Work
TerraWise
TerraWise
Agriculture IoT
Agriculture IoT
0 to 1 Product
0 to 1 Product
Brand Identity UX Strategy Data-Dense Mobile
Brand Identity UX Strategy Data-Dense Mobile
Tabs
Tabs
Consumer Electronics
Consumer Electronics
Player/Coach Leader
Player/Coach Leader
Brand & Go-to-Market CX/UX Strategy E-Commerce
Brand & Go-to-Market CX/UX Strategy E-Commerce
Honeycomb
Honeycomb
Fintech
Fintech
Design System
Design System
Design System
Data Center
Data Center
Team Building & Management
Team Building & Management
Team Building & Management
PJ Dick
PJ Dick
Construction
Construction
Design System
Design System
Design System
GoShadow
GoShadow
Healthcare
Healthcare
UX Research & Design
UX Research & Design
UX Research & Design
HopCulture
HopCulture
Publications
Publications
Design Leadership
Design Leadership
Design Leadership
UpPrize
UpPrize
Social Impact
Social Impact
0 to 1 Product
0 to 1 Product
0 to 1 Product
TOOLS
From idea to working interaction in hours. I explore in Figma, build with Claude, push through Vercel, and the work lands in GitHub as components, not a spec to interpret.
20 years across retail, construction, fintech, healthcare, startups, government, and connected hardware. A venture accelerator, a design firm I co-founded and ran for twelve profitable years, and the practice I run now. Throughout all of it I stayed in the work, from product strategy and research through brand, prototype, and design system.
Experience
Experience
Full Details at linkedin.com/in/davidpcrawford/
20 years across retail, construction, fintech, healthcare, startups, government, and connected hardware. A venture accelerator, a design firm I co-founded and ran for twelve profitable years, and the practice I run now. Throughout all of it I stayed in the work, from product strategy and research through brand, prototype, and design system.
2026
Design Director & Founder
United Experience
Pittsburgh
Twenty years of consulting taught me that the best work happens at depth, not breadth. United Experience is the practice I built around that lesson: hands-on, embedded with one engineering-led team at a time, taking on the work end to end from product strategy and customer journey through brand, prototype, and design system. The practice supports founders, design teams, and engineering leaders who want their experience to catch up to their ambition.
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2026
Design Director & Founder
United Experience
Twenty years of consulting taught me that the best work happens at depth, not breadth. United Experience is the practice I built around that lesson: hands-on, embedded with one engineering-led team at a time, taking on the work end to end from product strategy and customer journey through brand, prototype, and design system. The practice supports founders, design teams, and engineering leaders who want their experience to catch up to their ambition.
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2026 – Now
Design Director & Founder
United Experience
Pittsburgh
Twenty years of consulting taught me that the best work happens at depth, not breadth. United Experience is the practice I built around that lesson: hands-on, embedded with one engineering-led team at a time, taking on the work end to end from product strategy and customer journey through brand, prototype, and design system. The practice supports founders, design teams, and engineering leaders who want their experience to catch up to their ambition.
More
Mapped the end-to-end journey across six systems, ran the customer interviews behind it, and delivered the messaging architecture and design system for this community lending fintech. View Case Study
Audited and mapped the end-to-end user journey, conducted user interviews, and synthesized an actionable perspective for Honeycomb Credit's product experience. Delivered a unified messaging architecture and design system for this community lending fintech. View
Mapped the end-to-end journey across six systems, ran the customer interviews behind it, and delivered the messaging architecture and design system for this community lending fintech. View Case Study
Audited and mapped the end-to-end user journey, conducted user interviews, and synthesized an actionable perspective for Honeycomb Credit's product experience. Delivered a unified messaging architecture and design system for this community lending fintech. View Case Study
2014 – 2026
Director of Product Design & Co-Founder
Roket
Pittsburgh
As Roket's co-founder and lead product designer, I led product strategy, research, UX, branding, and development for multi-year clients including Google, PJ Dick, 360fly, Deloitte, and Fitbit, taking early concepts to market-ready software across enterprise, consumer, and startup environments. We offered hands-on consulting, team augmentation, and embedded product staffing, and sustained 12 consecutive profitable years at 45%+ net margins. I worked directly with founders, executives, and engineering leads to define roadmaps and architecture, running workshops, research, and design reviews to build consensus and accelerate delivery.
I created the Mission Planning Process to improve cross-functional collaboration, leading to faster cycles, higher-quality outputs, and consistently positive client reviews on Clutch. I also integrated AI-driven workflows into design, development, and project management to improve efficiency and output. My work spanned product strategy, UX research and design, brand development, team leadership, and go-to-market execution.
