# Michael Mahmood > Design Leader @IBM WatsonX Data Intelligence | Leading Enterprise GenAI & Agentic Systems | Ex — Intuit, LinkedIn, SoundHound Location: San Jose, California, United States Profile: https://flows.cv/michaelmahmood Product design leader with 25+ years of hands-on experience across consumer, B2B, and enterprise. As a skilled design strategist with a proven track record, I've designed innovative products and led high-performing teams in launching successful products for IBM Watsonx, Intuit QuickBooks, and LinkedIn. I've also held Head of Design roles at startups including SoundHound, Gyft, and Propy—establishing cross-functional teams, processes, and fostering a proactive, forward-leaning, and empathetic design culture. Currently leading design strategy for IBM WatsonX Data Intelligence and managing a highly talented design team to create enterprise AI experiences that transform how businesses leverage artificial intelligence. My teams and I have shipped award-winning products including Manta Data Lineage and Relationship Explorer—earning IBM's Outstanding Technical Achievement Award for design excellence. I have deep expertise in the foundations of design, having started my career as an Art Director and studied Design and HCI at Parsons School of Design. Over the decades, I've refined my process and craft to evolve with cutting-edge AI-driven methods, agents, and tools—from prototyping in IDEs to using GenAI for branding, motion, and sound design. As a design leader, I understand how to build trust and nurture talent from intern to senior principal designer. I've successfully scaled design teams during hypergrowth periods, operationalized human-centered design principles across organizations, established cross-platform design systems, and created frameworks to effectively integrate products, services, and people from mergers and acquisitions. I'm passionate about the future of design and continuously exploring the intersection of human creativity and AI capabilities. Always pushing the boundaries of what's possible in the age of AI. ## Work Experience ### Design Strategist & Principal Manager @ IBM Jan 2023 – Present | San Jose, California, United States Leading design strategy and managing a team of designers building enterprise AI experiences for IBM WatsonX Data Intelligence. Driving the discovery and intelligence layer of data governance, spanning Search, Catalog, Data Lineage, Relationship Explorer, Workflows, and Data Product Hub—enabling enterprises to extract critical business insights through AI-driven experiences. Key Accomplishments: * Architected and led the integration of Manta Data Lineage post-acquisition, unifying disparate products, technology stacks, and teams into a cohesive experience—establishing the enterprise-wide playbook now standard across IBM for M&A integrations * Shipped award-winning products including Manta Data Lineage and Relationship Explorer, earning IBM's Outstanding Technical Achievement Award for design excellence * Pioneered GenAI and agentic UX initiatives across WatsonX platform, including conversational interfaces, canvas AI, and product-led growth strategies * Contributing hands-on to R&D initiatives in GraphRAG, semantic search, and canvas-based agentic AI frameworks—with multiple patent-worthy contributions * Established cross-functional design processes that transformed how product, engineering, and design teams collaborate in the AI paradigm shift Expertise: Generative AI · Agentic UX · Enterprise Systems · Conversational AI · Design Operations · Team Leadership ### Design Strategist @ IBM Jan 2022 – Present ### Senior Product Designer @ IBM Jan 2021 – Jan 2022 ### Director of Product Design @ SoundHound Inc. Jan 2019 – Jan 2020 | Santa Clara, California, United States Led a team of seven designers and researchers in developing AI-powered voice and conversational experiences for the Houndify Voice/AI platform. Directed product design for SoundHound's B2C portfolio, including the music discovery app with proprietary music recognition AI and Hound, an advanced voice-powered assistant. Partnered with VP of Product and PM teams to deliver AI/ML-driven voice UI solutions for Fortune 500 clients including Daimler-Mercedes, Hyundai, MasterCard, Vizio, and Sonic. Provided strategic VUI analysis, design recommendations, and implementation guidance to help these partners integrate conversational AI across automotive systems, IoT devices, payment platforms, and connected home products. Transformed team operations by establishing scalable design processes, implementing collaborative tools, and creating a comprehensive design system that ensured consistency across platforms while accelerating design-to-development handoffs. Built cross-functional partnerships that positioned design as a strategic voice in product development and client engagements. ### Head of Design @ Reinvently Jan 2016 – Jan 2019 | Palo Alto, CA Managed the user experience design team at Reinvently, a mobile design and development agency based out of Palo Alto. I'm also the lead UX/UI Product Designer who contributes by being the main point of contact with clients to better understand their business objectives, target users, and product opportunities. ### Head of User Experience @ Propy Inc. Jan 2018 – Jan 2019 | Palo Alto, CA Head of User Experience at Propy, a real estate start-up focused on blockchain technology and property transaction management for brokers and agents using cryptocurrencies. Managed and led a team of 10 product designers, content strategists, consultants, and the marketing design team to define and establish the Propy brand and re-imagine the Propy transaction platform. Gained a deep sense of knowledge for blockchain technology and learned a great deal about Ethereum smart contracts, transaction management, and real estate in general. During my time, I coached and mentored the team while also contributing as a hands-on lead designer across all platforms. Worked closely with the founding team, CTO, product leads, and the dev leads to help set the vision, define the product roadmap, and execute on rapid design deliverables. I also worked extensively on establishing a design system and a style guide for all of Propy’s products and services. I also led the branding strategy and user persona research by working closely with the marketing team and content strategists. ### Principle Design Strategist @ Intuit Jan 2016 – Jan 2018 | Mountain View Led a team of product