# Lance Vikaros > Product Manager & Design Director Location: San Francisco Bay Area, United States Profile: https://flows.cv/lancevikaros I am an entrepreneurial product manager and designer driven by a passion for creating digital experiences that inspire learning, play and wellness. Accomplishments include designing, launching and scaling 80+ games, apps, and SaaS platforms for brands like Akili, Lumosity, Agnitus, STARZ, Scratch, Lexia, Scholastic, Intel and NASDAQ. With skills ranging from technical to creative, and a doctoral degree in the design of technology enhanced experiences (games, learning and wellness), I bring a versatile set of competencies as well as strong leadership skills honed from 20 years overseeing product design and development. Skills: business development, product strategy, Agile production (SCRUM certified), creative and technical direction, product design, UX/experience design, usability, coding, research (from market research to user research), and data analysis. ## Work Experience ### Executive Educational Product Consultant @ Yixue, Pip-Up, Chef Koochooloo & HISH Jan 2019 – Present Advised educational start-ups on business strategy, design, brand and the development of products, platforms and services. Clients included Yixue, a large Chinese K-12 AI based academic tutoring company, HISH, an entrepreneurship incubator, Chef Koochooloo, a K-5 STEM based learning company blending live in-school instruction with digital games, and Pip-Up, a Chinese parenting app and toy delivery service that personalizes experiences to a child's physical and mental development, while coaching parents on productive play. ### Lead Game Designer & Cognitive Science Specialist @ Akili Interactive Jan 2021 – Jan 2023 | Larkspur, California, United States Led design and assisted product strategy and management for a new cognitive therapeutic product line with early testing exceeding target engagement OKR's. Involved directing research-driven game design, scientific design, market research, UX, cross-functional collaboration, user testing and technical advisement. Was recognized with outstanding performance awards and promoted, with my new product-line's features informing improvements of existing product. ### Director of Game Systems Design and Cognitive Science Specialist @ Lumos Labs (Lumosity) Jan 2016 – Jan 2019 | San Francisco Bay Area Oversaw design of games and learning systems, and led behavioral analysis of play data. Directed multiple games teams and collaborated with leadership on production process improvements increasing cadence, data quality and boosting engagement. Also advised design of new wellness app, Lumosity Mind. ### Cofounder and Executive Director of Education & Product @ Agnitus Jan 2011 – Jan 2016 | Palo Alto, CA Led design and production of Agnitus' award winning adaptive game-based learning platform, its 60+ games, interactive stories and its underlying analytics. Included design of learning and wellness AI that tracked and fostered learning, positivity, curiosity and well-being through virtual social interactions and mentorship. ### Lead Game Designer @ Large Animal Games Jan 2010 – Jan 2011 Led the design of top-grossing freemium Facebook games for established brands like STARZ: Spartacus and Lonely Planet. ### Computer Science & Game Design Instructor @ Teachers College Jan 2005 – Jan 2010 Redesigned curriculum and taught computer science courses on object oriented programming, educational software development and advanced game design, all while completing a doctoral degree specialized in educational game based learning and assessment. ### Educational Technology Consultant @ Intel Jan 2008 – Jan 2010 Designed and led team development of an online learning platform to help Intel support international education reform in 35 countries as part of their collaboration with the World Bank and UNESCO. ### Scratch Community Manager @ MIT Media Lab Jan 2007 – Jan 2009 | Cambridge, Massachusetts Managed MIT Scratch's online community of burgeoning game designers and programmers, designing automated features to enable scaling of management while fostering a culture of collaboration. ## Education ### BA & BFA in Psychology & Fine Arts Cornell University ### Master of Education (M.Ed.) in Educational Technology Harvard Graduate School of Education ### Doctor of Education (Ed.D.) in Design of Games and Learning Technology Teachers College, Columbia University ## Contact & Social - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lance-vikaros-6b01861 - Website: http://www.unlinear.org --- Source: https://flows.cv/lancevikaros JSON Resume: https://flows.cv/lancevikaros/resume.json Last updated: 2026-04-07