# Ramona Sharples > Designing tools to help everyone work with data Location: San Francisco, California, United States Profile: https://flows.cv/ramonasharples I want to help define the future of computing with my deep technical expertise, user focus, passion for novel design problems, and startup mentality. I’ve spent the past ten years working on technical products for developers, data analysts, and data center administrators. My computer science background helped me tackle complex design problems in these domains, and as a result I’ve gained deep expertise about the infrastructure powering our digital lives. Experimentation and feedback is at the center of my design process. I believe that the best design work comes from rigorously exploring a problem space, testing ideas in the real world, learning how they fit into users’ daily lives, and incorporating that knowledge into future iterations. Underlying all of my work is a drive to push the boundaries of interface design. I’ve built live code prototypes of novel interfaces for monitoring and maintaining virtual datacenter infrastructure, published internal research papers, and given talks about them. For the past six years I’ve worked at small, fast-paced companies, shipping complex, highly polished features in small increments, while testing and iterating in tight feedback loops with users in our research programs. In my free time, I design and build experimental new tools for making music and video art. For the past couple of years I’ve been taking night classes in electronics, and I taught myself CAD modeling and PCB design to help me bring my ideas to life. ## Work Experience ### Staff Product Designer – Agentic Analytics @ Hex Jan 2024 – Present | San Francisco Bay Area Designing agentic analytics tools to make everyone a data person ### Senior Product Designer @ Observable Jan 2022 – Jan 2024 | San Francisco Bay Area Designing collaborative programming tools to help analysts and developers build and deploy interactive dashboards and data visualizations ### Product Designer @ Observable Jan 2020 – Jan 2022 | San Francisco Bay Area ### Senior Lead UX Designer @ MuleSoft Jan 2018 – Jan 2020 | San Francisco Bay Area Design lead making data integration tools useful for everyone! Won the "Innovator award" at our company's annual internal meetup conference. ### User Experience Lead @ VMware Jan 2017 – Jan 2018 | Palo Alto Design Lead working on some exciting new things for the vSphere Web Client ### User Experience Prototyper @ VMware Jan 2014 – Jan 2017 | Palo Alto, CA Designing and prototyping in the User Experience department at VMware ### User Experience Interaction Design Intern @ VMware Jan 2013 – Jan 2013 | Palo Alto The focus of my internship was breaking ground on a new, internal project focused on accessible data analysis and visualization. I conducted user interviews and used that information to guide the visual design and implementation of a prototype, intended to show off the interaction model and proposed technologies for development. The project was presented and demonstrated at the company-wide 2013 Intern Poster Session, where it was voted 2nd place. ### Visual Engineering Intern @ DJTechTools Jan 2012 – Jan 2012 Worked with chief engineer to redesign and add features to a configuration utility for the Midi Fighter. The project required extensive use of Qt, C++, and JavaScript in addition to an understanding of the MIDI protocol and methods for writing firmware. Also worked with the CEO, and chief web developer to create a series of full-page site mock ups for a potential redesign of the site in addition to producing a number of hand drawn art assets for various purposes. Outside the scope of the internship, I've been active on the MIDI mapping section of the site, where several of my custom mappings have gained notoriety. ## Education ### Certificate in Basic Electronics in Electrical and Electronics Engineering City College of San Francisco ### Bachelor of Engineering (B.E.) in Digital Media Design University of Pennsylvania ### Computer Science University College London, U. of London ## Contact & Social - LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/ramonaisonline - Portfolio: https://ramona.diy --- Source: https://flows.cv/ramonasharples JSON Resume: https://flows.cv/ramonasharples/resume.json Last updated: 2026-04-13