Leslie Crosby

About Leslie

My name is Leslie Crosby and I'm an experienced web developer with a strong background in design.

I have been building websites full time since 2016, focusing on highly custom, design-forward projects for clients including Chipotle, Dell, EDF, Burger King, Lone Star Beer, Restore Hyper Wellness, and Soundly. Since day one my goal has been to code websites that are accessible to everyone, beautiful on all devices, delightful to use, and painless to update.

Dev Experience

Over the last decade I’ve built websites in almost every way imaginable, and I have utilized most CMSes, languages, tools, CRMs, APIs, and frameworks out there.

Off the top of my head, I've used all of these things to greater or lesser degrees of success/joy: Wordpress, React, React Native, Webflow, Shopify, Squarespace, straight-up HTML, CSS, Javascript, Vue, Laravel, ACF, Tailwind, ShadCN, Plasmo, S3, Contentful, GSAP, Hubspot, MailChimp, Cloudflare, Sass, Web Components, AWS, GTM, Salesforce, Google App Script, Cloudinary, Vercel, Gatsby, Claude, OpenAI, Astro, n8n, HTMX, Jquery, Cheerio, TypeScript, Supabase...

I’ve even written table-based email templates by hand. Would not recommend.

Never did make a Flash site, though, sadly.

I say this not to brag or to claim I'm an expert in all web tools. But I do think it's fair to say I've seen a thing or two, so I can usually work with (or fix) just about anything that comes up.

Design (and other) Chops

Prior to becoming a developer, I have had a bunch of other interesting jobs. I interned at a book publisher, so I'm pretty rigorous about pasting copy instead of hand-typing it (I learned this lesson the hard way). I was a holiday product designer at Martha Stewart, see FAQs for more on that. I even worked as a patternmaker's assistant at the last dance recital costume factory in America. So, yeah, I've got some pretty interesting stories and I am proud of the winding path I've been forging.

Questions, Answered.

Yes, I use AI. It's a complicated topic, but personally I use coding agents and MCP servers all the time to help me build more efficiently. I build AI workflows to handle repetitive or cumbersome tasks, so I can focus on the parts of my work that bring me joy. AI can be extremely useful if treated as a tool to make humans' lives better — not as a drop-in replacement for a person.

To that end, a couple years ago I product managed the build of an LLM-powered feedback summary tool for Indeed: we harnessed AI to take the sting out of harsh criticism and save creatives from literal hours of tedious, non-creative work. Delivering that tool (years before Gemini rolled out in Google Slides, mind you) is one of my proudest achievements.

And I'm aware this is a tricky distinction, but even though I use AI as a tool for my own work, I am also opposed to replacing human creativity with LLM-produced content. Designers, illustrators, artists, animators, copywriters, musicians, poets... can make better and more interesting work than a bot, and I see no valid reason to replace their work. I use AI agents to help me do my own coding work more effectively, but I don't think it's ok to use AI to replace the work of another human being I might otherwise hire.

Once I tried coding professionally, I was hooked and never looked back.

Years spent in the design trenches gives me enormous respect and empathy for my design colleagues. Deep familiarity with the software, tools, processes, thinking, and goals of designers makes me well equipped to collaborate and translate (and sometimes arbitrate) between departments.

I build many of my projects on Webflow these days because most of my projects need to be completely custom, delivered quickly, and fully client editable. If any of those factors are different, another stack might make more sense. But most of my clients need websites that sit in Webflow’s sweet spot.

Since so many of my web projects are on Webflow, I have racked up some serious experience with the platform. Over the years I’ve become a Webflow Enterprise Premium Partner, a member of their ACEs program, and a frequent beta tester. I truly enjoy being involved in shaping the product.

Yes I met Martha and worked with her many times, but I would be surprised if she remembered me at this point. Working as a holiday product designer for the Queen of Christmas (sorry, Mariah) was a dream opportunity; I can still hardly believe it was real. It’s really hard to summarize what it was like and what I got out of it, but these are some highlights that don't fit neatly into a blurb on a resume:

  • I got to see my drawings made into real items for sale in Macy’s, Home Depot, and JCPenney. This was a first taste of what I now experience when I deploy to production.
  • I received an excellent, real-world education in both retail economics and consumer empathy — both of which often translate directly into my work now. You can't measure success if you don't have data. And you cannot design or build something great without a clear understanding of your user. We used to design for our customer and what "she wanted to feel when shopping for Christmas"; now I build for our user and how they can get to that CTA even if they're on their last GB of data or using a screen reader.
  • I traveled around the world (Poland, China, Hong Kong, Germany, Canada), on factory visits, conferences, and buying trips. It's difficult to overstate how powerful it is to meet the actual craftspeople who make the products we often reduce as "mass-produced". Yeah, these things are mass produced, but they're also made by hand — by lots and lots of extremely talented human hands. It's amazing.
  • I became really, really adept at drawing Santa Claus, and more relevant to my current work, I also got really, really good at communicating visual ideas very quickly with a pen. I don't need fancy tools to wireframe, I can draw it for you live in person.
  • These things rarely come up in my life now, but I can draft an infinitely repeating wrapping paper pattern in my sleep, I have opinions about glitter mixes, and I know how to fold a fitted sheet.