Stephanie Howard

Stephanie Howard has a diverse work experience in various roles within the design and innovation industry. Stephanie is currently a Cofounder and Chief Operating Officer (COO) at Endstate since May 2021. Prior to that, they served as a Board Member at Women in Sports Tech, Inc. starting from July 2020.

Stephanie founded HOW AND WHY in 2010 and worked as a Creative Director there until August 2021. Their role involved providing visual brand language, product design, and innovation strategy services to clients. Stephanie guided brands in turning emerging future insights into innovation strategies and developed products and stories that resonated in the market.

Before founding their own studio, Stephanie worked as an Innovation Director at Seventh Generation from August 2006 to December 2009. In this role, they built innovation strategies for the mission-driven sustainability brand and created a vision of the future through opportunity mapping. Stephanie was involved in deep consumer insights, strategy development, and collaboration with research and design partners.

At Nike, Stephanie held various design roles from 2000 to 2006. Stephanie served as the Design Director for Nike Bauer, where they provided creative direction for consumer products of the Nike and Bauer hockey brands. Stephanie managed a design team and ensured that the design vision aligned with the unique brand positioning. Stephanie also worked as a Senior Footwear Designer on the Running Team, focusing on women-specific product designs and translating macro trends and insights into empowering footwear designs for consumers.

Prior to Nike, Stephanie worked as a Senior Designer at Reebok from 1997 to 2000. Stephanie was responsible for designing footwear for multiple categories, including running, training, fitness, watches, and eyewear.

Stephanie started their career at New Balance in 1994 as a Footwear Designer for running collections and was later promoted to Lead Designer in 1996. Stephanie provided creative direction for all categories and ensured a cohesive brand vision during a period of significant market share growth.

Throughout their career, Stephanie has accumulated a wealth of experience in design, innovation strategy, brand development, and consumer insights across various industries.

Stephanie Howard earned their Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) degree in Industrial Design from the Rochester Institute of Technology. Stephanie attended this institution from 1990 to 1994. In addition, Stephanie also completed a program or course at the Society for Organizational Learning, although the specific details such as the dates and the obtained degree or field of study are not provided.