# Kelsey Brennan > Design Leader at ThredUp | Product Design, UX Research, Strategy (ex-Planet, ex-Carbon Five) Location: San Francisco Bay Area, United States Profile: https://flows.cv/kelseybrennan Leading and scaling product design and research orgs since 2019. I like big, unsolvable problems. Over 15 years of experience in product development, creative strategy, UX research, and innovation management. My work focuses on driving innovation through design, with an emphasis on building technology-driven products that customers love enough to make businesses money. Currently Head of Product Design and UX Research at ThredUp. We successfully rebranded in 2025 and won a TIME Magazine award in 2024. Previously, I led and scaled the Product Design team at Planet where I did lots of cool stuff for the business and gained deep, esoteric knowledge in all things related to satellites, remote sensing, and geospatial. ## Work Experience ### Director, Product Design @ ThredUp Jan 2023 – Present Head of Product Design and UX Research. ThredUp is transforming resale by building the world’s largest online platform for secondhand clothing, shoes, and accessories. ThredUp is driven by a mission to inspire the world to think secondhand first. Responsible for Product Design and UX Research. Directed successful implementation of ThredUp’s rebrand in 2025. Directed the redesign of ThredUp’s mobile applications resulting in XX% conversion lift with no change aversion from existing customers. Directed the design and research for new AI driven search features resulting in XX% conversion lift and recognized by TIME Magazine’s best inventions of 2024 list. Gained buy in and directed team in updating and implementing ThredUp’s design system. Coached designers and researchers in qualitative research best practices, facilitation skills, technical design skills, and communication skills. Re-established cross-functional + team processes with new Head of Product ### Board Member @ Tech By Choice Jan 2019 – Present ### Design and Strategy Consultant @ Kelsey Brennan Studio Jan 2010 – Present | San Francisco Bay Area, CA Independent Creative, Research, Growth and Strategy services for companies and organizations such as: Pinterest, City of San Francisco - Planning Department, Plum Gear, Scoot & Doodle, Portland Children's Museum Scoot & Doodle (UX and Growth Strategy) Participated in launch strategy in partnership with Google+ Hangouts Grew community of users to nearly 1M Participated in product definition, marketing and business strategy Strategized and grew partnership program with educators and social influencers Conducted user research and interviews with customers to influence product direction Plum Gear (UX and Operations Strategy) Designed and operationalized inventory management system for clothing exchange Conducted user research and interviews with customers to identify key pain points Participated in marketing and business strategy ### Senior Manager, Product Design @ Planet Jan 2019 – Jan 2023 Head of Product Design. Planet is the leading provider of global, daily satellite imagery and insights. Planet is driven by a mission to image all of Earth’s landmass every day, and make global change visible, accessible and actionable. While at Planet I scaled the design team at Planet from 2 to 10. Coached designers in qualitative research best practices, facilitation skills, technical design skills, and communication skills. Established cross-functional + team processes in collaboration with design operations. Acted as a principal designer in key product areas: Machine learning, APIs, Data Hosting and Online Analysis Platform. Defined API UX for subscriptions API, enabling recurring orders for customers. Defined UX/UI patterns for machine learning tools. MVP for analysis & hosting platform served as proof of concept for Sinergise acquisition. Contributed to 2 year strategy in collaboration with senior leadership. Established B2B user research practice in collaboration with product, professional services, customer success, marketing, product and biz dev. Documentation of customer journeys used widely by sales & customer success teams for the development of enablement materials. Research output resulted in 2 strategic frameworks that informed subsequent M&A strategy for the business: Salo Sciences, VanderSat + Sinergise. ### Senior Designer & Project Lead @ Carbon Five | A West Monroe Company Jan 2015 – Jan 2019 Build something brilliant. Carbon Five is a digital product development studio. The teams at Carbon Five partner with clients to create exceptional products and grow effective teams. Like the other great product agencies, Carbon Five was acquired in 2021 and the alumni felt as though mom and dad had sold the house. While at Carbon Five I led cross-functional software teams with a pragmatic approach and an emphasis on business impact. I worked with leadership at multiple companies to help them close their Series B rounds along with other important contracts. This work spans all aspects of design: design research, service/systems design, UX/UI, visual design, branding, product strategy, content, and product definition. Domains include medical, non-profits, finance, social networks, education etc. The final deliverable for client projects was always shipped product. Clients included Autodesk, Thomson Reuters, The Commonwealth Club of California, Brandless, Coinbase, Cleo, various greenfield startups. ### Graduate Student Instructor @ University of California Berkeley Jan 2013 – Jan 2015 | Berkeley, CA ### Masters in Architecture @ University of California Berkeley Jan 2012 – Jan 2015 | San Francisco Bay Area Research focus: interfaces for robotics and digital manufacturing; computational geometry ### Designated Emphasis, New Media @ University of California Berkeley Jan 2012 – Jan 2015 Designated Emphasis (DE) in New Media through the Berkeley Center for New Media (BCNM) ## Education ### Master of Architecture (M.Arch.) in Architecture University of California, Berkeley ### Bachelor of Arts - BA in Studio Art and Art History Reed College ## Contact & Social - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kelseybbrennan - Website: http://kelseybrennan.com --- Source: https://flows.cv/kelseybrennan JSON Resume: https://flows.cv/kelseybrennan/resume.json Last updated: 2026-04-07