# Mala K. > Lead Product Designer | MFA in Design + Technology Location: United States, United States Profile: https://flows.cv/mala I'm a multidisciplinary product designer with a love for research, solving problems, and making software a little kinder and more interesting. https://malakumar.info/ ## Work Experience ### Senior Product Designer @ Verizon Jan 2025 – Present ### Designer @ Studio Lifafa Jan 2025 – Present | New York, United States Multidisciplinary creative studio crafting distinctive visual and editorial experiences across print and digital, bringing bold visual narratives to life through printmaking, publications, and design. Clients include The Intercept, Cake Zine, and Grammy-winning artist Arooj Aftab. ### Lead Product Designer @ Reaktor Jan 2021 – Jan 2025 | New York, United States Led 0-1 product development across aviation, retail, and analytics sectors, transforming complex challenges into intuitive solutions. Designed and launched Viasat Insights dashboard that unified fragmented data silos into a cohesive analytics platform. Redesigned JFK Terminal 4 wayfinding, improving navigation through immersive user research. Conducted extensive stakeholder workshops and rallied cross-functional teams around product vision. Established design processes and mentored team members on user-centered design methodologies. Clients include: Viasat, Jetblue, Uniqlo, JFK T4, Trepp ### Product Designer @ Deloitte Jan 2020 – Jan 2021 | New York, New York, United States Drove innovation across healthcare, finance, and e-commerce platforms through user-centered design approaches. Balanced creative vision with technical requirements while connecting design decisions to measurable business outcomes. Managed complex project roadmaps and demonstrated ability to pivot between strategic thinking and hands-on execution. Collaborated closely with engineering teams to ensure design feasibility and successful implementation. Conducted user research and usability testing to validate design decisions across multiple client engagements. Client include: Alcon, Minted, Redesign Health, CMG ### Senior UX Designer @ Fuzz Jan 2018 – Jan 2020 | Brooklyn, New York, United States Launched mobile and web applications for clients including Convene and Blink Fitness through rapid prototyping and iterative design processes. Redesigned Square's Kitchen Display System, reducing customer wait times by over 50% and increasing sales through improved operational efficiency. Conducted extensive user research for Convene's workplace management platform, creating seamless interfaces that addressed real user pain points. Clients include: Square, Convene, Equinox, Influenster, Sixt, Deep Indian Kitchen, StoreEase ### Product Designer @ Temboo Jan 2017 – Jan 2018 | Greater New York City Area Led design for Kosmos, a no-code platform that enabled manufacturing teams to monitor environmental conditions through connected sensor networks and leverage machine learning for predictive maintenance to help facility managers prevent equipment failures by making data insights actionable in real-world operations. ### Product/UX Designer @ Picardy Jan 2017 – Jan 2017 | Greater New York City Area Helping to define product vision, craft compelling stories and design a music education platform. ### User Experience Designer @ C&G Partners Jan 2016 – Jan 2017 | Greater New York City Area Design, prototyping, experience and content strategy, usability and accessibility research, and project management for web and kiosk design projects for cultural and educational institutions. ### Freelance Designer @ Various clients Jan 2011 – Jan 2016 | Austin and NYC Graphic and visual design, web development, illustration, branding, information graphics, icon design, and environment graphic design for publications, events, non-profits, and boutique brands. Select clients: Bike E.A.S.T., Earth House Oils, The Guardian Project, Austin Speech Labs, Alcalde Magazine, Pratham, Diversity Interactive, iTexico, and Gopher magazine ### Design Fellow @ The New School Jan 2015 – Jan 2016 Launched the new Guatemala Después digital collections website. I led the visual design and helped code the new website. Guatemala Después is a collaborative project that showcases artistic investigations that rethink notions of collective memory, official history, and erasure in relation to Guatemala’s recent history, while also reflecting on the intertwined relationship between the U.S. and Guatemala. ### Teaching Assistant @ Parsons School of Design at The New School Jan 2015 – Jan 2015 Undergraduate teaching assistant teaching assistant for Core Interaction Lab, a web development course teaching practical HTML, CSS, & Javascript for undergraduate communication design students. ### Graphic Designer @ fd2s Jan 2011 – Jan 2013 | Austin, Texas Area Concept development, exterior visuals, place-making strategy, visual communication, and web development for clients ranging from university medical centers, academic institutions, and mixed-use developments. ## Education ### MFA in Design + Technology Parsons School of Design - The New School ### BFA in Design The University of Texas at Austin ## Contact & Social - LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/mala-kumar - Website: http://malakumar.info --- Source: https://flows.cv/mala JSON Resume: https://flows.cv/mala/resume.json Last updated: 2026-02-23