Todd is a Product Designer who translates ambiguous human behavior into scalable design direction.
He is a Colorado based designer open to opportunities. As for his prior experience, Todd has 5 years designing products for B2B, B2C, and Agentic teams.
Todd is open to opportunities related to Product Design, User Experience Design, UI/UX, and Web Design.
Part 1
“What design principles do you follow, and how do they contribute to your team?”
My design principles are tied to actual outcomes, avoiding any assumptions built in the dark.
I’m a believer that truly empathetic design strategy should be guided by user behavior and metrics, then further explored through hypotheses.
Principles and Impact
When presented with new obstacles, I’m able to enthusiastically uncover root issues, present useful frameworks, and validate a design direction with actual facts. My philosophy is to put designs in front of users quickly, then iterate based on real behavior. Outcomes, rather than assumptions. I insist “Shipped is better than perfect”, and as a matter of fact, it’s difficult to improve a product that doesn't exist yet.
If challenged, my argument is always tied to improving the user’s journey. My UX advocacy offers teams a perspective for “What are users saying?" and “Why are they saying it?”. A starting point which identifies where teams can immediately help users. Even if it's imperfect, those outcomes will lead to better iterations.
If you’re seeking a designer who can validate direction, keep stakeholders involved, and confidently articulate complex ideas between cross-functional teams; consider adding me to your Product Design lineup.
Supervisor Feedback:
“Todd is a great designer and has pioneered some strong work around agentic experiences at TrustRadius through market research, user interviews and the Jobs-to-be-done (JTBD) framework. He has solid visual and brand design experience coupled with deep curiosity in AI and the evolution of agentic experiences. Todd is very coachable and adaptable as a designer. I enjoyed working with Todd and recommend him as a great addition to any Product/Design team!”
Chief Product Officer @ TrustRadius.com
Mike Galyan, July 2025
Part 2
“What design principles do you follow, and how do they contribute to your team?”
I offer flexible workflows for stakeholder alignment, sharing evidence, and always advocating the user.
Whenever we hit a fork in the road, offering a perspective that benefits the users is an excellent stance to stay firm on.
My Process
I keep stakeholders involved, we find a metric to improve, align on defining the problem, and consider any constraints we have. First goal might be outlining ways to understand the users and their workflows. Maybe that leads to applying frameworks which explore and test a hypothesis. We’re ultimately aiming to narrow down the first useful thing we can help users with. Maybe deploy that update under a feature flag, and continue iterating from there.
Handling Disagreement
Product Designers are hired to say “No” without being stubborn, confrontational, or dramatic. It’s a point of view that doublechecks if a proposed direction will create new problems for user. My “No” argument will always be tied to relevant facts. I’ll contribute “Our metrics point to this...” or “User feedback says that...”. After all, any stakeholder can respect a disagreement which advocates for the user’s experience.
Part 3
“Can you explain a recent Product Design challenge you’ve faced? How did you approach solving it?”
How I uncovered hidden friction in users tasked with risky, stressful, and complicated decisions.
Designing features that restored eroding user confidence during discovery and evaluation.
The Challenge?
I was the Senior Product and UX Designer at TrustRadius.com. Our product was a free tool that helps users decide on the right software to run their businesses. Our users were a largely anonymous audience who frequently dropped off during their journey. Although we understood the typical user journey, we didn’t understand their reasoning. Best case, “Did they find what they needed?” or worse, “Did they give up?”.
My Actions?
I applied a UX framework called "JTBD" or "Jobs To Be Done" which is used to help uncover customer behavior. I hosted a working session with our cross-team stakeholders, and outlined areas which might be a problem (This would be our hypothesis for where the friction might be). I planned user studies, launched surveys, then interviewed users who were carefully selected from that audience.
How Did Users Respond?
As for the evaluation stage, the pain is around the effort needed to weigh these high risk / high cost options, and stay confident in a decision. Users rely heavily on their peers and demos, but inconsistent details and “promise-the-world” marketing make it hard to separate any real options from noise. When timelines are tight, evaluation friction becomes amplified, and users feel completely exposed to making risky decisions with limited clarity.
I was the Senior Product and UX Designer at TrustRadius.com. Our product was a free tool that helps users decide on the right software to run their businesses. Our users were a largely anonymous audience who frequently dropped off during their journey. Although we understood the typical user journey, we didn’t understand their reasoning. Best case, “Did they find what they needed?” or worse, “Did they give up?”.
The Impact?
I led the design of a global filtering sidebar and an AI assistant tool which scored product fit based on the user's decisioning criteria. Our simplified journey and AI assistant features sparked interest with a larger startup. The product was acquired, but early feedback showed improved traffic by 4 million monthly visitors and less drop off during the user's journey. This is currently one of their most popular product features and it continues to grow under new ownership.
Todd is a Product Designer who translates ambiguous human behavior into scalable design direction.