designers, researchers, and content writers on redesigning the QuickBooks Dashboard, which is the homepage accessed by millions of small businesses across the world daily. Our interdisciplinary team worked with five other groups over four months and contributed to a successful launch, which dramatically improved the quality of the dashboard for our customers. The redesign provided significant lift across all key metrics and become the single most substantial increase in new user and revenue growth in QuickBooks 30+ year history. Led a cross-functional team working on the end to end experience of Product-Based Businesses for QuickBooks enterprise customers. Developed best-practices across the organization for B2B custom integrations between QuickBooks and 3rd party vendors with complex systems and challenging technical constraints. Spent time on the central design system teams heavily involved with defining guidelines and design principles with a group of visual designers to help establish a design system across the Intuit product ecosystem. ### Head of User Experience @ Gyft Jan 2014 – Jan 2016 | Redwood City, CA Worked as the Head of UX at Gyft, a mobile e-gift card platform acquired by First Data. The Gyft card ecosystem spans across B2C and B2B with multiple offerings across each sector. Lead and managed a team of UX/UI designers, and reported directly to the CEO and CTO to align and coordinate business objectives with user experience strategies. Worked closely with Product, Head of Engineering, and the VP of Marketing to evolve and continuously improve our Agile process to help foster innovation and coordinate a seamless pipeline of projects across multiple products, platforms, and channels. I also helped nurture a design culture to improve our process and elevate user-centric principles. ### Senior Lead Designer/Manager @ LinkedIn Jan 2013 – Jan 2014 Worked as the Senior Design Lead on LinkedIn's Subscription & Payment teams. The role consisted of leading and managing a group of 5 designers to improve and optimize the user experience for LinkedIn Premium members on both desktop and mobile platforms. Led the redesign for the payment flows across all of LinkedIn products and services. I also worked closely with researchers and customer teams to identify weaknesses across the UX funnel and collaborated with PMs to improve metrics and exceed business needs. Our team was responsible for driving growth and engagement with Linkedin Premium members. ### Principal Visual Designer @ Intuit Jan 2012 – Jan 2013 | Mountain View, CA Worked as the lead Staff Visual Designer in the Design Innovation Group at Intuit for two years, then transferred over to the Payments Division as the lead Principal Visual Designer for GoPayment. The role consists of creating the art direction and visual language for GoPayment while mentoring and guiding a team of designers to create an end to end user experience that effectively communicates a brand, voice, and emotions through the user interface. Created several cross platform visual design patterns and frameworks that were adopted as part of Intuit best practices and won several internal awards for innovation and impact. ### Staff Visual Designer @ Intuit Jan 2010 – Jan 2012 | Mountain View, CA Worked as the lead Staff Visual Designer in the Design Innovation Group at Intuit. DIG is the central user experience team which executes high profile projects, for a wide array of company focused initiatives which impact all of Intuit. The majority of the work consisted of designing unique and delightful mobile user experiences which engage users and effectively delivers business results. Collaborated with cross-functional teams and led the design effort for QuickBooks Desktop, and re-imagined a 30-year-old product for both touch and mobile. ### Senior Art Director @ Wiredrive Jan 2009 – Jan 2010 | Marina del Rey, CA Worked as a Senior Art Director at Wiredrive in Los Angeles. Wiredrive is an online media sharing site for uploading, managing, and presenting digital files. The company mainly caters to video production houses, special effects studios, and interactive ad agencies. The position consisted of leading the marketing team, designing UI for web applications, and creating collateral used for promotions, tradeshows, and the company website. The role also comprised of designing custom branded user interfaces for numerous Wiredrive clients. ### Art Director @ LJG Partners, Inc. Jan 2007 – Jan 2009 | San Diego, CA Worked as an Art Director at LJG Partners in San Diego. The full service ad agency serves the greater southern California region, specializing in web design and development for the real estate and service industries. The role consisted of leading the direction for creating visual experiences through interactive web and new media projects from concept to completion. A key component of the position includes reviewing the initial creative briefs and developing ideas with support from the creative director and upper management team. ### Lead Senior Designer @ Nik Software Jan 2004 – Jan 2006 | San Diego, CA Worked as the Senior Designer at Nik Software, Inc. developers of award-winning plug-ins for Adobe Photoshop. Responsibilities included managing multiple projects, coordinating a team of designers, and leading the art direction for both the UI and the corporate branding strategy. Designed marketing materials and web content for Nikon Capture NX, U Point Technology, and the entire Nik Software product line. Coordinated with a team and developed the graphical user interface for the next generation of Nik Software products. Led numerous projects from start to finish in all phases of user interface, packaging, print, web, video, and trade show media. ### Lead Graphic Designer @ Haband Jan 1998 – Jan 2000 | Oakland, NJ Worked on a team of designers creating ads for Haband Company, Inc. one of the largest privately held mail order companies in the US. and distributors of men's and women's apparel. Coordinated and produced multiple layouts of advertising collateral and direct mail material. ## Education ### Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) in Design & Technology Parsons School of Design - The New School Jan 2000 – Jan 2004 ## Contact & Social - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/uxdesignpro - Website: http://www.michaelmahmood.com --- Source: https://flows.cv/michaelmahmood JSON Resume: https://flows.cv/michaelmahmood/resume.json Last updated: 2026-04-07