Suzanne O. Richards
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About
The O is for O’Kelly, which I used to hate until I found out about Jackie O.
Where I started
I was raised in Davis, California. I spent my earliest years riding bikes, catching tadpoles in Putah Creek, and staying out until dark — or until I could hear my mom’s frantic voice calling me home. I loved rescuing injured animals, and when some of them didn’t make it, I was a master at rustling up a rousing funeral for Jasper the Jay or Scotty Squirrel. I’m ordained in three religions, including Lizard.
When I discovered the tape recorder, I reenacted game shows with my toddler brother as my most frequent guest. I won a creative writing and humor award in third grade — it’s still framed in my room. In seventh grade I came in second place for memorizing the most lines of poetry. 777. All of Where the Sidewalk Ends and the other one that’s not quite as good. I rarely took off my roller skates. I still do jazz hands when overly excited.
How I got here
UC Davis was a very friendly place where I learned a lot, including how to chop broccoli so the green stuff doesn’t get everywhere. (The Food Science kids really know stuff.) Then a horrible economy found me standing at the counter in my Kinko’s Copies apron, trying to think of a career aspiration. I applied to graduate school and ended up in San Diego in a very competitive writing program. I didn’t have many friends and thought about quitting a million times. But graduate I did.
I gleefully headed to the Bay Area — the glitz! the glamour! — and discovered that tech was where it was at. All I could do was write English papers, chop broccoli really well, and throw a moving squirrel funeral. Some guy at the Oracle job fair told me to come back after I’d “taken apart a toaster and put it back together again.” I taught English at night while working at a computer school to get some tech experience — basically, I taught older folks not to pull the ball out of the mouse.
I ended up at, surprise, Oracle three years later. (I considered bringing a toaster on my first day.) Then copywriter. Then I was the first UI writer at Hotwire. I had no idea what that was, but luckily neither did anyone else except my manager. I’ve been doing this ever since. It’s the best job, because I can connect with people through products and empathy — something that’s free, and the greatest gift you can give someone.
My superpower
I’m glad you asked. Mine is empathy. I can walk in someone else’s shoes and understand their pain points — including the pain points of the people I work with.
Right now I’m partnered with someone with a compliance background. Let’s call her Lisa. As the designer, I’m in the customer’s shoes figuring out how to solve their problems. Lisa is focused on what we can and can’t say. At first it didn’t feel like teamwork.
But I have empathy for Lisa, too. How does it feel to be Lisa? Lisa runs many projects, is in meetings all day, and in every meeting she’s thinking, “Will we get sued if we do that?” That is her job. So how do I solve her pain point? I involve her early in the process. I help her contact the right people to run things by them. I keep notes and comments in shared docs so we can see where things shook out last time we met. If she feels good about her decisions, I can help customers.
A small recent triumph
I taught my French bulldog, Baguette, how to roll over.
Have you ever met a French bulldog? They’re good for absolutely nothing. They won’t fetch, they don’t retrieve, and if someone broke into my condo she’d probably just watch them kill me. But — with perseverance, a YouTube video, and a hint of starvation (I switched the treats to steak), she got there. Sometimes that’s how content design works too.
When I’m not working
It’s all about comedy and vintage aviation. I love the punchy, economical writing of great stand-up and the bold, nostalgic design of vintage flight attendant uniforms.
Get in touch
Always glad to talk content design, trauma-informed practice, content ops, or what a good Legal partnership looks like.
suzanneokelly@gmail.com
Location
Sacramento, CA
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© 2026 Suzanne O. Richards