About Me

I'm Phil Smith. I build systems: learning programs, simulations, software tools. The medium changes, but the work is the same. I design something, give it rules, and watch how real people interact with it, then adjust.

Systems All the Way Down

A training curriculum is a system. You define inputs, constraints, and feedback loops, then put it in front of real people and learn from what breaks. The enterprise training programs I've built have the same design DNA as the simulations and creative tools in this portfolio: structures that have to hold up on their own, at scale, without me in the room, and that get sharper with every iteration.

I tested that idea literally. After years in corporate L&D, I co-founded intrinsic.art, a generative art platform where artists combine algorithms to create work they couldn't have designed alone. It was the same design problem in a different domain: build a system with enough structure to be learnable and enough openness to surprise the people using it. Running that company forced me to think like a product designer and a technologist, but also like a teacher.

That chapter is now part of how I work. The product instincts, the creative coding background, the experience building tools for non-technical users: those came from intrinsic. I brought them back to L&D right as AI started changing what learning design can do.

How I Work

I start with the problem, not the tool. I've picked up a wide range of skills because the problems kept changing: instructional design, product management, LMS architecture, creative coding, AI integration. I'm not loyal to any one stack. I'm loyal to figuring out what the system actually needs, then building that.

I care about how people learn, which probably traces back to my Cognitive Science degree. I think the best learning experiences deserve the same design attention as the best products. That conviction has shaped 16+ years of work across corporate L&D, government training, and now the intersection of AI and learning design.

What I'm Looking For

I'm drawn to roles where learning and technology overlap, teams that treat learning as a design problem, not a compliance checkbox. My background spans scaling enterprise training programs and building hands-on technical tools, and I do my best work where both matter.

This portfolio is an experiment along those lines: a project site with a conversational AI that can answer questions about my work. Try it.