# Sam Cusano Jr. > Senior Product Designer | AI workflows and design systems for B2B SaaS and B2C marketplaces | Drove 80% adoption, 75% conversion, 4× faster workflows Location: San Francisco Bay Area, United States Profile: https://flows.cv/samcusanojr I measure design in dollars. That's my hot take and I'm standing by it. I'm a product designer who loves to work across B2B SaaS pipelines, complex B2C flows, and AI workflows that didn't exist two years ago. I get excited when design actually moves the needle on adoption, revenue, and how fast a team can ship. I work best when I'm close to the problem; partnering with product, engineering, and leadership from strategy all the way to the final pixel. Player-coach is the best way to describe it: I'll give design direction and stay hands-on, because I think the best design leaders never fully leave the craft. Money stuff: • Saved $5MM: Solved a market segment crisis affecting 20% of ARR at Apartment List—cut support tickets 40%, enabled 8% upsell • Made $800K+: Launched products that generated $300K ARR in 30 days (Leafsight) and $500K quarterly (Preqin) • Grew ARR 10%: Through consistent product improvements that actually moved the needle Efficiency wins: • Made proposals 4× faster to create, boosting sales velocity (Leafsight) • Cut a 7-day research process down to 30 minutes (Preqin) • Built AI workflows that made teams 75% more efficient (Preqin) • Created design systems that save engineers 6+ hours per launch ## Work Experience ### Senior Product Designer @ Self-Employed Jan 2019 – Present | Remote I support companies and teams to transform complex challenges into simple user experiences. Bringing a unique blend of product strategy and execution bridging the gap between business goals, user needs, and technical realities. Current projects: • Built explainable AI interfaces that reduced support tickets by 20%, improving operational efficiency for care providers and customer teams. • Led a redesign that boosted content engagement 50% and reduced churn 40% by building adaptive personalization logic across the user lifecycle. • Built a guided matching flow that reduced time-to-first-connection from 12 days to 4 days, improving funnel velocity and activation. • Prototyped conversational checkout flows using AI intent detection, reducing cart abandonment by 18% and streamlining purchase friction. ### Senior Product Designer @ Apartment List Jan 2021 – Jan 2024 Rental marketplace | B2B/B2C Marketplace | 100K+ DAU | Medium design maturity At Apartment List, I led the transformation of our ad platform and design systems for both SMBs/Enterprises and consumers. By launching AI-powered B2B flows and mentoring cross-functional teams, I helped fuel 80% marketplace adoption, 75% enterprise lead conversion, a 45% increase in inventory, and a 10% jump in recurring revenue, all while streamlining developer handoff to return 6+ hours per release. Project highlights include: • Increased inventory by 45% and SMB adoption by 80% by defining the product vision and leading end-to-end design for a self-service SaaS ad-tech platform; aligned with product, engineering, and sales to drive GTM priorities. • Drove 75% lead conversion for 70% of enterprise partners by designing an AI-powered B2B lead generation platform, directly accelerating revenue. • Boosted B2C monetization conversion by 10% through featured deals, dynamic pricing, and cross-sell experiments that's validated through iterative testing in partnership with finance. • Reduced developer hand-off time by 6+ hours per project by building a modern token-based design system and embedding workflows into CI/CD pipelines. • Mentored 2 designers through structured growth plans, improving team velocity and quality through design critiques and async feedback systems. • Partnered with Sales, GTM, Customer Experience and Product teams to embed usability insights into roadmap prioritization, ensuring design improvements directly addressed top CX pain points. ### Senior Product Designer @ Preqin Jan 2020 – Jan 2021 | New York City Metropolitan Area Private market data platform | B2B SaaS | 500K+ DAU | Medium design maturity Guided Preqin through a major UX overhaul across six new financial tools, increasing top‑line revenue by 20%, lifting ARR by 10%, and improving operational efficiency by 15% as teams became more self‑sufficient and outcome‑focused. • Led product design for core investor and fund‑manager workflows in a complex B2B data platform, redesigning multi‑step flows to improve data discoverability and cut time‑to‑insight for power users by 30%. • Designed and tested new activation and onboarding experiences that clarified product value for first‑time users, increasing key activation events by 40% and improving early‑life retention by 15%. • Drove a 10% increase in annual recurring revenue (ARR) by launching six financial management features (risk forecast/prediction, custom benchmark, compliance tool, news aggregation, pricing, and task management) that improved portfolio transparency and reduced churn in key customer segments. • Influenced pricing strategy through generative and evaluative research with investors and fund managers, contributing to a 15% revenue uplift by aligning packaging and UX with GTM and executive stakeholders via design‑led workshops and experimentation. • Mentored 3 product designers by creating individual growth plans, running weekly critique rituals, and introducing feedback systems that improved design quality and delivery predictability across the team. ### Senior Product Designer @ Emissary.io Jan 2017 – Jan 2019 | New York City Metropolitan Area Sales intelligence