{
  "generator": "derekn.com person-context hub",
  "updatedAt": "2026-08-08",
  "identity": {
    "name": "Derek Niedringhaus",
    "headline": "Design systems and UX platform leader for complex B2B software.",
    "blurb": "Design systems and UX platform leader with more than 20 years in UX. I help B2B teams make the system underneath the interface explicit enough that people and agents can work from the same understanding. I founded Aquex.ai and built OODS Foundry, CMOS, and TraceLab. I started as a painter.",
    "bio": [
      "I lead design systems and UX platform work for complex B2B software. I've spent more than 20 years in UX, including 15 in enterprise SaaS.",
      "At Paylocity, I led a large UX team within the broader UX organization, including managing managers. I helped build the systems that supported the team as it grew, led shared platform work across more than 15 products, and contributed to Citrus alongside the Citrus team and partner engineers.",
      "At Uptake, I built and led UX for data platform products, including machine-learning tools, developer platforms, ingestion pipelines, and the data-heavy interfaces people needed to understand all of it.",
      "Aquex.ai is where I build the tools I needed and couldn't find. OODS Foundry gives design systems a meaning layer that agents can read and use. CMOS keeps long-running work connected to the decisions and context behind it. TraceLab supports research. I use the stack in my own work every day."
    ],
    "identityHalves": [
      {
        "name": "The systems thinker",
        "description": "Hunts for the structure under the noise — contracts, invariants, incentives, failure modes. When I go looking for villains, I find a system instead."
      },
      {
        "name": "The curious builder who wants to enable people",
        "description": "Builds the thing and gives it away. The discipline doesn't lose anything by sharing its tools — it gains reach."
      }
    ],
    "careerAnchors": [
      "Aquex.ai: OODS Foundry, CMOS, and TraceLab (2024 to present)",
      "Paylocity: design systems and UX platform leadership",
      "Uptake: design practice for data platforms",
      "Fine art and painting: where the work began"
    ],
    "currentStatus": "Interested in senior design systems and UX platform leadership, either inside an organization or through a long-term Aquex.ai partnership.",
    "location": "Chicago",
    "site": "https://derekn.com",
    "email": "derek@derekn.com",
    "handles": [
      {
        "platform": "medium",
        "label": "Medium",
        "url": "https://medium.com/@dnied"
      },
      {
        "platform": "substack",
        "label": "Substack",
        "url": "https://substack.com/@derekniedringhaus"
      },
      {
        "platform": "github",
        "label": "GitHub",
        "url": "https://github.com/kneelinghorse"
      },
      {
        "platform": "npm",
        "label": "npm",
        "url": "https://www.npmjs.com/~kneelinghorse"
      },
      {
        "platform": "linkedin",
        "label": "LinkedIn",
        "url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/derek-niedringhaus/"
      }
    ]
  },
  "topics": [
    {
      "topic": "writing",
      "label": "Essays & writing",
      "count": 29,
      "index": "https://derekn.com/writing",
      "feed": "https://derekn.com/rss.xml"
    },
    {
      "topic": "work",
      "label": "Case studies",
      "count": 6,
      "index": "https://derekn.com/work"
    },
    {
      "topic": "systems",
      "label": "Systems & frameworks",
      "count": 6,
      "index": "https://derekn.com/systems"
    },
    {
      "topic": "music",
      "label": "Music (Act I — bass, 90s Champaign indie)",
      "count": 8
    },
    {
      "topic": "art",
      "label": "Visual art (Kneelinghorse)",
      "count": 3,
      "index": "https://deniedart.com/collections/kneelinghorse"
    },
    {
      "topic": "arc",
      "label": "Recent work arc (work + writing)",
      "count": 3
    },
    {
      "topic": "relationships",
      "label": "Collaborators, peers & influences",
      "count": 17
    }
  ],
  "arc": {
    "window": "recent (work ongoing since mid-2025; writing Dec 2025 – May 2026)",
    "ongoing": {
      "summary": "Since mid-2025, building a stack of AI-native, object/semantic systems — dozens of projects, many still running today. The published essays below are how that work gets articulated in public; the building itself is the larger story.",
      "activeStack": [
        "CMOS",
        "OODS Foundry",
        "TraceLab",
        "DeepSearch",
        "Semantic Protocol",
        "Mission Protocol",
        "Aquex MCP"
      ],
      "catalog": {
        "systems": "/systems",
        "work": "/work"
      }
    },
    "writing": {
      "source": "cmos://derek/writing-and-strategy (published pieces only)",
      "periods": [
        {
          "label": "2026-Q1 (Jan–Mar): design systems as architecture + macro/labor essays",
          "focus": [
            "Closing a design-systems arc: the design system as object-based architecture with an agent — not a human — as its consumer.",
            "A parallel macro/labor track (the \"Ghost Jobs\" lineage) on AI, hiring, and the gap between leadership rhetoric and method."
