I’m an experienced UX / product design leader with a passion for developing big ideas and working with teams to make them a reality. I lead my teams by creating the conditions for great work to get done. Primarily around design but also with our cross-functional partners. I have an extensive background in directing design and product teams to develop large-scale applications for desktop and mobile.

Experience

Design Director, Product Design at LinkedIn
September 2018 – present

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Design Director, Product Design at Pinterest
May 2017 – August 2018

  • Led a product design team focused on user growth, content optimization, and advertising tools.
  • Worked closely with cross-functional teammates to set product vision and strategy, roadmap, process, and goals.
  • Created the conditions for great work to be done by my team. Primarily around design but also with product management, research, and engineering.

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Head of Product Design at Flite (acquired by Snap)
March 2011 – January 2017

  • Managed a team of UX designers, product managers, and creative designers.
  • Partnered with marketing and engineering to implement agile processes, tools, and methodologies for gathering qualitative and quantitative product usage.
  • Led the product design and development of the Flite creative management platform—a set of web applications for designing ads, trafficking and managing ad campaigns, and reporting on them.
  • Directed the product innovation for Velocity, an industry-first vertical video ad builder designed for marketers to easily produce video for Snapchat, Instagram, and Facebook.


Director of User Experience Design at Widgetbox
May 2006 – February 2011

  • Effectively managed a team of user experience designers responsible for product design, UX mockups, along with visual and interface design.
  • Coordinated the efforts across multiple products with product marketing and engineering. Instrumental in the successful growth of the Widgetbox web widget product offering as well as the release of the Widgetbox Mobile web app product.


Lead Interaction Designer at Digitas
February 2005 – February 2006

  • Responsible for the interaction design and strategy components for a variety of retail and community-based projects.
  • Lead architected the product website and upgrade advisor tools for Microsoft Windows Vista.
  • Helped Safeway improve their online grocery shopping experience.
  • Designed the kiosk user experience for Sephora’s Beauty Insider loyalty program.

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Skills

design leadership
UX / product design
accessibility
inclusive design
product strategy
information architecture
usability testing
prototyping
brand strategy
identity design
responsive web

Education

Art Institute of Atlanta
Associates, Visual Communications

Publications

The Creative Director Role (As We Know It) Will Not Exist in 10 Years
AdAge  2016

Adobe Creative Suite 2 How-Tos
Adobe Press  2005

Creative Toolbox
CreativePro.com  2001 – 2004

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© 2024 George Penston. All rights reserved.