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2014 – 2026
Director of Product Design & Co-Founder
Roket
As Roket's co-founder and lead product designer, I led product strategy, research, UX, branding, and development for multi-year clients including Google, PJ Dick, 360fly, Deloitte, and Fitbit, taking early concepts to market-ready software across enterprise, consumer, and startup environments. We offered hands-on consulting, team augmentation, and embedded product staffing, and sustained 12 consecutive profitable years at 45%+ net margins. I worked directly with founders, executives, and engineering leads to define roadmaps and architecture, running workshops, research, and design reviews to build consensus and accelerate delivery.
I created the Mission Planning Process to improve cross-functional collaboration, leading to faster cycles, higher-quality outputs, and consistently positive client reviews on Clutch. I also integrated AI-driven workflows into design, development, and project management to improve efficiency and output. My work spanned product strategy, UX research and design, brand development, team leadership, and go-to-market execution.
More
Recruited, vetted, and managed UX design, UX research, and front-end engineering headcount for Google's data center software platform over six years, overseeing performance, time tracking, and budgets. View Case Study
Recruited, vetted, and managed UX design, UX research, and front-end engineering headcount for Google's data center software platform over six years, overseeing performance, time tracking, and budgets. View
Recruited, vetted, and managed UX design, UX research, and front-end engineering headcount for Google's data center software platform over six years. View Case Study
Directed a cross-disciplinary team to deliver a production-ready mobile app for child services, leading research, design, branding, product management, and QA with Deloitte. View Case Study
Directed a cross-disciplinary team to deliver a production-ready mobile app for child services, leading research, design, branding, product management, and QA with Deloitte. View
Directed a cross-disciplinary team to deliver a production-ready mobile app for child services, leading research, design, branding, product management, and QA. View Case Study
Nine years building software for PJ Dick, a commercial construction firm: design systems, ERP, time tracking, and scheduling. Co-led product management. View Case Study
Nine years building a commercial construction firm's software: design systems, ERP, time tracking, and scheduling software. Co-led product management. View
Nine years building a commercial construction firm's software: design systems, ERP, time tracking, and scheduling software. Co-led product management. View Case Study
Led UX for mobile apps, desktop software, and e-commerce launch, delivering a consistent user experience at scale alongside 360fly internal software team. View Case Study
Led UX for mobile apps, desktop software, and e-commerce launch, delivering a consistent user experience at scale alongside 360fly internal software team. View
Designed a mobile app connected to IoT sensors, giving farmers real-time insight into field conditions. Delivered the UI libraries, branding, and workflows that tied hardware and software into one experience. View Case Study
Designed a mobile app connected to IoT sensors, giving farmers real-time insight into field conditions. Delivered the UI libraries, branding, and workflows that tied hardware and software into one experience. View
Designed a mobile app connected to IoT sensors, giving farmers real-time insight into field conditions. Delivered the UI libraries and branding that tied hardware and software into one experience. View Case Study
Directed product and customer experience for a smart home IoT ecosystem, launching companion apps, e-commerce, naming, branding, and packaging, to deliver a unified physical–digital experience. View Case Study
Directed product and customer experience for a smart home IoT ecosystem, launching companion apps, e-commerce, naming, branding, and packaging, to deliver a unified physical–digital experience. View
Designed and built the open innovation software to manage a purpose-driven entrepreneurial competition partnering with Forbes Funds and BNY Mellon. Work included naming, branding, and software dev. View Case Study
Designed and built the open innovation software to manage a purpose-driven entrepreneurial competition partnering with Forbes Funds and BNY Mellon. Work included naming, branding, and software dev. View
Designed and built the open innovation software to manage a purpose-driven entrepreneurial competition partnering with Forbes Funds and BNY Mellon included naming, branding, and software dev. View Case Study
Built a secure mental health screening app that connects young people to critical resources. Tone, pacing, accessibility, and data privacy determined whether someone finished the flow or closed the tab. View on Roket
Built a secure mental health screening app that connects young people to critical resources. Tone, pacing, accessibility, and data privacy determined whether someone finished the flow or closed the tab. View on Roket
Built a secure mental health screening app that educates young people and connects them to critical resources. The design problem was trust: accessibility, data privacy, and a tone that earned enough confidence for someone to keep going. View on Roket
2010 – 2013
Senior Visual Designer
Thinktiv Venture Accelerator
Pittsburgh
Partnered directly with early-stage and later-stage venture-backed companies to achieve product-market fit and drive adoption through product strategy, UX, marketing, and digital experiences. Delivered web and mobile apps, branding systems, and proof-of-concept software.