marketplace | B2B SaaS | 10K+ DAU | Low design maturity Joined a rapidly scaling B2B SaaS startup and championed our first org-wide design system. My design of onboarding and CRM features increased workflow adoption by 5%, unlocked a 30% jump in team efficiency, and delivered 20% faster product iterations while coaching CSMs into influential product roles. Project highlights include: • Increased user adoption by 5% through the design of key B2B flows including onboarding, CRM integration, and discovery, collaborating closely with product and engineering teams. • Boosted team efficiency by 30% across organization by designing four tools to streamline user operations, feedback loops, and account insights. • Improved design velocity and consistency by 20% by founding Emissary’s first design system and establishing scalable UX foundations in a low-maturity environment. • Influenced product direction through direct storytelling in roadmap sessions with Customer Success and Sales teams, embedding customer insights early in the process. • Mentored 3 CSMs transitioning to product management by teaching product thinking, UX validation, and aligning customer needs with business goals. ### Product Designer @ Etsy Jan 2012 – Jan 2017 | Brooklyn, NY E-commerce | B2C & B2B2C Marketplace | 90M+ DAU | High design maturity Drove conversion and operational speed by launching campaign and growth features used across the platform. Co-built Etsy’s multi-brand design system, slashed development time by 80%, improved marketing ops by 40%, and advanced accessibility and inclusion as a core design value. Project highlights includes: • Increased conversion by 10% through the launch of 5+ B2C growth features (gift cards, curated shopping, personalization moments), collaborating closely with merchandisers and data scientists. • Boosted marketing operations efficiency by 40% by designing tools that streamlined campaign and promotion management, reducing time-to-launch. • Cut dev time by 80% through co-creating a platform-agnostic, multi-brand design system, ensuring scalability and internal platforms in partnership with engineering leads and design leadership. • Enhanced campaign engagement by 10% by designing high-performing marketing assets (email, microsites), blending storytelling with visual craft. • Reduced tech debt by 5% through foundational updates across web and mobile systems, collaborating with front-end engineers and tech leads. • Aligned cross-functional teams by leading customer journey mapping workshops and insight-driven roadmap rituals. • Led inclusive design efforts by conducting workshops and audits, embedding accessibility principles throughout the product lifecycle. ### Graphic Designer @ WorkersCompensation.com Jan 2008 – Jan 2012 • Designed and developed customer-aligned corporate websites, increasing web traffic 120% and conversion 2%. • Produced marketing communication materials, reaching vast network of over 100 targeted high-growth companies. • Published and managed news content, increasing subscriber base by 10K. • Established and maintained website in social media network on Twitter and LinkedIn through management of new followers and lists, increasing followers over 250%. • Managed conference swag with multiple external vendors and led all swag quoting, production and approval for events, increasing sales leads 2%. ### Freelance Graphic Designer @ Self Jan 2008 – Jan 2011 • Devised and designed several email campaigns and websites for Jesselli Couture, and other advertising clients for CABO Networks. • Designed and collaborated with developer of Facebook game, Xena. • Developed mobile applications for Songbird, Tekton, and WorkCompResearch. • Successfully secure bids from developers while tracking projects through all stages. • Manage schedule and relationships with outside developers and external agencies. • Created and coded web advertisements for clients generating in significant numbers of sales leads • Constructed 20 advertising microsites to maximize sales conversions. ### Color Profile Manager @ Rochester Institute of Technology Jan 2007 – Jan 2007 • Developed a color profile for digital and print reproduction of antique manuscripts using EyeOne. • Embedded the color profile in scanned graphics using Adobe Photoshop CS 2. • Created graphics of scanned images for both web and print using Adobe Photoshop CS 2. • Scanned antique pages of medieval manuscripts using SilverFast software. ### Project Manager @ Rochester Institute of Technology Jan 2006 – Jan 2007 • Managed six separate projects with a thirty-member team. • Goals were established and deliverables were met on a daily basis utilizing comprehensive Gantt chart. ### Production Coordinator @ Target, Inc. Jan 2006 – Jan 2006 • Designed and produced user-friendly web pages for the department on the internal website. • Produced presentations and training guides for retail teams, Executive Vice President of Stores, Senior Vice President of Marketing, and Senior Vice President of Communications. • Developed accessibility guidelines for online and in-store video production. • Coordinated and managed scripts between Target’s Corporate Officers and speechwriters. • Responsible for documentation and visuals of digital assets for the Marketing Planning department. ## Education ### Bachelor's of Science in New Media Publishing Rochester Institute of Technology ## Contact & Social - LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/samcusanojr - Portfolio: https://calendly.com/scusano - Portfolio: https://samcusano.com --- Source: https://flows.cv/samcusanojr JSON Resume: https://flows.cv/samcusanojr/resume.json Last updated: 2026-04-13