8co.

8co · AI & Strategy

AI that assists your work — not replaces the soul of it.

Twenty years in UX and product strategy. Now helping people and teams use AI with taste, judgment, and a refusal to ship slop. I make this make sense.

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Hand-drawn illustration of a Black woman with braids working at a laptop, warm sepia tones on a cream background.

I work with two kinds of clients →

Path one

Solo & small business

You're a team of one (or a few) and you want AI working as a real staff member — not just a chatbot you forget about. I'll set it up, train you on it, and make sure it sounds like you.

  • AI Starter Setup · flat fee
  • Voice & Taste Calibration · so AI sounds like you
  • AI Office Hours · monthly retainer
  • The Solo Operator Stack · packaged setups
  • Brand & Website Build · project-based
See packages

Path two

Teams & organizations

Your design or product org needs to figure out AI without losing what makes the team good. I bring 20+ years of leadership to the table — strategy, training, and the calm voice in the room.

  • AI Strategy Sprints · 2–6 weeks
  • Team Training & Workshops · half-day to multi-week
  • Fractional AI Design Lead · embedded retainer
  • Audits & Assessments · 1–4 weeks
Let's talk

What I believe

AI should make your work sharper, not more generic. The taste is still yours. The judgment is still yours. The voice is still yours.

I don't speak engineer. I speak human. That's the whole point.

Hand-drawn illustration of a Black woman with braids seated in a mid-century armchair, warm sepia tones on a cream background.

About Dara

20+ years designing for humans. Years deep leaning into an AI-assisted process.

UX leader, product strategist. Two decades helping teams ship things people actually want to use — and years of practice integrating AI into how that work gets done, including two years as AI Business Lead at ICF. I bring the design rigor to AI work, not the other way around.

→ My approach