# Meena Bala > Product Design Leader | Payments, Retail, Banking, Real Estate Location: New York City Metropolitan Area, United States Profile: https://flows.cv/meena I enjoy the mix of psychology, system analysis, and attention-to-detail that comes with user experience design. I work well in fast-paced and collaborative spaces where user research and design principles are valued alongside technology and business drivers. I am inspired by complex products that consider a range of use cases while simplifying communication barriers at scale. I am always looking for ways to expand my knowledge and grow my skillset. Areas of Expertise: - Collaborative Vision Setting - UX Strategy & Exec Alignment - Stakeholder Journey Mapping - Service Design - Workshop Facilitation - Systems Thinking - Visual & Interaction Design - Prototyping - Strategic Research / Usability Testing - Qual/Quant Analytics for Impact Measurement & Iteration - Design System Foundations, Contribution & Governance Models Tools I've Been Using Lately: - Admin: GSuite - UXR: Dovetail / Usertesting.com - Lo-Fi: Miro / Whimsical - Hi-Fi: Figma - Analytics: Mixpanel ## Work Experience ### Staff Product Designer @ PayPal Jan 2025 – Present | New York, United States ### Staff Product Designer, Payments @ Olo Jan 2023 – Jan 2024 • Strategic design planning for the creation of developer-facing web and mobile SDKs across native iOS, Android, and 5 hybrid frameworks for Apple Pay, Google Pay, and PCI compliant credit card input fields; integrated into 400+ partner checkout sites. • Collaborate with Business, Compliance, Product & Engineering teams to while designing service flows and tooling for secure data collection, due-diligence, underwriting, and risk monitoring signals • Interview designers, researchers, product managers to grow a team at scale; mentor Senior Designers on cross-functional collaboration, business strategy, executive influence, and workshops; for multi-year vision-setting and UX outcome planning ### Senior Product Designer @ Olo Jan 2021 – Jan 2023 • Led Design for Olo’s first direct-to-consumer product that offers a “one-click checkout” and password-less log-in for online ordering and payment; now in use with over 4+ million restaurant guests across 400+ brands • Led Design and Research for 0 to 1 financial reporting and enterprise data sharing products; proven desirability with 2,000+ weekly downloads across 400+ corporations and thousands of franchise owners (SMBs). • Championed research & design thinking for a redesign of the primary IDs used in billions of order records, reports, receipts, search experiences, and device connections across the restaurant ecosystem; led 10+ cross-functional teams to deliver requirements on time. ### Product Designer @ Olo Jan 2020 – Jan 2021 | New York, NY, United States • Spearheaded design and research for Olo’s inaugural payment acceptance product suite; delivering purpose-built pricing tools, onboarding (KYB), fraud, checkout, funding, and analytics services for the restaurant industry; now processing over $1B • Played a key role in the creation of foundational components, patterns, color ramps, type styles, usage docs, and contribution/governance models for the company’s emerging design system; leading to organization-wide adoption (20+ teams) ### Digital Experience Specialist, Mobile Banking @ SchoolsFirst Federal Credit Union Jan 2018 – Jan 2020 | Orange County, California Area • Identified product gaps and present briefs to digital experience committee; created UX design artifacts including user flows, product maps, wireframes, and hi-fidelity prototypes • Collaborated with product and engineering from project brainstorming to delivery; identify edge-cases, document path logic, and ship products for web, iOS, and Android • Facilitated in-person user research sessions, organize remote prototype usability testing, translate findings, and presented insights to other designers and leadership team in order to iterate on design solutions ahead of agile sprint development • Built shared Sketch style guide to centralize and standardize common interaction patterns for fellow in-house designers, developers, and 3rd party vendors; introduced the value of design systems for a consistent experience across all platforms • Appointed as product owner of the public website; key stakeholder for holistic digital experience including design vision, content development, and information architecture • Developed a UX advocacy campaign and presented in 19 roadshows to share the Digital Experience strategy; Aimed to inspire and engage all 2,000 teammembers in the upcoming design transformation of the online banking website and native mobile app • Designed and developed an employee-facing microsite to share UX/UI best practices and education resources, the Digital Experience team’s design process, user research insights, and to recruit for a Teammember Research Panel • Hosted pop-up “Innovation Lab” events to connect directly with employees and customers to identify pain points and opportunities for product and design • Worked closely with data analytics team to understand behavior of Members with low mobile app usage and improve their experience with better features and messaging ### Senior Marketing & Design Associate @ Green Street Advisors Jan 2016 – Jan 2018 | Newport Beach, California • Project lead and UX advocate for cross-functional team of engineers, designers, and content strategists on a responsive website redesign; Manage and communicate tight deadline and budget while accounting for rapidly-evolving product roadmap • Design product landing pages, build web page and email templates using CMS platforms and update website content using HTML, CSS, and Photoshop for graphics • Create style guides, company presentations, training materials, digital product wireframes and mockups, and event invites with an eye for typography and composition • Build integrated campaigns as lead marketing designer on 10+ product launches; create customer journey maps and track engagement metrics for future product direction • Strategize on webinar series content, workflow, and delivery with a growth mindset; increase reach 8x in inaugural year • Conduct A/B tests and design research experiments to improve monthly click- through rates for digital content by 42% ### Marketing Associate @ Green Street Advisors Jan 2013 – Jan 2016 | Newport Beach, California ### Market Research Analyst Intern @ RaceTrac Jan 2013 – Jan 2013 | Greater Atlanta Area As a Market Research Analyst at RaceTrac, I conducted field research by gathering valuable feedback from guests and store associates across multiple retail locations in Atlanta through in-person surveys and observational studies. I leveraged vendor and syndicated data to analyze industry trends and competitive benchmarks for menu options and promotions. Collaborating with my team, I helped develop a comprehensive business plan and prepared a presentation for senior management, showcasing our insights and recommendations for future retail products and promotional campaigns. This hands-on experience deepened my understanding of user-centered strategic planning in a quickly evolving retail environment. ## Education ### Certificate in UX/UI Design in Web Page, Digital/Multimedia and Information Resources Design University of California, Irvine Division of Continuing Education Jan 2017 – Jan 2018 ### Business Administration in Marketing Georgia Tech Scheller College of Business ## Contact & Social - LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/meensba --- Source: https://flows.cv/meena JSON Resume: https://flows.cv/meena/resume.json Last updated: 2026-03-30