Experience
10+ years
Location
New Jersey
Role
Product Designer
Hi! I'm Justin. I live in New Jersey with my wife Julia, two kiddos, and two cats.
A bit over 10 years ago, I got a foothold in tech as a UX designer, and I immediately fell in love with the blend of user research, hands-on technical challenge, and elegant visual design. My first UX book was "The Design of Everyday Things" by Don Norman. I've worked with startups, large enterprises, and agencies across a variety of different industries.
I’m looking for a team that focuses on users and cares about craftmanship. I bring empathy and curiosity wherever I go, and I love a good challenge.
When I'm not working, I'm hiking, sailing, reading history, and spending time with my family.
My Work Journey
Career Transition & Job Search
2025
Like many designers and developers, I've been adapting to this era of AI and workforce reduction by searching, upskilling, and reflecting on the future.
I'm excited for my next role. My goal is to find a long-term and stable home for my skills.
I'm studying AI and React through a John Hopkins University program, and have been volunteering with the American Red Cross. I recently traveled to Florida to assist with relief efforts following Hurricanes Helene and Milton.
Senior Product Designer
Giftogram
2023—2024
I joined Giftogram to lead design for their HR-focused employee incentive platform. I jumped straight in and helped the team organize a design-to-dev workflow, conducted user research, built relationships with customer service, and met regularly with senior leaders to discuss our roadmap. I identified several areas for UX improvement, including the primary purchasing flow and first time experience.
At this point in my career, I wanted a stable long-term role. Despite my plans, I was laid off (a new experience for me) during a tough job market.
I'm proud to say that my performance was consistently praised and I made significant contributions.
Sabbatical
2023
After Syncari, I recognized that I needed to address some lingering exhaustion. I took up sailing and birdwatching, and focused for a few months on being a dad and a healthy human.
I remained active as a designer, experimented with Python and ChatGPT, and did some volunteering with the American Red Cross.
Principal Product Designer
Syncari
2019—2022
One my proudest accomplishments is designing Syncari from zero to one. A team of ex-Marketo tech and product leaders banded together and set out to create a low / no-code data integrations platform. I was so proud to be trusted by the team with turning the founding vision into a product design. While the day to day role was similar to previous startup roles I'd had, the volume of work was something new.
I loved the pace, and I learned a lot about data, AI, and working within a Figma-to-React pipeline.
UX Consultant
Attic Door
2018—2019
Following my time at ADP, I worked through my Attic Door consultancy for financial, insurance, and startup businesses in New York City, San Francisco, and New Jersey.
Lead UX Designer
ADP
2017—2018
ADP marked my return to full-time UX work after entrepreneurship. At ADP, I led design strategy, research, and UX / UI for their healthcare compliance management platform. I worked in Roseland, NJ with the product team, but also collaborated closely with designers in Pittsburgh and with subject-matter experts in Atlanta. I reworked the navigation and UI of the application to improve self-service, an effort which was well-received.
Interim CEO
COO
VP, Design & Development
ShineOn
2015—2017
After my time at Jet, I was eager to embrace leadership and entrepreneurship. I partnered with a NYC-based founder and worked tirelessly to create an ecommerce engine for selling made-on-demand jewelry. This was the same model as TeeSpring or Redbubble, but for silver cast rings, bangles, and necklaces.
ShineOn raised a seed round and I joined fulltime as Vice President of Design & Development. I hired and led a team of engineers and designers, and soon was promoted to COO, managing an organization of 32 employees and freelancers.
I also led the company through a tough transition, including layoffs, as CEO. While I didn't enjoy that aspect of the business, I value the lessons learned. ShineOn went on to find substantial success, and I'm proud to have played a part.
Following my time in business leadership, I returned to my UX and product design career.
Associate Director, Partner UX
Jet
2015
I read an article in Bloomberg about an up-and-coming ecommerce venture and I was excited by the vision. I reached out to Jet's HR team, landed an interview, and was offered an exciting opportunity to build my own design team.
Unfortunately, two weeks into the position, my team was restructured and my budget for a design team was reallocated to engineering. If you've seen HBO's Silicon Valley, I was essentially "on the Hooli roof". I was disappointed and decided to move on after a few months.
Like at Amazon, my Jet colleagues were extremely smart and talented, and I'm glad I had the chance to work with them.
UX Designer
Amazon
2014—2015
Amazon was my opportunity to work inside of a MAANG environment. My peers were some of the smartest and most accomplished individuals I'd ever met, and I was incredibly proud of the chance work alongside them. I was in Amazon's Payments & Gift Cards division, and while there I designed a feature called Allowance, a store balance transfer utility that successfully served the company for 5 years. My claim to fame at Amazon was mocking up how they could allow you to use your savings or checking account during the purchase flow. My work was presented to Jeff Bezos (then CEO) and was met with approval!
