# Sanaea Kakalia

> Senior Interaction Designer @ Google

Location: San Francisco Bay Area, United States
Profile: https://flows.cv/sanaea

Thriving at the intersection of design, technology, and business. Currently designing at Google!

Previous work with:
• VMware, lead designer for a service platform and modern application solutions.
• Apple, leading projects that impact the way technology is used in education
• PayPal, democratizing financial services through a new virtual card experience
• Zappos, creating more personalized shopping experiences.

Design Portfolio: http://sanaeakakalia.com/
Medium: https://medium.com/@sanaeakakalia

## Work Experience
### Senior Interaction Designer @ Google
Jan 2023 – Present
Customer Engagement, Google Ads
‣ Sales & Marketing UX, AI experiences

### Interaction Designer @ Google
Jan 2021 – Jan 2023
Lead Designer in Google Cloud, UFO (Unified Fulfillment Optimization) - delivering capacity efficiently for all of Alphabet

### Product Designer II @ VMware
Jan 2020 – Jan 2021
‣ Lead designer for the first service platform on vSphere (the flagship product), driving VMware’s transformation to SaaS. Partnering closely with cross-functional team, VMware stakeholders, and external partner services. Lead Designer for VM Service & Namespace Service, key incentives for customers to upgrade to a premier license. Leading across the product lifecycle and multiple releases.

‣ Defined our team’s end-to-end design process, including UX, research, strategy, cross-functional workshops, accessibility, documentation, and developer support. Crafting the design vision through End-to-End User Stories at the initiative, feature, and story levels.

‣ Designed and facilitated cross-functional Design Sprints to get usability-driven initiatives put on the Product Management roadmap through stakeholder collaboration, rapid prototyping, user validation, and scoping of the solution. 

‣ Editor-in-chief for VMware Design's Medium Publications →[https://medium.com/vmwaredesign]

‣ Mainstage Executive + Speaker Lead (2021) & Networking Lead (2020) for SHAPE, our internally-hosted Experience conference.
‣ Content Lead for Cracking the Product Design Interview, Infosession by VMware Design.
‣ Women Connecting Women Mentor.

### Product Designer @ VMware
Jan 2019 – Jan 2020 | Palo Alto, California

### Campus Representative @ Apple
Jan 2018 – Jan 2019 | Davis, California
‣ Led campus-wide projects to drive awareness and adoption of Apple technology in Education, including accessibility, coding, and creative initiatives.
‣ Developed and implemented projects with departments to facilitate the integration of Apple software and hardware in classes and around campus.
‣ Marketed Apple products and the integrated ecosystem through engaging workshops and sessions with University faculty, staff, and students based on identified needs and institutional pain points.
‣ Trained, supported, and partnered with the Apple Authorized Campus Store at UC Davis.

### User Experience Design Intern @ PayPal
Jan 2018 – Jan 2018 | San Jose
‣ Spearheaded the discovery, strategy, and user experience for a new digital payment product currently in the works
‣ Defined deliverables and product strategy based on user research and testing
‣ Led 3 usability testing sessions with 11 users to test positioning and functionality of different experiences through prototypes
‣ Developed personas, experience maps, and user flows that pinpoint problems and guide the functionality and purpose of future products

### User Experience Design Intern @ Zappos Family of Companies
Jan 2017 – Jan 2017 | Las Vegas, Nevada Area
‣ Led the creation of a platform for greater personalization on the Zappos mobile
application, leading to an enhanced customer experience on the app and greater conversions for the company
‣ Communicated cross-functionally across mobile iOS and Android development
teams to determine feasibility and functionality of designs
‣ Developed designs around user stories, use cases, and identified constraints
through design sprints, whiteboarding, and user research
‣ A/B tested different experiences, articulated design decisions and reiterated
across platforms


## Education
### Certificate in Leadership Principles
Harvard Business School Online

### B.A. in Design & Computer Science Minor
University of California, Davis

### Human-Computer Interaction for User Experience Design
Massachusetts Institute of Technology


## Contact & Social
- LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/sanaeakakalia
- Portfolio: https://sanaeakakalia.com

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Source: https://flows.cv/sanaea
JSON Resume: https://flows.cv/sanaea/resume.json
Last updated: 2026-04-13