Dean Barker is the principal consultant and founder of Cogneza, a training and consulting company focused on helping clients improve and grow their businesses through human-centered approaches to design, engineering, leadership, and innovation.
He was previously a Vice President at UnitedHealth Group (Fortune #5), where he founded and led the User Experience Design Studio, a 230-person team providing design, research, accessibility, software development, and training for the healthcare industry. He has over two decades of experience in the design and development of services and software, with an emphasis on lean and agile methods. He is a former editor and author of ISO standards for software quality and usability, and has co-authored a book on speech user interfaces.
As a consultant, he has completed successful projects with distinguished companies in various sectors, including Abbott, AgilityHealth, Allianz, Allstate, American Express, American Family Insurance, Ameriprise Financial, Baxter Healthcare, Best Buy, Capital One, Cargill, Carlson Wagonlit Travel, Chrysler Corp, Denso Manufacturing, eLumen, GlaxoSmithKline, John Deere, Kelly Services, Land's End, Lutron Electronics, MapQuest, Matell, Mayo Clinic, Medtronic, Merrill Corporation, Motorola, Oriental Trading, Springs Window Fashions, St. Jude Medical, Thrivent Financial, Toshiba, TracFone Wireless, Wells Fargo, and The World Bank.
Dean holds a B.A. in Business Management and Communications and an M.S. in Software Engineering from the University of Minnesota. In addition to his consulting and training work, he currently teaches courses in Product Design and Human-Computer Interaction at Arizona State University.
Dean Barker is the principal consultant and founder of Cogneza, a training and consulting company focused on helping clients improve and grow their businesses through human-centered approaches to design, engineering, leadership, and innovation.
He was previously a Vice President at UnitedHealth Group (Fortune #5), where he founded and led the User Experience Design Studio, a 230-person team providing design, research, accessibility, software development, and training for the healthcare industry. He has over two decades of experience in the design and development of services and software, with an emphasis on lean and agile methods. He is a former editor and author of ISO standards for software quality and usability, and has co-authored a book on speech user interfaces.
As a consultant, he has completed successful projects with distinguished companies in various sectors, including Abbott, AgilityHealth, Allianz, Allstate, American Express, American Family Insurance, Ameriprise Financial, Baxter Healthcare, Best Buy, Capital One, Cargill, Carlson Wagonlit Travel, Chrysler Corp, Denso Manufacturing, eLumen, GlaxoSmithKline, John Deere, Kelly Services, Land's End, Lutron Electronics, MapQuest, Matell, Mayo Clinic, Medtronic, Merrill Corporation, Motorola, Oriental Trading, Springs Window Fashions, St. Jude Medical, Thrivent Financial, Toshiba, TracFone Wireless, Wells Fargo, and The World Bank.
Dean holds a B.A. in Business Management and Communications and an M.S. in Software Engineering from the University of Minnesota. In addition to his consulting and training work, he currently teaches courses in Product Design and Human-Computer Interaction at Arizona State University.