# Brooke Thompson > Product Design Leader / Designing clarity in complex, high-stakes systems / AI · Healthcare · Consumer Scale / Stanford Symbolic Systems Location: San Francisco Bay Area, United States Profile: https://flows.cv/brookethompson I design for the moments when people are overwhelmed — when how information is presented determines whether they can move forward. Over 25 years, I've worked across the full spectrum: consumer products serving hundreds of millions of users (Yahoo!, Walmart), healthcare systems managing care for millions of lives (Nuna), and clinical AI systems that help patients and clinicians safely interpret complex medical information (Defiant Health, co-founded with Dana-Farber Cancer Institute). The common thread is designing for clarity when stakes are high. In oncology, I've built human-in-the-loop systems where automation and clinical judgment must coexist — where design choices carry real consequences. In value-based care, I turned massive claims datasets into interpretable models that helped payers deliver better outcomes. In consumer commerce, I optimized core experiences where small design decisions compounded at enormous scale. What I've learned is that the hardest challenge in complex systems isn't providing access to information — it's designing the architecture of trust that makes information safe to act upon. I'm a hands-on leader. I still design + build — prototyping interaction logic, writing decision workflows, and personally implementing systems alongside my team. I believe the best design leadership stays close to the craft. Currently: Head of Design (Founding Team) at Defiant Health — a breast cancer navigation service co-founded with Dana-Farber — designing the clinical intelligence systems that power patient clarity and clinician confidence. Stanford BS, Symbolic Systems (HCI concentration). ## Work Experience ### Head of Design (Founding Team) @ Defiant Health Jan 2024 – Present Joined the founding team of a breast cancer navigation service co-founded with Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. As the sole designer, I own everything from clinical product design to brand, marketing, and growth. Key work: • Architected the end-to-end diagnosis clarity system — patient and clinician workflows, decision logic, and visual execution — transforming complex medical data into empathetic, actionable narratives that reduce patient anxiety. • Designed and built a human-in-the-loop verification system that transforms manual medical record review into a design-led workflow, implementing custom logic to automate data extraction and pre-map findings to Dana-Farber clinical pathways. • Partnered with Clinical Operations to design the full digital clinic — from ad-to-appointment patient journey, including logic-based intake and automated nudges to accelerate time-to-care. • Led all brand, website, social media, and performance marketing — iterating on multiple product concepts and market entry strategies across the cancer care journey. ### Head Of Design + Research at Nuna Inc. @ Nuna Inc. Jan 2017 – Jan 2024 | San Francisco, California, United States Led design and research for a healthcare data platform that translates all-claims datasets into actionable tools for payers, providers, and government programs. Built the design org from the ground up. Key work: • Designed the operating system for value-based care — enterprise workflows enabling payers to configure care models serving millions of lives across Medicaid, Medicare, Commercial, and ACA populations. • Launched a patient-facing digital health coach for hypertension — behavior-change focused interface for daily health management. • Scaled a multi-disciplinary design org, establishing design systems and operational rigor to bridge rigorous B2B clinical tools with high-engagement B2C experiences. ### Senior Director, User Experience @ Walmart Labs Jan 2014 – Jan 2017 | San Bruno, CA Led a 40+ person design organization across core Walmart.com consumer experiences. Joined via the acquisition of Luvocracy. Key work: • Directed design for Discovery, Search, Cart, and Checkout — optimizing end-to-end purchase flows for millions of daily global users. • Successfully integrated startup-speed design methodologies into Fortune 1 infrastructure post-acquisition. ### VP of Design @ Luvocracy Jan 2012 – Jan 2014 Architected a social-recommendation platform centered on human trust. Led interaction design and prototyping personally, driving the product from private beta to global launch and successful acquisition by Walmart Labs. ### Senior Director, Product Design @ Yahoo! Jan 2008 – Jan 2012 Led a 30+ person design org across Yahoo! Communications, Communities, and Home Page — setting direction for a 250M+ user ecosystem. Directed platform modernization that unified fragmented products into a cohesive cross-platform experience. Highlights: - Unified two existing web mail products into a single, integrated