We became  designers, researchers, and strategists because of our deep passions and wide-ranging curiosity. But the grind of consulting left us little room to keep up with those very things that made us valuable resources.  Formerly colleagues at Jump Associates, we founded Jetpack to reclaim time to explore the world, for both our clients and ourselves.

Now, we split our time between deep client engagements and our other interests—running a retail business, brewing craft beer, creating rare garments, teaching design at Stanford, playing in an orchestra, and traveling the world. With time to explore and reflect, we believe our approach allows us to bring more of our experiences and ourselves to our practice.

Cathy Ahn

Cathy brings together expertise in business strategy, product design, and social research to define new growth opportunities for a range of clients, from Harley-Davidson to the San Diego Zoo. She spent six years at Jump Associates, creating go-to-market concepts, analyzing social issues, and defining new business models and market opportunities.

When not looking for new business opportunities for companies, Cathy runs a boutique fashion brand making womenswear and bridal gowns. 

STEVE HOYT

Steve is a design strategy leader with specific expertise in defining human-centered platforms in heavily regulated industries such as banking and healthcare. As a VP of Design Strategy at JP Morgan Chase, he served as design lead for future digital experiences, helped define firm-wide product architecture, and managed the development of customer experience frameworks and guidelines used by all product teams. He’s been a strategic advisor to internal innovators, leading client projects and methods-training.

Steve is also an IDSA award-winning designer of healthcare and display products, ranging from asthma treatment devices to head-mounted displays. His deep knowledge of optics, mechanical design and displays technologies, allows him to be an engineer-whisperer translating insights into real products. In his spare time, he obsessively hones his yakitori skills on a steel and cement hibachi grill that he brought from Japan in a very large backpack.