          ],
          "shipped": [
            {
              "what": "\"The Agent Surface Your Design System Is Missing\" (Medium, Mar 7; Design Bootcamp, Mar 8)."
            },
            {
              "what": "\"Ghost Jobs Were the Early Warning\" — AI-attributed layoffs and the frozen labor market (Medium, ~Mar 29)."
            }
          ],
          "themeShift": "Channel shift off Design Systems Collective toward Bootcamp (reach) + self-published Medium (control)."
        },
        {
          "label": "2026-Apr: naming the gap — methodology and \"agents read the system\"",
          "focus": [
            "From product/design pieces to a methodology argument: AI changed how individuals work, but no one has named what it means for how teams work.",
            "Publishing the \"agents read the system, not the surface\" thesis for the design audience."
          ],
          "shipped": [
            {
              "what": "\"The Missing Layer in AI Teamwork\" — AI-native team coordination has no portable operating model yet (Medium, ~Apr 3)."
            },
            {
              "what": "\"Pixels Are Not the Source\" — software already contains upstream structured evidence; vision is fallback, not foundation (Apr 21)."
            }
          ],
          "themeShift": "Pivot from \"here is a capability\" to \"here is the structural gap the field hasn't named.\""
        },
        {
          "label": "2026-May: the three-step methodology rollout, in sequence",
          "focus": [
            "A deliberate sequential thesis building a \"context engineering for teams\" argument in public.",
            "Naming CMOS publicly for the first time as evidence the argument is buildable.",
            "Formalizing the editorial system (Voice & Judgment Spec v2.0 + a scored pre-publication Voice Critic Pass)."
          ],
          "shipped": [
            {
              "what": "Step 1 — \"The Second Level of Context Engineering\": context engineering at team scope (Medium, ~May 8).",
              "link": "https://github.com/kneelinghorse/cmos-mcp"
            },
            {
              "what": "Step 2 — \"Stop Decorating the Components. Describe the System.\" (Medium ~May 12; Design Bootcamp ~May 13)."
            },
            {
              "what": "Step 3 — \"If Anyone Can Build Anything, What Will We Make?\" (Medium, ~May 20)."
            }
          ],
          "themeShift": "The work consolidates into one sequential public thesis: team-scale, object-level, judgment-led."