Prysm: Long-term art direction and brand management across all sales and marketing collateral, monthly multichannel advertising, every web property including Prysm.com, and 3D product rendering.
GoShadow: Transformed a pen-and-paper healthcare contextual inquiry method into a B2B SaaS platform spanning a cloud web app and iPad field app, leading product strategy and branding.
Art directed the Directworks and Shopatron rebrands. Worked with Attivio Enterprise Search engineering and sales to visualize product experience for vertical markets, and led brand and naming for AlertTech, BlackLocus, Infinite Z, Lovelife, Icon.me, and Vineya.
More
2010 – 2013
Senior Visual Designer
Thinktiv Venture Accelerator
Partnered directly with early-stage and later-stage venture-backed companies to achieve product-market fit and drive adoption through product strategy, UX, marketing, and digital experiences. Delivered web and mobile apps, branding systems, and proof-of-concept software.
Prysm: Long-term art direction and brand management across all sales and marketing collateral, monthly multichannel advertising, every web property including Prysm.com, and 3D product rendering.
GoShadow: Transformed a pen-and-paper healthcare contextual inquiry method into a B2B SaaS platform spanning a cloud web app and iPad field app, leading product strategy and branding.
Art directed the Directworks and Shopatron rebrands. Worked with Attivio Enterprise Search engineering and sales to visualize product experience for vertical markets, and led brand and naming for AlertTech, BlackLocus, Infinite Z, Lovelife, Icon.me, and Vineya.
More
2010 — 13
Senior Visual Designer
Thinktiv Venture Accelerator
Pittsburgh
Partnered directly with early-stage and later-stage venture-backed companies to achieve product-market fit and drive adoption through product strategy, UX, marketing, and digital experiences. Delivered web and mobile apps, branding systems, and proof-of-concept software.
Prysm: Long-term art direction and brand management across all sales and marketing collateral, monthly multichannel advertising, every web property including Prysm.com, and 3D product rendering.
GoShadow: Transformed a pen-and-paper healthcare contextual inquiry method into a B2B SaaS platform spanning a cloud web app and iPad field app, leading product strategy and branding.
Art directed the Directworks and Shopatron rebrands. Worked with Attivio Enterprise Search engineering and sales to visualize product experience for vertical markets, and led brand and naming for AlertTech, BlackLocus, Infinite Z, Lovelife, Icon.me, and Vineya.
More
Full Details at linkedin.com/in/davidpcrawford/
TOOLS
From idea to working interaction in hours. I explore in Figma, build with Claude, push through Vercel, and the work lands in GitHub as components, not a spec to interpret.
A design leader is accountable for the work, the people making it, and the decisions that shape both. What follows came from the flexibility early-stage work demands, the accountability enterprise requires, and the judgment that comes with twelve years of running a company.
A design leader is accountable for the work, the people making it, and the decisions that shape both. The following came out of running a company and carry with me.
Approach
Approach
Remove assumptions
The gap between what is being asked and what is needed is usually unspoken. Mission Planning, a framework I ran for twelve years, surfaces it: stakeholder interviews, white space, goals, and an explicit list of what we don't know yet. Assumptions are expensive.
Remove assumptions
The gap between what is being asked and what is needed is usually unspoken. Mission Planning, a framework I ran for twelve years, surfaces it: stakeholder interviews, white space, goals, and an explicit list of what we don't know yet.
Progress over protocol
Move the work forward. Go to the source when something is unclear, settle the disagreement before it stalls a sprint, and solve the problem in front of you even if it's not your job.
Strong opinions, loosely held
Better to be argued out of a decision than to defend a losing idea. Teams stop raising objections once they learn the outcome was settled before the meeting, and the quiet that follows looks like alignment.
Empathy method
Setting aside your assumptions long enough to understand what someone means rather than what they said. The useful signal is usually in the workaround, not the request. It applies to teammates and stakeholders as much as users.
Standards over approvals
A quality bar that runs through one person is a bottleneck. Turn judgment into patterns, principles, critique practice, and documentation so the standard holds without you in the room.
Prototype over pitch
Make it real. Working prototypes, sketches, and mockups settle a debate faster than a deck. The feedback gets more candid, the unseen problems surface earlier, and the whole thing moves faster.
Brand, messaging, and product should be considered holistically. Above are some of the identities that started as product problems and went on to shape the customer experience across fintech, construction, healthcare, consumer electronics, and retail.
