# Kenji Kaneko > Product Designer Location: San Francisco, California, United States Profile: https://flows.cv/kenji I design with systems thinking, lead with curiosity, and build for the future. I'm a Product Design Lead with 7+ years of experience crafting scalable, accessible, and elegant experiences—most notably in the design systems and security platform spaces at Cisco. At my core, I’m a systems thinker and collaborative builder. I’ve: • Co-created token and theming systems that power light/dark modes, branding, and accessibility at scale • Reimagined our color system • Designed complex components used across Cisco’s networking and security products • Mentored designers and introduced AI-assisted workflows to elevate how we create Beyond design craft, I’m energized by: 🤝 Deep collaboration — jamming with other designers and cross-functional partners 📈 Growth — experimenting with AI tools, sparking internal lightning talks, and evolving the way we work 🌍 Accessibility — asking how we can serve more people, more thoughtfully, with everything we create ## Work Experience ### Product Designer @ Glean Jan 2025 – Present | San Francisco, CA Rockin n' rollin ### Senior Product Design Lead (Platform) @ Cisco Jan 2025 – Jan 2025 | San Jose, California, United States I currently lead design for Cisco’s Security Platform team, Security Cloud Control, focused on unifying the experience across 20+ security products. My role centers on establishing foundational UX patterns, aligning cross-product experiences, and defining how AI capabilities surface across the platform. ### Product Design Lead (Design Systems) @ Cisco Jan 2022 – Jan 2025 | San Jose, California, United States I was a Product Design Lead for Cisco’s Magnetic Design System, the core design system used by both Security and Networking organizations. I co-created the token and theming architecture, redefined the color system for accessibility and scalability, and led redesigns of complex components used across the product suite. Highlights: 🤖 Core contributor to a new generative AI product launching in 2025 🧩 Designed scalable navigation and layout models across our product ecosystem 🎨 Co-led our design token system to support light/dark modes and brand theming 🌈 Reimagined our color system for accessibility, scalability, and brand flexibility ♿ Championed accessibility best practices and WCAG-compliant designs 🧠 Mentoring designers and introducing AI design workflows to improve the way our team works ### Senior Product Designer (Design Systems) @ Cisco Jan 2022 – Jan 2022 | San Jose, California, United States ### Product Design Consultant @ Kenji Kaneko (Product Designer) Jan 2021 – Jan 2023 ### Senior Product Designer @ OpenGov Inc. Jan 2021 – Jan 2022 | Redwood City, California, United States ### Product Designer (on Duo Security) @ Cisco Jan 2020 – Jan 2021 | Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States As a designer on part of the 30+ design and research team at Duo Security, I had the opportunity to engage with a variety of projects and efforts including: • Collaboratively designed a feature that allows IT administrators to easily customize Duo’s main user-facing products. Customization lets enterprises match their company’s look and feel, instilling end user trust. • Selected for an initiative to create a future-looking design concept to visually unify Cisco Secure’s portfolio of products, with an aim to inspire Cisco management as to where the product portfolio can go to be deliver a more integrated, cohesive user experience. •  Actively contributed components and usage guidelines to the Tellaro design system. •  Collaborated with small group of designers to listen to designers' needs and create a formalized design critique program, aiming to solve for deeper collaboration and improving how we design at Duo. ### Product Designer @ Ford Motor Company Jan 2018 – Jan 2019 | Greater Detroit Area • Designed UX/UI experience from scratch for RoadCode, a product that helps traffic safety engineers visualize crash data, connected vehicle data, and cell phone data in one map-based interface. RoadCode selected as top 2 product finalist for US Dept. of Transportation safety visualization competition. • Led design efforts for RoadCode, electric vehicle project, and product to measure product/market fit while constantly collaborating in Agile/Lean Startup environment as designer on balanced product teams. ### Product Designer @ SalesLoft Jan 2018 – Jan 2018 | Atlanta, Georgia Designed UX/UI experience for part of SalesLoft platform that connects to Gmail, Microsoft Outlook, and Salesforce while working in Agile environment supporting two product teams. ### Graduate Student Instructor - User Experience (UX) Research Methods @ University of Michigan - School of Information Jan 2017 – Jan 2017 | Ann Arbor, MI • Co-taught 60 undergraduate students in Needs Assessment and Usability Evaluation class, alongside Professor Lisa Hogan (Director of Research at UserTesting.com). • Mentored students in UX Research process, providing advice and feedback on variety of methods including: card sorting, interaction maps, interviews, personas, scenarios, remote usability testing, surveys, paper prototyping, preference testing, and in-person usability testing. ### User Experience (UX) Intern @ Propel, Inc Jan 2017 – Jan 2017 • Led UX research and design process for new feature in Fresh EBT mobile app to help users better budget their food stamps, including: 12 user interviews, two observations, one survey, qualitative and quantitative data analysis, persona creation, and seven usability tests using paper and hi-fidelity prototypes, leading to feature with 95.0/100 usability score. • Conducted 18 user interviews and two surveys to learn about prepaid debit card space and financial lives of underbanked Americans, identifying four main needs of our users. • Performed extensive research into debit card market, including competitive analysis and identification of potential partners, leading to go-to-market strategy for Propel to create their own prepaid card offering. ### Product Marketing Intern @ Zendesk Jan 2016 – Jan 2017 | San Francisco, CA • Researched $6B telephony market, aiming to understand target audience, competitive landscape, messaging, positioning, and pricing, leading to creation of go-to-market strategy for Talk First, a new marketing funnel for Zendesk. • Conducted 20 user interviews, 7 remote usability tests, and built two smoke test websites to better understand current user on-boarding experiences, user needs, and potential product price points; used this data to design prototype of new Talk landing page and sign-up flow. ### Co-Founder @ Senden Jan 2011 – Jan 2012 | Los Angeles Co-Founder of an LA-based startup aiming to disrupt the $2.7B daily deals industry. Spearheaded investor relations and funding efforts, leading to a funding and mentorship offer from one of Europe's top business accelerators. ### Senior Account Executive @ Yelp.com Jan 2009 – Jan 2011 Top 20 sales performer and inductee into the Yelp President's Club. Designed and led training for five sales teams, introducing innovative sales techniques and increasing company-wide Salesforce.com efficiency. ## Education ### Master’s Degree in Human Computer Interaction University of Michigan - School of Information ### Master of Business Administration (M.B.A.) in Organizational Leadership University of Michigan - Stephen M. Ross School of Business ### BA in Sociology, Japanese Tufts University ## Contact & Social - LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/kenjikaneko --- Source: https://flows.cv/kenji JSON Resume: https://flows.cv/kenji/resume.json Last updated: 2026-04-13