Mathematics and Computer ScienceStephens CollegeJan 1989 - Jan 1993 (4 years 1 month)French Minor, Cum Laude
Projects (professional or personal)
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Awards
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- L
- ASpeakerAmerican Dialect Society Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association Regional Meeting Salt Lake City“An Analysis of Phonetically Significant Phenomena in the Speech of a Nonstandard Southern English Speaker.” (with Carrie Crockett)
- VPodcast InterviewVUXWorldcom"All about Pindrop, VUI design and VUI tuning"
- J
- ASpeakerAmerican Dialect Society Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association Regional Meeting Denver“Exploring Methodologies for Investigating ‘Sweet Carbonated Beverage’ Isoglosses in the United States” - A variety of common words (soda, pop, coke) as well as less familiar terms (tonic, dope) are used to describe a ‘sweet carbonated beverage’. This study investigates several methods of finding the occurrence of these differing lexical items, including email survey, collection of naturally-occurring data on the Internet, and examination of telephone listings for business names that contain one of the terms. An attempt to correlate the results of this study with the results of Labov’s (1988) submarine sandwich study is also made. The results support previous research but also bring to light lexical items and considerations not previously d
- CSpeakerConveyUX Conference Seattle"The UX of Advanced Voice Biometrics for Authentication" - When most people think of Voice Bio, it sounds a little scary. When most people think of Authentication, it just sounds frustrating. That may be, but what neither are is monolithic. When considering options in Authentication, you must go beyond the basics. There’s more to it than just knowledge based questions, one time passcodes and simple Voice Bio. It turns out there are many, many permutations of all in combination and I will explore many of them with you here. Users must feel safe and secure, but not fall into the uncanny valley when accessing sensitive data or making a high value transaction via voice. Sometimes that means adding back unnecessary friction or using legalese and
- SInvited Workshop SpeakerSpeechTEK East New York"Use Cases for VoiceXML: Forum on Advanced Dialogs"
- BContributor - "What I Wish I Knew - Career Advice from Leaders in UX" articleBlinkUX“Don’t get distracted by the tech. It’s always about the user. It’s easy to say, ‘I want to do something with ChatGPT,’ for instance, but what are you doing for the user? Keep the user at the center, and you’ll go where you need to.”
- LPanelistLingofest WSU Ogden UT"Designing for Voice First"
- SSpeakerSpeechTEK Conference New York“Usability and Tuning: A Marriage Made in VUI Heaven”
- BVideo InterviewBlinkUXPreview ConveyUX 2024 topic - "The UX of Advanced Voice Biometrics for Authentication"
- Podcast InterviewConvergys"What is VUI Tuning?"
- GPanelistGeorgetown Technology Alliance San Francisco Pinterest HQ"Searching for the Future"
- eSpeakereComm Conference San Francisco“Weapons Against the VUI Backlash”
- WWhite House InternWhite House Executive Office of the PresidentSelected to represent Stephens College as a White House paid Intern in Information Technology Jan - Aug, 1992
- FTeam Player Award - Customer Success DepartmentFEB
- SSpeakerSpeechTEK East Conference New York“The VUI Backlash"
- JNominatedJunCircle of Excellence in Software Development Award
- ASession ChairAmerican Dialect Society Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association Regional Meeting Salt Lake City
- USpeakerUX Strat Conference Boulder CO"Lightning Talk - What is Conversation Design and Why Do You Need It?"
- BVirtual PanelistBotmock"Ask Me Anything" online series - "Getting a Job as a Conversation Designer"
- Hughes Aircraft Company FellowGeorgetown UniversityHughes Aircraft Company Fellows Master of Science program in Computational Linguistics at Georgetown, 1996-1999.
Publications
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- TTechnical Reviewer: "Voice User Interface Design: Moving from GUI to Mixed Modal Interaction"