        }
      ]
    },
    "updatedAt": "2026-05-31"
  },
  "music": {
    "instrument": "Bass",
    "scene": "1990s Champaign-Urbana indie / emo",
    "summary": "Bassist and connective tissue of the 1990s Champaign-Urbana indie scene — Flower, Castor, National Skyline, Sarge, The Big Bright Lights — and a founding member of Centaur (with Matt Talbott of Hum), still active. Played a Castor reunion show in August 2025.",
    "albumCount": 11,
    "bands": [
      {
        "name": "Flower",
        "role": "Bassist",
        "years": "c. 1992–1994",
        "status": "past",
        "summary": "Early St. Louis / southern-Illinois band; start of the long collaboration with Jeff Garber.",
        "releases": [
          {
            "title": "EP",
            "type": "EP",
            "note": "pre-1994"
          },
          {
            "title": "Full-length",
            "type": "LP",
            "note": "pre-1994"
          }
        ]
      },
      {
        "name": "Sparkfluidflame",
        "role": "Bassist",
        "years": "c. 1993",
        "status": "past",
        "summary": "Early St. Louis-area lo-fi / indie project.",
        "releases": [
          {
            "title": "Bus Stop",
            "type": "single",
            "year": 1993,
            "label": "Alpha 66 Records",
            "note": "7\""
          }
        ]
      },
      {
        "name": "Castor",
        "role": "Bassist",
        "years": "1994–1998 (reunions 2018, 2025)",
        "status": "reunion",
        "summary": "His most significant 90s project, with Jeff Garber; a defining band of the Champaign \"emo Mecca.\" Fluid, technically intricate indie rock. Reunited Feb 2018 (opening for Hum, St. Louis) and again Aug 22, 2025 on a Braid + Castor bill at Bottom Lounge, Chicago.",
        "releases": [
          {
            "title": "Castor",
            "type": "LP",
            "year": 1995,
            "label": "Mud Records"
          },
          {
            "title": "Cover The Earth: A Mud Records Compilation",
            "type": "compilation",
            "year": 1996,
            "label": "Mud Records",
            "note": "contains 'Repousse' and 'Silent Type'"
          },
          {
            "title": "Carnival / Miss Atlantic",
            "type": "single",
            "year": 1997,
            "label": "Mud Records",
            "note": "7\""
          },
          {
            "title": "The Basement Recordings: Live at Cicero's",
            "type": "compilation",
            "year": 1997,
            "label": "On The Clock Records",
            "note": "live comp; contains 'Brand New Room'"
          },
          {
            "title": "Tracking Sounds Alone",
            "type": "LP",
            "year": 1998,
            "label": "Mud Records"
          },
          {
            "title": "Everything 1994-1998",
            "type": "compilation",
            "year": 2018,
            "label": "Mud Records",
            "note": "discography compilation"
          },
          {
            "title": "Moving Backgrounds",
            "type": "LP",
            "year": 2025,
            "label": "Earth Analog Records / Polyvinyl",
            "note": "2xLP full-discography reissue: remastered debut + reimagined 2nd LP, plus 7\" and comp tracks"
          }
        ],
        "links": [
          {
            "platform": "bandcamp",
            "url": "https://castorindierock.bandcamp.com/"
          },
          {
            "platform": "wikipedia",
            "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castor_(band)"
          }
        ]
      },
      {
        "name": "National Skyline",
        "role": "Bassist (live incarnation)",
        "years": "1996–1997",
        "status": "past",
        "summary": "Champaign \"super-group\" formed by Jeff Dimpsey (Hum) to write and perform a single continuous 45-minute piece; recorded with Rick Valentin (Poster Children) but never released.",
        "releases": [
          {
            "title": "Untitled 45-minute piece",
            "type": "unreleased",
            "year": 1997
          }
        ]
      },
      {
        "name": "The Big Bright Lights",
        "role": "Bassist / multi-instrumentalist",
        "years": "recorded 1997, released 2001",
        "status": "past",
        "summary": "Studio project with Jeff Garber.",
        "releases": [
          {
            "title": "Take Manhattan",
            "type": "LP",
            "year": 2001
          }
        ]
      },
      {
        "name": "Sarge",
        "role": "Bassist",
