Cullen Stephenson

As a product designer, I'm a generalist with broad experience focused on enterprise tools & problems. I've worked on innovation teams, startups as the first designer, and large corporate teams with defined components, patterns, and roles. I've led research and designed new products from start to finish, re-vamped design systems, and overhauled complex legacy products. I love finding the balance between systems, people, and production.

My career spans multiple disciplines and markets. I've taught animation, hand-coded websites, and had photography and Illustrations featured in the NY Times, Esquire, and other fashion publications. This combination of experiences, along with a passion for learning, allows me to engage with complex problems across domains.

My background as an educator makes it very natural for me to lead people through creative exercises. I've taught middle school kids, college students, professionals, and retired folks learning more. It's exciting to lead a collaborative environment and help people grow.

I’m also the happy father of a curious 5-year-old. On the weekends we swim, garden, draw, and ask many questions.

As a product designer, I've worked in enterprise teams, innovation teams, and as a UX team of one. I've helped research and design new products from start to finish, re-vamped design systems, and overhauled complex legacy products. From high-level views down to the details, I love finding the balance between systems, people, and production.

Cullen-Circle-Frame-purple-1

Professional Experience

Sr. Product Designer — Form MarketX Product, Remote,  2021 – present

As a UX team of one, I research, design, and test product solutions for our admin platform, native mobile apps, and image recognition products. I actively shape & conduct discovery phases, design user-centered solutions, prototype & test, and work closely with engineering. Form is a market execution and survey platform with best-in-class image recognition to tag and classify products on shelf.

Product Designer — Internal Tools, Rally Health (UNH), Chicago IL, 2019-2021

As part of United Healthcare, I designed administrative tools & workflow enhancements for an enterprise healthcare solution used by fortune 50 clients and their employees. Recipient of a Rally “Rockstar” award for exemplary work in 2020

Product Designer — Panopta (acquired by Fortinet), Chicago, IL 2018-2019

Design lead for a B2B DevOps infrastructure monitoring and alerting platform. Designing new products, enterprise features, & legacy re-design.

UX Designer — Product Design and Research, SurveyGizmo, Seattle, WA, 2016-2018

End-to-end product design, concept, research, wireframes, prototypes, UI, documentation, validation, usability, and production.

Design Instructor — UW School of Art & Design, Seattle, WA 2015-2016

Teaching design, illustration, photography, and animation to students across varying skill levels. Leading critiques, lectures, collaborative workshops, and class discussions.

Visual Designer — CipherCloud, San Jose, CA 2014-2015

Visual and UI design in close collaboration with the UX and Product teams.

Learning by doing

One of the things I love about UX is the can-do attitude about wading into uncharted territory. I taught myself web design because it seemed like an interesting challenge and started re-skinning WordPress templates for fun. Along the way, I learned and taught motion graphics, image editing, and visual design. I even taught myself product photography to work for Ghostly International. These experiences feed into my design work. 

I've learned by building things out of curiosity. I taught myself web design because it seemed like an interesting challenge. Then I started customizing and re-skinning Wordpress templates. Along the way, I also learned and taught motion graphics, image editing, and visual design. I even had a brief stint as a product photographer for Ghostly International.

After marrying a data visualization researcher, computer science became a natural part of my life. Currently, I'm teaching myself programming by building out interactive prototypes in Framer. What I love about UX is how it spans the technical, strategic, and human elements of building a product.

MFA

Print Media
Cranbrook Academy of Art

BFA

Drawing & Painting
University of Kansas

Thanks!

Thanks!