About
Hi, I'm Bill Couch, a photographer, runner, and cyclist based in New York City. I publish writing and photography to The Studio of Bill Couch when I have time and new work to share. You can subscribe via email! You can also drop me an email, or find me elsewhere online.
New York City has been my home since October 2021, but I've previously lived in California, Virginia, Florida, Michigan, and Colorado.
For a living, I focus on technical leadership for software engineering teams. Currently, I lead and support emerging design tools at Figma. Prior, I spent over a decade in engineering with Twitter. You can read more about my career, speaking engagements, and awards on my resume or LinkedIn.
Career Origins
In 2006, while in university as a design editor for The Michigan Daily and The Every Three Weekly, at the recommendation of my Daily managing design editor, I applied to a competition for a news design internship at the annual Society for News Design conference hosted by The Orlando Sentinel in Orlando, Florida. I was selected as one of 10 participants, and created a marketing campaign, savewilliamcouch.com with a 60-second video introduction for the competition. While I won an internship at The Arizona Republic for summer 2007, I was offered a full-time job as a multimedia designer at The Orlando Sentinel instead. This is how my professional career started in journalism design in Florida, even though I pursued Communications and Film & Video majors at the University of Michigan.
Within a year, I was offered a role at USA TODAY to focus on data visualization and multimedia graphics work. With the concurrent growth of Apple’s iPhone and iPad platforms, the industry shifted from Flash to web and native app development. With this, I also moved to web development, and became involved in the product and design work for USA TODAY’s iPhone and iPad app development, helping launch both products with Mercury from 0-1 to the App Store.
After 4 years in journalism, I reached the limits of what I could learn around software development, and utilized a brief pursuit of a Computer Science degree in undergrad, to instead join Twitter in California in 2011. The rest follows on my resume or LinkedIn.
Priorities
In August 2018, I was violently hit by a car on my bike, fractured 7 vertebrae and 2 ribs, just shy of full paralysis, spent 2 months in recovery, and the perpetrator was never found. I have fully recovered but the experience informed my time, actions, and priorities since. My personal health is my top priority, including strength training, running, and cycling. I advocate for walkable, urban living to reduce reliance on private transport. To get around, I have relied on bike and public transport since 2011.