I learned a lot about how a $100B+ organization operates, and how even "minor" design decisions have huge impact when your user base is that massive.
Lead Visual UX Designer
ProQuest
2013—2014
At ProQuest, a $5B education tech enterprise, I worked with the tech division's central UX team as their visual / UI design lead. I took over production of the UX Framework, a high-visibility project which sought to unify ProQuest's varied and scattered product portfolio. I also mentored and reviewed other designers, giving them feedback on how they could mature and improve work in progress. As one of my first jobs in an enterprise setting, I learned how to reach out and breakdown silos. Realizing that I needed to align my efforts with marketing, I reached out and set up a collaboration to define our logo, colors, and voice for not only product and UX, but for print, web, and tradeshows.
I gave presentations, conducted multi-day workshops, wrote front-end code, created an atomic pattern library, optimized for accessibility standards (WCAG AA), and traveled to work with teams in Seattle, WA and Cambridge, UK. A fun and extremely rewarding effort that taught me a lot about rigor and enterprise culture.
UX Designer
Barracuda Networks
2012—2013
At Barracuda, an IT and security firm, I was assigned to Copy.com, which at the time was a competitor to Box and Dropbox. I worked on things like user permissions, data migration flows, and other settings. I also worked on Barracuda's cloud app UI and Sign Now, one of their recent acquisitions. One of my all time favorite jobs with one of the best bosses I've had to date (shout out if you're reading this, Karl). I'm still proud of the work we did.
Lead UX Designer & Product Manager
Stik
2012
Stik was a Glassdoor or Yelp-like recommendation platform funded by Dan Gilbert (Rocket Mortgage, Cleveland Cavaliers). Its founders (former Harvard housemates of Mark Zuckerberg) hired me to rebrand and redesign an existing app. While there, I worked as a UI designer (creating a new design system), front end developer (using Zurb Foundation), and product manager (digging into our analytics, conducting user interviews, running A/B testing, and organizing our roadmap). I learned so much about how startups operate and it was an amazing introduction to the world of data-driven decision-making.
UX Specialist
Epitec
2012
My first UX job was with Epitec, a recruitment agency that had an in-house tech consulting team. I was the designer on the team, and I consulted through Epitec for many clients, including Valassis and Henry Ford Hospital. While there, I deepened my front-end development skills to a professional level, working on the view of .NET MVC 4 using Bootstrap and Razor. I facilitated corporate workshops, ran research and testing, and worked with wireframing, prototyping, and pattern libraries for the first time.
Production Assistant
Morley
2011—2012
At Morley, I worked in the Business Theater division, producing content for corporate conferences and events. I created videos, animations, stage layouts using CAD. I learned a lot about being customer focused and deepened my skills as a presenter and storyteller while working on projects for UBS, Hyundai, and General Motors.
Production Specialist
Edgemont
2010—2011
As a Production Specialist at Edgemont, I worked on video production, AVL work, and web design and development. I learned a lot of media production, storytelling, lighting, videography, and deepened my skills as a programmer and designer.
Digital Media Designer
Stone County Ironworks
2009—2010
At Stone County Ironworks, I handled all things digital media: emails, websites, product photography, print catalogs, and marketing campaigns. I learned web development, analytics, and programming while at Stone County, and had my first experiences with corporate marketing communications.
Graphic Designer
Signs Now
2008—2009
My first full-time position was with a local sign shop, where I served customers directly and designed everything from vehicles wraps to banners to yard signs. The job was a blast, and I learned an incredible amount about design principles and user-centricity.
Design Intern
ThinkPen
2007
In 2007, I landed an internship with ThinkPen, a well-respected book and brand design agency. Greg, the studio's principal designer, and I collaborated on hundreds of greeting cards, book covers, and catalogs. I learned a ton about Adobe InDesign, pre-press formatting, and project management.
Owner
Attic Door
2004—Present
In 2004, I started a small freelance design agency. I've worked with DaySpring (Hallmark), AllianceBernstein, and a number of tech startups. As an agency subcontractor, I did work for well-known brands including Chrysler SRT, whose website I designed in 2013. Typically a solo effort, at its peak Attic Door consisted of a team of 4 designers and developers.
Production Assistant
Lightning Bolt Advertising
2004
My first job was at Lightning Bolt Advertising, a local sign and print shop. I learned Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, and the fundamentals of design.