# Karin Curkowicz > Senior Staff Product Designer | I use empathy to turn complex systems into thoughtful products. Location: San Jose, California, United States Profile: https://flows.cv/karincurkowicz I offer 15+ years working in digital design, working with cross-functional stakeholders and agile teams to uncover constraints, make tradeoffs, create strategic innovations, and bring products to market. I started my career in design consulting, and have worked in large enterprises, as an embedded designer in FAANG companies and at small startups. I’m focused on serving the needs of expert users. I specialize in quickly learning spaces rich in complex data and challenging workflows. Then relying on empathy and user insights to envision new opportunities for businesses and users. On my programs I seek to implement flexible, long-term solutions that solve many problems simultaneously. I often rely on my keen observation and pattern identification skills to unify multi-touchpoint, multi-platform or acquired products into a scalable, cohesive experience. I am a highly collaborative design leader. I seek out opportunities to learn the needs and strengths of my cross-functional partners and stakeholders. If appropriate, I design and facilitate SME and cross-functional workshops to gain insight and alignment. Once defined, I work within organizational constraints to enable the best product outcome. I am well versed in Agile & SCRUM, and am able to position myself or design teams, to maximize efficiency and transparent communication. I consider it my role to advocate for users and to champion UX best practices. I estimate, plan and prioritize design work. I identify assumptions and work with my partners to validate or limit their impact. As a design leader, I seek to create psychologically safe & focused design or product teams. I do this by candidly communicating and sharing ownership of team values & goals. I have proven myself capable of recruiting a team, defining goals, and managing or mentor others. - All while delivering my own work. I strive to be an expert UX practitioner. I am adept in Figma and Sketch for collaboration and the creation of design artifacts. Including but not limited to; flow charts, information architectures, customer journeys, design sprints, personas, wireframes, high-fidelity designs, and design systems. Throughout my career I have been responsible for the entire design lifecycle. Starting at problem definition & product specification all the way through to asset delivery, specification handoff & design QA. My skills in generative and evaluative design research allow my team additional tools to define projects, and measure success. I often raise the standard for UX quality and lead design critiques. https://kmcurk.com/ ## Work Experience ### Senior Staff User Experience Designer @ ServiceNow Jan 2022 – Present | San Jose, California, United States - Lead UX detailed design and strategy for a suite of applications for Field Service Management. - Transformed the suite of tools from an industry outsider to ISG Leader. ### User Experience Lead @ Freelancer- Self employed Jan 2020 – Jan 2022 | San Francisco Bay Area *Client: Hyli - Is a social mobile startup still in stealth mode.* Created the end to end mobile UX design for the social startup Hyli based on a customization of the Material DLS. Owned all aspects of design including; UX design, Visual (UI) design, along with asset specification including icons, emojis, type, and illustrations. Refined the client’s specifications and product goals from an engineering POC, and allowed them to achieve a professional version of their full product vision. Invented a new type of social media interaction. It is neither a message service nor is it a content exploration space. It’s something in between and new, and potentially disruptive. Created detailed application architecture, user flows, pixel perfect screens and microinteractions that explain both design system and screen implementation details. Partnered closely with cross-functional leads to define the product offering, prioritize features, and deliver specifications. ### Senior User Experience Designer @ Green Bits, Inc. Jan 2018 – Jan 2020 | San Jose, California, United States *About: Greenbits was a SAAS startup targeting small retail stores in the cannabis industry. Offering compliance filing, inventory management, and retail POS solutions.* Invented a new strategic product offering that allows Greenbits clients to resolve data transaction errors when sending information to fragile state reporting databases. Resulting in reduced Greenbits customer support calls, reduced associated engineering tickets, higher customer satisfaction ratings and reduced customer data transaction errors. Performed User Research (Contextual Inquiries and Concept Validation Testing) to identify the problem, and measure the success of the solution. Patiently championed the product, and inculturated the product values in the organization for a year before it was deployed. Engaged collaboratively with Product Owners & Legal Stakeholders to scope, define and ensure the compliance of products and features. Partnered with Development teams to understand constraints, define work, scope