Process
Process
Assumptions are expensive
Turning complexity into products and brands people love takes curiosity, patience, and a trusted process.
Assumptions are expensive. Turning complexity into products and brands people love takes curiosity, patience, and a trusted process.
Mission Planning is the framework we built at Roket and applied to every engagement for 12 years. It is a large part of why those twelve years were profitable.
The output is a working document, not a deliverable. It stays open for the life of the project and gets updated as answers arrive. Instead of scattered docs, half-remembered decisions, and an outdated kickoff deck no one reopens, it is the source of truth throughout the project.
01 · Interviews
Assumptions
Conflicts
An engagement begins with a proposal that fixes scope, purpose, and goals. It was negotiated with one or two people. One-on-one conversations with everyone else reveal how much of it they actually agree with, and disagreements are cheaper early.
Synthesis, Verbatim Quotes, Affinity Map, Stakeholder Map, Conflicts/Consensus List, Service Blueprint
01 · Interviews
Assumptions
Conflicts
An engagement begins with a proposal that fixes scope, purpose, and goals. It was negotiated with one or two people. One-on-one conversations with everyone else reveal how much of it they actually agree with, and disagreements are cheaper early.
Synthesis, Verbatim Quotes, Affinity Map, Stakeholder Map, Conflicts/Consensus List, Service Blueprint
02 · Definition
Questions
Expertise
Most engagements skip this and go straight to screens, because they want to show progress. The result is design work that looks finished and rests on untested assumptions. It might fail in market or even internally, when nobody can defend it.
Value prop, Positioning, Messaging architecture, Personas, Jobs-to-be-done, Success metrics
02 · Definition
Questions
Expertise
Most engagements skip this and go straight to screens, because they want to show progress. The result is design work that looks finished and rests on untested assumptions. It might fail in market or even internally, when nobody can defend it.
Value prop, Positioning, Messaging architecture, Personas, Jobs-to-be-done, Success metrics
03 · Whitespace
Competitors
Opportunity
Collect what competitors actually ship, from brand through interaction detail. It sets the bar customers already expect, and it shows the gap nobody is covering. That gap is where the product earns a reason to exist.
Brand Audit, UX Patterns, Opportunity Statement, Gap Analysis, Differentiation Matrix, Positioning Map
03 · Whitespace
Competitors
Opportunity
Collect what competitors actually ship, from brand through interaction detail. It sets the bar customers already expect, and it shows the gap nobody is covering. That gap is where the product earns a reason to exist.
Brand Audit, UX Patterns, Opportunity Statement, Gap Analysis, Differentiation Matrix, Positioning Map
04 · Alignment
Opinions
Direction
Take the research back to the stakeholders and settle on one direction. Competing priorities get resolved with the evidence on the table instead of seniority. The decisions are documented.
Scope Agreement, Product brief, Roadmap, Success Criteria, MVP Definition
04 · Alignment
Opinions
Direction
Take the research back to the stakeholders and settle on one direction. Competing priorities get resolved with the evidence on the table instead of seniority. The decisions are documented.
Scope Agreement, Product brief, Roadmap, Success Criteria, MVP Definition
05 · Unknowns
Risk
Owners
An explicit, shared list of open questions. Technical feasibility, user behavior, regulatory constraint, whatever the group cannot answer today. Naming them turns an assumption into a known risk with an owner attached.
Open Questions List
05 · Unknowns
Risk
Owners
An explicit, shared list of open questions. Technical feasibility, user behavior, regulatory constraint, whatever the group cannot answer today. Naming them turns an assumption into a known risk with an owner attached.
Open Questions List
06 · Work
Progress
Truth
Everything that follows comes back to it. Brand identity, naming, research findings, and the answers to the unknowns as they arrive. The list of unknowns gets shorter each month, and what replaces each one is a decision with a reason attached.
Living Document
06 · Work
Progress
Truth
Everything that follows comes back to it. Brand identity, naming, research findings, and the answers to the unknowns as they arrive. The list of unknowns gets shorter each month, and what replaces each one is a decision with a reason attached.
Living Document
Seeking the next challenge.
Hands-on design leader, 20 years turning complex products into experiences people trust. Owns brand and product end to end across web, mobile, and connected hardware, leading designers while staying in the craft. Built and ran a design consultancy for 12 profitable years.
Currently solo at United Experience.
Hands-on design leader, 20 years turning complex products into experiences people trust. Owns brand and product end to end across web, mobile, and connected hardware, leading designers while staying in the craft. Built and ran a design consultancy for 12 profitable years. Currently solo at United Experience.