        "years": "late 1998–1999",
        "status": "past",
        "summary": "Joined one of Champaign's acclaimed punk-pop bands (led by Elizabeth Elmore) near the end of its run.",
        "releases": [
          {
            "title": "Distant",
            "type": "LP",
            "year": 2000,
            "note": "posthumous demos/live collection"
          }
        ]
      },
      {
        "name": "Centaur",
        "role": "Bassist",
        "years": "1999–present",
        "status": "active",
        "summary": "Founding member, with Matt Talbott (Hum) on guitar/vocals and Jim Kelly (Sixteen Tons) on drums — a continuation of the Champaign sound. Still active.",
        "releases": [
          {
            "title": "In Streams",
            "type": "LP",
            "year": 2002,
            "label": "Martians Go Home! (MGH-003)"
          },
          {
            "title": "The Origin of Sin",
            "type": "LP",
            "year": 2009,
            "label": "Sound Guerilla"
          },
          {
            "title": "Vivid Dreams, Pleasently",
            "type": "EP",
            "year": 2020
          }
        ],
        "links": [
          {
            "platform": "bandcamp",
            "url": "https://matttalbott.bandcamp.com/album/in-streams"
          }
        ]
      },
      {
        "name": "Emotional Rec Club",
        "role": "Bassist",
        "years": "c. 2003",
        "status": "past",
        "releases": [
          {
            "title": "Emotional Rec Club",
            "type": "LP",
            "year": 2003,
            "label": "Outcrowd Records"
          }
        ]
      }
    ],
    "links": [
      {
        "platform": "discogs",
        "url": "https://www.discogs.com/artist/921035-Derek-Niedringhaus"
      },
      {
        "platform": "allmusic",
        "url": "https://www.allmusic.com/artist/derek-niedringhaus-mn0001377946"
      }
    ]
  },
  "art": {
    "alias": "Kneelinghorse (Darryl Kneelinghorse)",
    "degree": "BFA, Fine Art Painting (Printmaking minor), University of Illinois",
    "practice": "Paintings and prints exploring projective space, linear perspective, and the narrative of landscape as a projection of time. Made under the Kneelinghorse alias and sold through Denied Art, his art-and-framing shop.",
    "themes": [
      "projective space",
      "linear perspective",
      "landscape as a projection of time",
      "geometric abstraction"
    ],
    "series": [
      {
        "name": "Projected Landscape",
        "description": "The primary, ongoing body of work — linear perspective and landscape-as-projection-of-time, as originals and limited-edition prints (e.g. #14, #18, #21, #27, #34, #44)."
      },
      {
        "name": "Geometric Landscape",
        "description": "Geometric-abstraction landscapes (e.g. Geometric Landscape #4, oil on canvas, 2023)."
      },
      {
        "name": "Morning",
        "description": "A recurring \"Morning\"-titled group of acrylic-on-unprimed-canvas works (2023–2024): Morning Echo, Morning Fire, Morning Ascent, Morning Erratum."
      }
    ],
    "selectedWorks": [
      {
        "title": "Projected Landscape #21",
        "series": "Projected Landscape",
        "medium": "Original, canvas",
        "url": "https://deniedart.com/products/copy-of-projected-landscape-21",
        "image": "https://deniedart.com/cdn/shop/files/DSC_0611.png"
      },
      {
        "title": "Metaphysical Interior Construction",
        "medium": "Acrylic/oil on canvas",
        "year": 2023,
        "url": "https://deniedart.com/products/metaphysical-interior-construction-oil-on-canvas-by-kneelinghorse-2023",
        "image": "https://deniedart.com/cdn/shop/files/50FFC8FD-5FB1-41D2-B127-0849B97B7E11.jpg"
      },
      {
        "title": "Geometric Landscape #4",
        "series": "Geometric Landscape",
        "medium": "Oil on canvas",
        "year": 2023,
        "url": "https://deniedart.com/products/geometric-landscape-4-oil-on-canvas-2023-by-kneelinghorse",
        "image": "https://deniedart.com/cdn/shop/files/IMG_5577.jpg"
      },
      {
        "title": "Flower v1",
        "medium": "Print, 8\"×10\"",
        "url": "https://deniedart.com/products/flower-v1-by-kneelinghorse",
        "image": "https://deniedart.com/cdn/shop/files/Untitled_Artwork_7.png"
      }
    ],
    "shop": {
      "url": "https://deniedart.com/",
      "collectionUrl": "https://deniedart.com/collections/kneelinghorse",
      "offerings": "Denied Art — Kneelinghorse originals & prints, plus custom/bulk framing, archival printing, and photography services."