solutions, and ship quality products. Estimated and planned UX work to support timely delivery of assets and stories into three SCRUM teams. Lead the UX design of a Muli-State Purchase Limits System, enabling retailers to clearly and compliantly check out their customers & patients while observing a wide range of state regulations. Initiated the creation of the Green Bits Design System. Moving the organization from an unsupported style guide, to a theme of Material Design. Facilitated design workshops to establish team charter, scope of work, design principles, and identify key areas of refinement. Performed a detailed audit of the multi-platform system and evaluated competitors. Facilitated the findings analysis. Defined new interaction & behavior models for key template pages, unifying patterns, data and pages into a cohesive system. Mentored, critiqued and advised another Designer as she delivered table filtering and sorting designs. ### Product Designer onsite at Facebook DevINFRA via PRO Unlimited @ PRO Unlimited Jan 2017 – Jan 2018 | Menlo Park, California *About: DevINFRA is FB's internal tools org. I was on the Nuclide IDE team designing FB Engineering specific workflows and features.* Defined and Designed the instant, virtual, dev-server user experience. Partnered with Lead Engineer to learn and define; product goals, ideal workflow, success criteria, and developer vocabulary. Estimated and planned UX work to clearly and iteratively deliver into a fast-paced, high-visibility program. Delivered, on time, a feature critical to my Org, and Global Facebook Developer's success. Received high praise in a cross-department forum by the Lead Engineer of the project. Championed research tools and UX best practices in an organization of engineers, by demonstrating the power of iterative user testing. Resulting in tooling-developers, empowered to speak to their peers before releasing new features. ### Associate Creative Director - UX: Onsite with Apple Radar @ Level Studios: On-Site at Apple Jan 2016 – Jan 2017 | Sunnyvale, California, United States Engaged successfully with Apple's onsite cross-functional leadership team (product, engineering) to scope, define, and deliver an innovative user experience for software development teams within Apple needing Agile Project Management tools tied closely to the Radar ticketing product. Scoped and defined Product Definition, User Research and Product Design activities. Conducted stakeholder, SME, and User research to identify pain points, insights, and organizational goals to inform design decision-making. Established team alignment around product goals and objectives through regular candid communication. Empowering the team to understand the program’s values, goals, success criteria, decisions, and context. Used Storyboards, Personas, and Scenarios to align stakeholder visions and define the problems we're solving. Resulting in gaining the funding and executive sponsorship our project needed. Championed user needs through the MVP definition process. Interviewed, hired and managed and mentored a junior visual designer. Engaged deeply on complex cross-functional topics to protect a quality user experience. Iterated quickly based on stakeholder and Apple HIG group feedback to create solutions that met a diverse set of organizational needs. Collaborated closely with development partners. Delivered design assets and specifications iteratively and often allowing all teams to move forward quickly. Gained the respect of Apple’s cross-functional team, my junior designer, and my design leadership at LEVEL - who were grateful for my smooth and independent running of the program. ### Senior User Experience Designer @ SAP Labs Jan 2014 – Jan 2015 | Palo Alto, California, United States *BUILD (a UX design + prototyping tool for Fiori DS)* Evolved the BUILD UI Composer from an Invision mockup into a V1 product for low-code development in the SAP Fiori Ecosystem. Worked as a part of a large cross-functional team spanning 300+ developers, and 12+ designers spread across 4 global locations. Took the initiative to solve and gain alignment on problems such as navigation patterns to enable cross-product success. Invented and advocated the development of an elements tree, enabling selection of nesting and invisible items. Onboarded and provided design direction to new team members as they joined. Invented a link visualization behaviors. Prototyped the solution in partnership with a developer using a D3 library. Met tight deadlines, and shifting priorities. Completed just-in-time design for multiple AGILE teams Screened and recommended the hiring of three new members to our team. On-boarded and did initial tasking of two interns and one new college graduate. *Fieldglass (a contingent workforce procurement tool) recently acquired by SAP* Engaged with Fieldglass stakeholders, across Product, Engineering and Business, to bring the new acquisition into alignment with SAP Fiori’s design system. Designed & facilitated multiple co-creation workshops with stakeholders and SME’s in order to exchange knowledge and identify & prioritize solutions for a given problem. Identified key workflows and used personas and scenarios to quickly validate opportunities with stakeholders. Guided