# Jillian M. > Senior Product Designer + Strategist • Empowering small businesses Location: San Francisco, California, United States Profile: https://flows.cv/jillianm1 An alchemist of design strategy and execution, I craft experiences that deliver value. I help teams uncover strategic opportunities and translate ideas into intentional experiences with impactful outcomes. Going above and beyond for customer experiences is in my DNA. I grew up in hospitality helping run our family business from a young age, which instilled in me a dedication for delivering seamless and memorable customer experiences. Three generations of families returned to our resort year after year to experience community and lake-side activities together. I seek out bone-deep purpose, opinionated craft, and compassionate collaboration. Design isn’t merely decoration, it is an opportunity to deliver value with strategic intention that meets customers where they are. It’s our opportunity to ask meaningful questions, connect the dots between customer and business opportunities, and make a declaration about what our products stand for. ## Work Experience ### Senior Product Designer @ Next Insurance Jan 2026 – Present | Palo Alto, California, United States ### Member @ Women in Design SF Jan 2025 – Present | San Francisco, California, United States ### Member @ WIN: Women in Innovation Jan 2025 – Present | San Francisco, California, United States ### Product Designer, Renter Growth @ Apartment List Jan 2023 – Jan 2025 | San Francisco, California, United States Apartment List is transforming renting by creating a highly personalized, guided, and delightful search experience for renters to discover rental properties. I led strategic design and research efforts for the Renter Growth team. Re-designed under-invested in surface areas to boost engagement and conversions by aligning our efforts on the JTBD to rebuild trust, improve usability, and deliver value sooner. Impact: - Leveraged product, competitor data and customer interviews to find renters left our listing pages because we didn’t have decision-making data they needed. Introduced verified property reviews to fill decision-making gaps, driving a 40% increase in organic traffic and 10% increase in conversions. - Received Leadership Award in 2023 for embodying a "Resilient Mindset" ### Founding Product Designer @ Firstbase.com Jan 2021 – Jan 2022 | San Francisco, California, United States Firstbase empowers remote and hybrid teams by managing the equipment lifecycle for their workforce. Named in Forbes' Next Billion Dollar Startups in 2022, Firstbase raised their Series A and B led by Andreessen Horowitz and Kleiner Perkins, respectively. Firstbase was acquired by AppDirect. Established the design system library and founded the design team rhythms, research, and documentation practice. I also led our strategic design vision for our admin and employee customer experiences that informed our 2022 product roadmap. I drove expansion of our offering to evolve with increasingly complex customer needs, especially as we served larger customers across both IT and HR specialties. Impact: - Reduced support tickets by 90% by adding delivery estimates in the ordering flow to empower customers to make informed decisions and improve new-hire onboarding. - Coordinated across CSMs, Operations, and Sales to simplify a complex off-platform 12+ step ordering process by designing a 3 step in-app self-service order offering. ### Product Designer @ Upperstudy Jan 2021 – Jan 2022 | San Francisco, California, United States Upperstudy is an apprenticeship program led by design alums from Airbnb and Dropdox. Partnered with Upperstudy to help establish design practices at startups. ### Product Design Consultant @ Unknown Jan 2019 – Jan 2021 | San Francisco, California, United States ### Corporate Governance & Development @ Block Jan 2016 – Jan 2019 | San Francisco, California, United States Formerly known as: Square. More than just a little white dongle that goes into your phone. Block is on a mission to expand economic empowerment through its various ecosystems and help its diverse audiences — sellers, individuals, artists, fans, developers — overcome barriers to access the economy. As a legal operations specialist, I helped mature the corporate governance and development practice for Square as it grew as a business post-IPO. Governance and systems thinking provided a framework for my holistic approach to design thinking and driving with efficient processes. ### Global Capital Markets @ Citigroup Jan 2013 – Jan 2016 | New York, New York, United States Citi is dedicated to responsibly provide financial services to enable growth and economic progress. Citigroup serves 13,000+ institutional clients that include 90% of global Fortune 500 companies. Markets serve corporates, institutional investors and governments in nearly 80 countries. As a senior legal analyst, I drove documentation, negotiation, and transaction execution across all global markets. Fast-paced negotiations set a solid foundation for my fierce advocacy for solving the right problems for the business. - Oversaw and negotiated 30+ work streams at once while influencing cross-functional alignment amongst internal partners, external advisors, and clients. - Spearheaded redesign of our transactional documentation to achieve consistency and alignment with industry best practices. - Led the design, development, and implementation of a global training program; mentored three team members and co-led internal training for 60+ associates for M&A negotiations. ### Research Analyst @ SMGately Consulting, LLC Jan 2012 – Jan 2013 | Greater Boston Area ### Research Intern @ University of New Hampshire Jan 2012 – Jan 2012 | Durham, New Hampshire ## Education ### Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) in Sociology, Social Justice University of New Hampshire ### UX Design in Visual Design General Assembly ### Biology in General University of Vermont ### John Stark Regional High School ## Contact & Social - LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/jillymilja --- Source: https://flows.cv/jillianm1 JSON Resume: https://flows.cv/jillianm1/resume.json Last updated: 2026-04-13