He is a Colorado based designer open to opportunities. As for his prior experience, Todd has 5 years designing products for B2B, B2C, and Agentic teams.
Todd is open to opportunities related to Product Design, User Experience Design, UI/UX, and Web Design.
Part 1
“What design principles do you follow, and how do they contribute to your team?”
My design principles are tied to actual outcomes, avoiding any assumptions built in the dark.
I’m a believer that truly empathetic design strategy should be guided by user behavior and metrics, then further explored through hypotheses.
Principles and Impact
When presented with new obstacles, I’m able to enthusiastically uncover root issues, present useful frameworks, and validate a design direction with actual facts. My philosophy is to put designs in front of users quickly, then iterate based on real behavior. Outcomes, rather than assumptions. I insist “Shipped is better than perfect”, and as a matter of fact, it’s difficult to improve a product that doesn't exist yet.
If challenged, my argument is always tied to improving the user’s journey. My UX advocacy offers teams a perspective for “What are users saying?" and “Why are they saying it?”. A starting point which identifies where teams can immediately help users. Even if it's imperfect, those outcomes will lead to better iterations.
If you’re seeking a designer who can validate direction, keep stakeholders involved, and confidently articulate complex ideas between cross-functional teams; consider adding me to your Product Design lineup.
Supervisor Feedback:
“Todd is a great designer and has pioneered some strong work around agentic experiences at TrustRadius through market research, user interviews and the Jobs-to-be-done (JTBD) framework. He has solid visual and brand design experience coupled with deep curiosity in AI and the evolution of agentic experiences. Todd is very coachable and adaptable as a designer. I enjoyed working with Todd and recommend him as a great addition to any Product/Design team!”
Chief Product Officer @ TrustRadius.com
Mike Galyan, July 2025
Part 2
“What design principles do you follow, and how do they contribute to your team?”
I offer flexible workflows for stakeholder alignment, sharing evidence, and always advocating the user.
Whenever we hit a fork in the road, offering a perspective that benefits the users is an excellent stance to stay firm on.
My Process
I keep stakeholders involved, we find a metric to improve, align on defining the problem, and consider any constraints we have. First goal might be outlining ways to understand the users and their workflows. Maybe that leads to applying frameworks which explore and test a hypothesis. We’re ultimately aiming to narrow down the first useful thing we can help users with. Maybe deploy that update under a feature flag, and continue iterating from there.
Handling Disagreement
Product Designers are hired to say “No” without being stubborn, confrontational, or dramatic. It’s a point of view that doublechecks if a proposed direction will create new problems for user. My “No” argument will always be tied to relevant facts. I’ll contribute “Our metrics point to this...” or “User feedback says that...”. After all, any stakeholder can respect a disagreement which advocates for the user’s experience.
Part 3
“Can you explain a recent Product Design challenge you’ve faced? How did you approach solving it?”
How I uncovered hidden friction in users tasked with risky, stressful, and complicated decisions.
Designing features that restored eroding user confidence during discovery and evaluation.
The Challenge?
I was the Senior Product and UX Designer at TrustRadius.com. Our product was a free tool that helps users decide on the right software to run their businesses. Our users were a largely anonymous audience who frequently dropped off during their journey. Although we understood the typical user journey, we didn’t understand their reasoning. Best case, “Did they find what they needed?” or worse, “Did they give up?”.
My Actions?
I applied a UX framework called "JTBD" or "Jobs To Be Done" which is used to help uncover customer behavior. I hosted a working session with our cross-team stakeholders, and outlined areas which might be a problem (This would be our hypothesis for where the friction might be). I planned user studies, launched surveys, then interviewed users who were carefully selected from that audience.
How Did Users Respond?
My study revealed that our users typically struggled during the “discovery” and “evaluation” phases of their journey. First off, identifying and understanding the actual problem takes more effort than expected. The discovery work is mostly self-driven, and triggered by a moment of urgency. Users rely on what they trust, they piece together information from peers, past experience, and validate everything with online research. Turns out, there’s not a lot of structured guidance early on. Users sometimes feel unsure whether they’re even looking in the right place. Ultimately slowing their momentum and confidence. Sounds like a solid drop-off signal here.
As for the evaluation stage, the pain is around the effort needed to weigh these high risk / high cost options, and stay confident in a decision. Users rely heavily on their peers and demos, but inconsistent details and “promise-the-world” marketing make it hard to separate any real options from noise. When timelines are tight, evaluation friction becomes amplified, and users feel completely exposed to making risky decisions with limited clarity.
The Impact?
I led the design of a global filtering sidebar and an AI assistant tool which scored product fit based on the user's decisioning criteria. Our simplified journey and AI assistant features sparked interest with a larger startup. The product was acquired, but early feedback showed improved traffic by 4 million monthly visitors and less drop off during the user's journey. This is currently one of their most popular product features and it continues to grow under new ownership.
Todd is a Product Designer who translates ambiguous human behavior into scalable design direction.