the risk-averse Fieldglass team through multiple design iterations, and prototypes. By actively listening to feedback, and being empathetic to their situation, I built a relationship and won design consensus from a team dealing with a highly ambiguous situation. Partnered with design research to create testing plans, screeners, & scripts to validate the success of design concepts, manage participant recruiting, and moderate the testing. ### Design Educator @ Cooper U Jan 2014 – Jan 2014 | San Francisco, California, United States Assistant Teacher: I presented Cooper Design Content and facilitated Cooper Design Thinking, Design Leadership and Interaction Design Bootcamp workshop activities. Accountable for students' perception of workshops success and potential impact on their daily work, along with their ability to successful accomplish our guided activities in the workshop. ### Interaction Design Lecturer in the Department of Design @ San Jose State University Jan 2011 – Jan 2012 | San Jose, California, United States Managed the work and reviewed the growth of 20-25 junior designers each semester for three semesters. Often managing either 5 teams of 5 designers or 25 independent designers. Lead groups of multidisciplinary designers through their first delivery of quality, on time assets and materials expected from working design professionals. Defined the course's challenge, schedule of work, design methodologies & success measurement criteria. Graded each assignment and assigned Final Graded based on rigorous and transparent methodologies. Mediated an inter-team conflict between designers as group dynamics broke down. ### Interaction Designer @ frog design Jan 2004 – Jan 2010 | San Francisco, California, United States Designed digital experiences for mobile, websites, webapps, TV and embedded UI products. Engaged with executive-level clients, managed their feedback & expectations through 16+ end-to-end design programs over 6 years. Lead design critiques, workshops, research analysis, and design planning sessions. Communicated design intent through vision documents, conceptual models, storyboards, wireframes, task flows, and detailed documentation. Designed and documented systems, optimized information architectures & navigations, migrated content, and designed complex information visualizations. Partnered with product and design leadership to define SOW’s, create Proposals and pitch work to clients. Planned the UX process for multiple program proposals. Specified tools, deliverables and timelines required for successful completion of major design programs. Mentored junior designers & worked collaboratively on multidisciplinary teams. Conducted design research activities for CISCO SMB website redesign. Talking to 40+ participants representing two personas across 2 countries. Using Contextual Inquiries, Custom Participatory Design Workshops, and Online Ideation Facilitation. Evangelized persona research findings, pushing new insights into the Content Team. Lead CISCO’s SMB Marcom website redesign. Invented a personalization framework for displaying custom content based on the viewer. Designed and Iterated a series of tools for various personas to find and collect content relevant to goals. Ensured mobile design consistency as the patterns and OS design lead for an AT&T iphone competitor. Coordinating work across multiple design teams, defined UI patterns & common behaviors, communicated mobile standards to external vendors. ### Industrial Designer @ Flextronics Design Jan 2000 – Jan 2004 | San Jose, California, United States Designed the interface for a VoIP telephone. Performed a task-based evaluation of competing VOIP devices. Lead idea generation sessions, created flows, and wireframes describing both digital and physical interactions. Lead designer for the Tango by Blink Twice. A natural language speech device for kids with cerebral palsy. Managed all aspects of design from concept to production. Conducted on-site interviews with people who have cerebral palsy. Used insights gathered to drive decisions about the device’s aesthetics, ergonomics, and mechanical specifications. Designed the physical (aesthetic & tactile) interactions for a wide variety of mobile, medical, beauty and consumer electronic products. Frequently engaging with business, technical and manufacturing partners to solve problems and discover novel opportunity spaces. Flextronics Acquired Palo Alto Design Group in Feb 2000. ### Intern @ GVO Inc Jan 1998 – Jan 1998 | Palo Alto, California Interned at GVO not long after they redefined themselves as a Product Strategy Agency. Interviewed many of the staff members about their reaction to the strategic change. Assisted in synthesizing the results of research Steve Portigal brought back from the field. Learned the power of product definition through afternoon chats with Michael Barry. Sewed self-squeezing tea bags for Mighty Leaf Teas. ## Education ### BSID in Industrial Design San José State University ### General Studies Sonoma State University ## Contact & Social - LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/kmcurk --- Source: https://flows.cv/karincurkowicz JSON Resume: https://flows.cv/karincurkowicz/resume.json Last updated: 2026-04-13