communications suite. Migrated over 250MM users to the new experience with minimal impact on retention. - Launched HTML5 version of Yahoo! Mail for smart phones and tablets - Launched iPhone, iPad and Android native applications for Yahoo! Messenger - Launched Android native application for Yahoo! Mail - Launched Android native application for Flickr - Launched Android and iOS native multi-modal communication app - Launched web and mobile web improved Profiles - Led design for improved search experience in mobile and web mail by providing results in a more readable format, increasing visibility for controls to refine searches and improving assistance in finding messages and starting up new conversations - Led design and product definition for synchronized photo co-browsing experience across devices (web, smart phone, tablet). - Led design and product definition for a group-oriented, real-time communication tool with focus on sharing and co-consuming rich media on tablet, desktop and web. - Led design and product definition for a next generation home page with goal of reigniting brand through a more modernized design and a focus on personally relevant and fresh content. ### Director, User Experience @ Yahoo! Jan 2006 – Jan 2009 Design Director for Yahoo! Mail Managed team of 10 designers supporting 4 products on 2 different web platforms: Yahoo! Mail Classic and the new Yahoo! Mail. Highlights: - Launched the all new Yahoo! Mail, Address Book and Calendar. Primary goals: bring desktop interactions and behavior to a web application, align look and feel with emerging Y! desktop and web app standards. - Launched IM integration into Yahoo! Classic and all new Yahoo! Mail - Launched integration of third party applications into Mail to provide users with new ways of consuming rich data from messages in more meaningful and contextually relevant ways. ### Senior Design Manager @ Yahoo! Jan 2004 – Jan 2006 Senior Design Manager for Yahoo! Mail, Address Book, Calendar + Notepad Highlights: - Scaled team from 1 to 10 designers and developed tools and processes to build a high performance team and communicate progress across functional groups. - Secured funding and support for Yahoo!’s first global ethnography. Goal of research was to determine how communication patterns and tool usage varied internationally by studying customers in 6 countries (US, Taiwan, Korea, China, Germany and France). Participated in interview sessions, analyzed diary submissions, authored and presented design implications and product opportunities. ### Senior Interaction Designer @ Yahoo! Jan 2002 – Jan 2004 Interaction Designer and Design Lead for Yahoo! Mail, Address Book, Calendar + Notepad. Highlights: - Led the first large-scale redesign of Yahoo! Mail (2002) which included a modernized aesthetic, deep integration of personal information management tools (address book, calendar, notepad) and a css-driven front-end. Results in first week showed a 5-10% increase in mail usage and visitors, 40% increase in Calendar and 20% increase in Address Book. New feature designs for filtering your inbox and quickly building your address book based on your communication patterns resulted in two patents (patents 7539699 + 7428579) - Co-led a next generation Communications design project whose end result guided future roadmap development and earned a patent for integrating multiple communication channels (IM + email, patent 7729481). - Active contributor and leader in Yahoo! design community through: leadership of internal design website redesign, leadership of the Interaction Designer toolkit (resources, templates + best practices for discipline), active contributor to the ID Curriculum development. ### Interaction Designer @ Yahoo! Jan 2000 – Jan 2002 | Sunnyvale Design lead for Yahoo! Photos and Yahoo! Personals. While on Yahoo! Photos, I participated in field research to assess needs of digital and analog camera users in taking and sharing photos. Through collaborative data analysis with a design researcher, I identified product opportunities for the emerging world of online digital photography. My design contributions included a redesign of the Yahoo! Photos website, which included improved photo management tools, streamlined photo upload interface, image editing tools and slideshow functionality. I also designed a desktop photo screensaver tool that took advantage of increased broadband penetration by allowing you to synchronize photos from your desktop with Yahoo! Photos. On Yahoo! Personals, I oversaw the transition from a free to a paid service. ### Associate Producer @ eGroups Jan 1999 – Jan 2000 ## Education ### BS in Symbolic Systems - HCI Stanford University ### Physics in Spanish literature The Hockaday School ## Contact & Social - LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/brookeannethompson --- Source: https://flows.cv/brookethompson JSON Resume: https://flows.cv/brookethompson/resume.json Last updated: 2026-04-08