He is a Colorado based designer open to opportunities. As for his prior experience, Todd has 5 years designing products for B2B, B2C, and Agentic teams.
Todd is open to opportunities related to Product Design, User Experience Design, UI/UX, and Web Design.
Part 1
“What design principles do you follow, and how do they contribute to your team?”
My design principles are tied to actual outcomes, avoiding any assumptions built in the dark.
I’m a believer that truly empathetic design strategy should be guided by user behavior and metrics, then further explored through hypotheses.
Principles and Impact
When presented with new obstacles, I’m able to enthusiastically uncover root issues, present useful frameworks, and validate a design direction with actual facts. My philosophy is to put designs in front of users quickly, then iterate based on real behavior. Outcomes, rather than assumptions. I insist “Shipped is better than perfect”, and as a matter of fact, it’s difficult to improve a product that doesn't exist yet.
If challenged, my argument is always tied to improving the user’s journey. My UX advocacy offers teams a perspective for “What are users saying?" and “Why are they saying it?”. A starting point which identifies where teams can immediately help users. Even if it's imperfect, those outcomes will lead to better iterations.
If you’re seeking a designer who can validate direction, keep stakeholders involved, and confidently articulate complex ideas between cross-functional teams; consider adding me to your Product Design lineup.
Supervisor Feedback:
“Todd is a great designer and has pioneered some strong work around agentic experiences at TrustRadius through market research, user interviews and the Jobs-to-be-done (JTBD) framework. He has solid visual and brand design experience coupled with deep curiosity in AI and the evolution of agentic experiences. Todd is very coachable and adaptable as a designer. I enjoyed working with Todd and recommend him as a great addition to any Product/Design team!”
Chief Product Officer @ TrustRadius.com
Mike Galyan, July 2025
Part 2
“What design principles do you follow, and how do they contribute to your team?”
I offer flexible workflows for stakeholder alignment, sharing evidence, and always advocating the user.
Whenever we hit a fork in the road, offering a perspective that benefits the users is an excellent stance to stay firm on.
My Process
I keep stakeholders involved, we find a metric to improve, align on defining the problem, and consider any constraints we have. First goal might be outlining ways to understand the users and their workflows. Maybe that leads to applying frameworks which explore and test a hypothesis. We’re ultimately aiming to narrow down the first useful thing we can help users with. Maybe deploy that update under a feature flag, and continue iterating from there.
Handling Disagreement
Product Designers are hired to say “No” without being stubborn, confrontational, or dramatic. It’s a point of view that doublechecks if a proposed direction will create new problems for user. My “No” argument will always be tied to relevant facts. I’ll contribute “Our metrics point to this...” or “User feedback says that...”. After all, any stakeholder can respect a disagreement which advocates for the user’s experience.
Part 3
“Can you explain a recent Product Design challenge you’ve faced? How did you approach solving it?”
How I uncovered hidden friction in users tasked with risky, stressful, and complicated decisions.
Designing features that restored eroding user confidence during discovery and evaluation.
The Challenge?
I was the Senior Product and UX Designer at TrustRadius.com. Our product was a free tool that helps users decide on the right software to run their businesses. Our users were a largely anonymous audience who frequently dropped off during their journey. Although we understood the typical user journey, we didn’t understand their reasoning. Best case, “Did they find what they needed?” or worse, “Did they give up?”.
My Actions?
I applied a UX framework called "JTBD" or "Jobs To Be Done" which is used to help uncover customer behavior. I hosted a working session with our cross-team stakeholders, and outlined areas which might be a problem (This would be our hypothesis for where the friction might be). I planned user studies, launched surveys, then interviewed users who were carefully selected from that audience.
How Did Users Respond?
My study revealed that our users typically struggled during the “discovery” and “evaluation” phases of their journey. First off, identifying and understanding the actual problem takes more effort than expected. The discovery work is mostly self-driven, and triggered by a moment of urgency. Users rely on what they trust, they piece together information from peers, past experience, and validate everything with online research. Turns out, there’s not a lot of structured guidance early on. Users sometimes feel unsure whether they’re even looking in the right place. Ultimately slowing their momentum and confidence. Sounds like a solid drop-off signal here.
As for the evaluation stage, the pain is around the effort needed to weigh these high risk / high cost options, and stay confident in a decision. Users rely heavily on their peers and demos, but inconsistent details and “promise-the-world” marketing make it hard to separate any real options from noise. When timelines are tight, evaluation friction becomes amplified, and users feel completely exposed to making risky decisions with limited clarity.
The Impact?
I led the design of a global filtering sidebar and an AI assistant tool which scored product fit based on the user's decisioning criteria. Our simplified journey and AI assistant features sparked interest with a larger startup. The product was acquired, but early feedback showed improved traffic by 4 million monthly visitors and less drop off during the user's journey. This is currently one of their most popular product features and it continues to grow under new ownership.