    },
    "links": [
      {
        "platform": "art-site",
        "url": "https://kneelinghorse.com/"
      },
      {
        "platform": "shop",
        "url": "https://deniedart.com/"
      },
      {
        "platform": "shop-collection",
        "url": "https://deniedart.com/collections/kneelinghorse"
      },
      {
        "platform": "art-email",
        "url": "mailto:darryl@kneelinghorse.com"
      }
    ],
    "updatedAt": "2026-05-31"
  },
  "relationships": [
    {
      "name": "Jeff Garber",
      "relation": "collaborator",
      "domain": "music",
      "why": "Longest-running musical collaborator — Flower, Castor, and The Big Bright Lights."
    },
    {
      "name": "Matt Talbott",
      "relation": "bandmate",
      "domain": "music",
      "why": "Hum frontman; bandmate in Centaur.",
      "context": "Hum"
    },
    {
      "name": "Jim Kelly",
      "relation": "bandmate",
      "domain": "music",
      "why": "Drummer in Centaur.",
      "context": "Sixteen Tons"
    },
    {
      "name": "Nick Macri",
      "relation": "bandmate",
      "domain": "music",
      "why": "Played together in the live National Skyline.",
      "context": "C-Clamp"
    },
    {
      "name": "Jeff Dimpsey",
      "relation": "collaborator",
      "domain": "music",
      "why": "Founded National Skyline, which Derek played in.",
      "context": "Hum"
    },
    {
      "name": "Rick Valentin",
      "relation": "producer",
      "domain": "music",
      "why": "Produced the National Skyline recording.",
      "context": "Poster Children"
    },
    {
      "name": "Elizabeth Elmore",
      "relation": "bandmate",
      "domain": "music",
      "why": "Led Sarge, which Derek joined on bass.",
      "context": "Sarge"
    },
    {
      "name": "Hum",
      "relation": "peer",
      "domain": "music",
      "why": "Cornerstone of the Champaign-Urbana scene Derek came up in."
    },
    {
      "name": "Braid",
      "relation": "peer",
      "domain": "music",
      "why": "Champaign contemporary; Castor toured with them."
    },
    {
      "name": "Poster Children",
      "relation": "peer",
      "domain": "music",
      "why": "Champaign scene peers."
    },
    {
      "name": "American Football",
      "relation": "peer",
      "domain": "music",
      "why": "Part of the same Champaign \"emo Mecca.\""
    },
    {
      "name": "Christopher Alexander",
      "relation": "influence",
      "domain": "systems-theory",
      "why": "Pattern Language / Timeless Way — pattern and structure thinking."
    },
    {
      "name": "Richard Sennett",
      "relation": "influence",
      "domain": "systems-theory",
      "why": "The Craftsman — head/hand, craft under constraint."
    },
    {
      "name": "Michael Polanyi",
      "relation": "influence",
      "domain": "systems-theory",
      "why": "Tacit knowledge."
    },
    {
      "name": "Karri Saarinen",
      "relation": "peer",
      "domain": "design",
      "why": "Design-systems thinker Derek positions his work in conversation with."
    },
    {
      "name": "Diana Wolosin",
      "relation": "peer",
      "domain": "design",
      "why": "Machine-readable design systems — adjacent to Derek's object-native work."
    },
    {
      "name": "Jessica Talisman",
      "relation": "peer",
      "domain": "systems-theory",
      "why": "Information architecture / ontology (RDF tradition) — closest peer to his semantic work."
