Jonathan Brownfield Email Address

Creative Director

We create easy-to-use, cloud-based software that helps small and mid-sized businesses more effectively market, manage and grow their business. Today, our products serve the legal and property management industries.

::: The Short ::: I am a Designer and CRO Strategist that thrives in a collaborative, insights-driven creative environment. I believe in the necessity of a user-centric approach for all things. I embrace the hard and indifferent truths that data provides. I enjoy a web analytics deep dive, searching for patterns of behavior and intent like a detective searches a house for clues. I see the world in terms of systems and seek to understand the connections. I admire people who make it look easy, knowing that behind it all is hard work, passion and sacrifice. ::: The Long ::: The year was 1997 and I was on my way to becoming an economist. After all, being the son of a successful entrepreneur, markets and commerce were in my blood. But so was art and design, a passion nurtured in me by the most talented artist I knew, my mother. And so, when faced with a growing list of advanced college math courses, I switched from Economics to Art & Design. I took on every freelance graphic design gig I could and quickly came to appreciate that my role was more than just making things “pretty”, I could help businesses grow and find success. This realization was empowering. When I joined, Citrix Online (formerly Expertcity) was in rapid-growth mode and pioneering the online advertising discipline of CRO. We measured the performance of every scrap of creative. For a designer newly emerged from the bubble of academia, the experience was humbling and illuminating. The attractiveness or soundness of a design, it turned out, had little to do with how well it performed. Thus began my obsession with understanding what drives conversions. During my time with AppFolio I built, led and scaled all facets of the Creative Services team which designed and developed the creative required to support the ambitious marketing and sales efforts of multiple SaaS products. We designed and developed robust email and landing page frameworks, allowing us to efficiently deploy and test. Using qualitative and quantitative feedback, we generated and applied insights that supported the steady improvement of creative performance over time. I’m proud of my team’s role in helping AppFolio grow from 30 employees to over 1,200, from 0 customers to over 15,000, from a $40K to a $450+ million company, and from a startup to a publicly traded company. ::: The Personal ::: I am happiest when I’m with family. I feel most alive in the wild places furthest from the road. I make music. I love dogs (but not Cattle Dogs, I have my reasons).