# Maryam Zahedi > Design at Health Location: San Francisco Bay Area, United States Profile: https://flows.cv/maryam Hi there, I’m Maryam – a designer, researcher, and strategist, passionate about creating meaningful experiences that help improve people’s lives. I'm currently focusing on the intersection of human-centered design, behavior change, and game mechanics as it applies to healthcare innovation. I believe in the power of designing with people, not for people. This means immersing myself in the lives of others, using ethnographic research methodologies, to develop a deeper understanding of how people navigate through their everyday lives, digging to get to the “why” behind those decisions, to inform and inspire design ideas. No matter the end result, whether it’s a digital, physical, or even a spacial experience, I take joy in the journey of moving from the initial stages of defining the problem statement, to creating a detailed design, using the human-centered design process. Working in collaborative and multidisciplinary teams, where people are excited about making things and experimenting with new ideas, is where you’re likely to find me. Do you happen to share similar interests? Let’s start a conversation today! ## Work Experience ### Senior Product Designer @ Apple Jan 2022 – Present | Cupertino, California, United States Health Strategic Initiatives (HSI) team at Apple. ### Head of UX Design and Research @ January AI Jan 2021 – Jan 2022 | Menlo Park, California, United States Led the user experience team at a pivotal moment in the company through strategic design direction to scale and grow into a new market audience by creating intuitive tools for the January App to improve people’s metabolic health. DESIGN STRATEGY Through extensive user research and partnership with a market research consultancy, identified a new market audience, led journey mapping and blueprinting projects to target areas of opportunity, and tested concepts that leverage the power of AI combined with real-time CGM data, to help people learn about how the foods they eat affect their metabolism, and as a result, optimizing their health and wellbeing. DESIGN LEADERSHIP Mentored and supported the UX team, created cross-collaboration opportunities within Product, Marketing, and Customer Experience teams, and communicated design direction with stakeholders. ### Senior Product Designer @ 23andMe Jan 2018 – Jan 2021 | Sunnyvale, California, United States Motivating people to make informed lifestyle changes that help them reduce their risk of developing preventable diseases by creating engaging experiences that tell the story of how our genes affect our health. As the Health team's design lead, worked closely with product, engineering, UX writers and researchers, scientists, and the R&D team, to shape new product features that reach millions of people who are ready to take charge of their well-being. ARCHITECTURE STRATEGY Led an initiative to re-envision the health product’s information architecture and navigational flows through a human-centered framework. Created vision decks, facilitated cross-functional workshops, and worked with other designers to implement pixel-level designs that resulted in improvements to discoverability and comprehension of features and content within the product. INTERACTIVE LEARNING Designed app and web features for topics such as, Heart Health, Sleep Quality, Weight Management, and Biomarkers, that track lifestyle habits and provide immediate value through data visualization and actionable insights, facilitating goal setting, and ultimately, behavior change. REPORTS & ILLUSTRATIONS Created a design system for report templates and shipped 20+ genetic health reports in collaboration with product scientists. Generated illustrations for each report with the purpose of conveying medical information in a delightful and user-friendly manner that feels approachable and intuitive for an FDA-regulated, direct-to-consumer digital product. ### Senior Product Designer @ Pivot Jan 2017 – Jan 2018 | Redwood City, California, United States Empowering people to quit smoking through a personalized journey that raises awareness of patterns and triggers, and engages through evidence-based content that’s empathetic to the challenges of long-term behavior change. As a digital health program, Pivot's clinical trial results demonstrate that 1 in 3 people successfully quit. ENGAGEMENT Designed a daily check-in feature in the Pivot Journey app that delivers a daily boost of motivation to keep our Pivoters supported after they've attempted a quit, because we know how challenging those first few weeks can be. The daily boost is personalized based on the Pivoter's state of mind and the content is varied and relevant, to show our gratitude for continuing to engage with us. ONBOARDING Re-designed the web registration experience to reduce drop-offs by setting up context on what the Pivot program is about in an interactive quiz-like format. Resulted in a 58% increase in the sign-up conversion rate. COMMUNITY Designed the community tab in the app to enable connecting and sharing with one another, increasing the efficacy of the program as a result. Conducted ethnographic interviews and shared insights and strategy, while collaborating with cross-functional teams, including product, engineering, customer care, behavior science, and clinical teams by facilitating brainstorm sessions. HARDWARE DEVICE Led a small design team of industrial, brand, and interaction design, by defining design principles and creating alignment with the R&D team to design and manufacture a new generation of the FDA-approved breath sensor devices, re-designed with our Pivoters in mind, to help them measure and track fluctuations of carbon monoxide levels in their bodies as it relates to their smoking behavior. WEB PORTAL Re-designed the coach portal to help coaches learn about their Pivoters and communicate with them in a timely and effective manner, which resulted in 25% increased efficiency per touchpoint. ### Senior Product Designer (Innovation Team) @ Verizon Jan 2016 – Jan 2017 | San Jose, California, United States As the lead designer/researcher for an Augmented Reality mobile app, I guided the design strategy by providing the product and engineering team with a synthesis of user feedback, actionable design recommendations, and high-fidelity mockups. ### Senior Product Designer (Innovation Team) @ Allstate Jan 2016 – Jan 2016 | Menlo Park, California, United States Created end-to-end designs from ideation to implementation on innovation projects focused on expanding the business model beyond insurance products. IoT & Connected Home Empowering first-time homeowners to care for their biggest investment. Telematics & Connected Car Motivating teens to drive safer through data informed gamification. Customer Experience Strengthening the Allstate-Agent-Customer relationship through the lens of the Trusted Advisor model. ### Product Designer (Innovation Team) @ Allstate Jan 2013 – Jan 2016 | Menlo Park, California, United States Designed mobile applications that engage, delight, and solve user needs. • Conducted in-depth user interviews and identified insights • Brainstormed ideas and created low-fidelity prototypes • Moderated focus groups and user testing sessions • Designed wireframes, user flows, visuals, interactions, and mockups • Communicated design specs with app developers • Designed survey questions for market test and analyzed results ### Course Assistant @ Stanford University Jan 2013 – Jan 2013 | Stanford, CA Guided graduate and undergraduate students on their design projects focusing on needfinding, rapid prototyping and visualization methods. • ME 277: Graduate Design Research Techniques • ME 101: Visual Thinking ### Design Research Intern @ Fletcher Research Jan 2012 – Jan 2012 | Palo Alto, CA Understanding and uncovering people’s needs, motivations, and behaviors around personal health and medications. RESEARCH Wrote screeners and interview guides, recruited users, and conducted in-home ethnographic interviews. STRATEGY Presented research findings and frameworks as a result of synthesizing insights which defined the design goals and product strategy. DESIGN Created prototypes to test initial ideas and evaluated early-stage concepts for further rounds. ## Education ### Master of Science (MS) in Product Design Stanford University ### Bachelor of Architecture (BArch) in Architecture California College of the Arts ## Contact & Social - LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/maryamzahedi --- Source: https://flows.cv/maryam JSON Resume: https://flows.cv/maryam/resume.json Last updated: 2026-02-23