    }
  ],
  "writing": [
    {
      "title": "Your Design System Wasn't Built for AI. Here's What to Do About It.",
      "summary": "Practical guide to redesigning systems for AI comprehension through object-oriented thinking and semantic metadata.",
      "publishedAt": "2025-12-09",
      "publication": "Design Bootcamp",
      "url": "https://medium.com/design-bootcamp/your-design-system-wasnt-built-for-ai-here-s-what-to-do-about-it-69e9cba80f1f",
      "canonicalUrl": "https://medium.com/design-bootcamp/your-design-system-wasnt-built-for-ai-here-s-what-to-do-about-it-69e9cba80f1f",
      "hostedHere": false,
      "syndication": [],
      "tags": [
        "Design systems",
        "AI",
        "OODS"
      ]
    },
    {
      "title": "The AI Builder Myth: Austerity Disguised as Innovation",
      "summary": "Calls out the 'everyone is a builder' mantra as cost-cutting disguised as empowerment in AI programs.",
      "publishedAt": "2025-11-20",
      "publication": "Medium",
      "url": "https://medium.com/@dnied/the-ai-builder-myth-austerity-disguised-as-innovation-7e410b14d9af",
      "canonicalUrl": "https://medium.com/@dnied/the-ai-builder-myth-austerity-disguised-as-innovation-7e410b14d9af",
      "hostedHere": false,
      "syndication": [],
      "tags": [
        "AI",
        "Org design",
        "Innovation"
      ]
    },
    {
      "title": "OODS Foundry: An Object-Oriented, Agent-Native Design System",
      "summary": "Walks through building OODS Foundry as a trait-based, agent-friendly design system for consistent UI.",
      "publishedAt": "2025-11-18",
      "publication": "Design Systems Collective",
      "url": "https://medium.com/design-systems-collective/oods-foundry-an-object-oriented-agent-native-design-system-ecee271d0b07",
      "canonicalUrl": "https://medium.com/design-systems-collective/oods-foundry-an-object-oriented-agent-native-design-system-ecee271d0b07",
      "hostedHere": false,
      "syndication": [],
      "tags": [
        "OODS",
        "Design systems",
        "Agents"
      ]
    },
    {
      "title": "Object-Native Architecture: Giving Software a Meaning Layer",
      "summary": "Software was built for a human reader who could fill in the blanks. Agents can't. So an object's identity, its governance, and the contracts it answers to have to live on the object itself, in something built to be read. An architecture problem, not a model problem.",
      "publishedAt": "2026-05-31",
      "publication": "derekn.com",
      "url": "https://derekn.com/writing/object-native-architecture",
      "canonicalUrl": "https://derekn.com/writing/object-native-architecture",
      "hostedHere": true,
      "syndication": [],
      "tags": [
        "agents",
        "design-systems",
        "protocols",
        "governance",
        "ai-tooling"
      ]
    },
    {
      "title": "The Atomic fallacy",
      "summary": "Explores how AI agents expose gaps in component-based design systems, arguing that meaning must be encoded separately from visual appearance.",
      "publishedAt": "2026-01-13",
      "publication": "Design Bootcamp",
      "url": "https://medium.com/design-bootcamp/the-atomic-fallacy-ee162c73c8e0",
      "canonicalUrl": "https://medium.com/design-bootcamp/the-atomic-fallacy-ee162c73c8e0",
      "hostedHere": false,
      "syndication": [],
      "tags": [
        "Design systems",
        "AI agents",
        "Semantic design"
      ]
    },
    {
      "title": "The Craft debate Is asking the wrong question",
      "summary": "Reframes the \"craft vs. AI\" discussion around purposeful intent and coherence rather than pixel-pushing labor.",
      "publishedAt": "2026-01-06",
      "publication": "Design Bootcamp",
      "url": "https://medium.com/design-bootcamp/the-craft-debate-is-asking-the-wrong-question-541ca35f1590",
      "canonicalUrl": "https://medium.com/design-bootcamp/the-craft-debate-is-asking-the-wrong-question-541ca35f1590",
      "hostedHere": false,
      "syndication": [],
      "tags": [
        "AI",
        "Design craft",
        "Future of design"
      ]
    },
    {
      "title": "Your design system doesn't know what a User is",
      "summary": "Argues design systems standardize rendering but lack shared semantic definitions of core objects like User across contexts.",
      "publishedAt": "2025-12-30",
      "publication": "Design Bootcamp",
      "url": "https://medium.com/design-bootcamp/your-design-system-doesnt-know-what-a-user-is-d6d47eef616b",
      "canonicalUrl": "https://medium.com/design-bootcamp/your-design-system-doesnt-know-what-a-user-is-d6d47eef616b",
      "hostedHere": false,
      "syndication": [],
      "tags": [
        "Design systems",
        "Semantic design",
        "OODS"
      ]
    },
    {
      "title": "The convergent problem",
      "summary": "Identifies how accessibility and AI automation both require explicit semantic contracts, not just visual interfaces.",
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