David Crawford
Leader, Founder & Designer
Discovery to Delivery | Clarity for Complex Systems | Brand and Product | AI-Native, Prototypes in Code | 0 > 1
Discovery to Delivery | Clarity for Complex Systems | Brand + Product | AI-Native, Prototypes in Code | 0 to 1
Design Leadership
Design Leadership
Concept to Culture: Building HopCulture's Digital Publication
Concept to Culture: Building HopCulture's Digital Publication
Enterprise Rebrand
Enterprise Rebrand
Driving Enterprise Brand Clarity in a 60-Day Relaunch
Driving Enterprise Brand Clarity in a 60-Day Relaunch
'26 – Now
Founder & Design Director
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.
'26 – Now
Founder & Design Director
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.
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.
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.
'14 – '26
Co-Founder + Director of Product Design
Roket / Pittsburgh
As Roket's co-founder and lead product designer, I guided end-to-end product strategy, research, UX, branding, and development for engineering-led teams whose product was outpacing their experience layer, taking early concepts to market-ready software across enterprise, consumer, and startup environments. I worked directly with founders, executives, and engineering leads to define roadmaps and product architecture, running workshops, research sessions, and design reviews to build consensus, reduce risk, and accelerate time to market.
Roket grew into a profitable practice serving multi-year clients including Google, PJ Dick, 360fly, Deloitte, Eaton, and Fitbit through hands-on consulting, team augmentation, and embedded product team staffing. We sustained 12 consecutive profitable years at a 45%+ net margin.
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.
'14 – '26
Co-Founder + Director of Product Design
Roket / Pittsburgh
As Roket's co-founder and lead product designer, I guided end-to-end product strategy, research, UX, branding, and development for engineering-led teams whose product was outpacing their experience layer, taking early concepts to market-ready software across enterprise, consumer, and startup environments. I worked directly with founders, executives, and engineering leads to define roadmaps and product architecture, running workshops, research sessions, and design reviews to build consensus, reduce risk, and accelerate time to market.
Roket grew into a profitable practice serving multi-year clients including Google, PJ Dick, 360fly, Deloitte, Eaton, and Fitbit through hands-on consulting, team augmentation, and embedded product team staffing. We sustained 12 consecutive profitable years at a 45%+ net margin.
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.
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 Google 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 Google 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 Deloitte 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 Deloitte Case Study
Delivered design systems and mobile and web applications, including ERP, time tracking, and scheduling. Co-led product management, managing design, releases, research, and cross-functional alignment for this Pittsburgh construction firm. View PJ Dick Case Study
Delivered design systems and mobile and web applications, including ERP, time tracking, and scheduling. Co-led product management, managing design, releases, research, and cross-functional alignment for this Pittsburgh construction firm. View PJ Dick 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 360fly 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 360fly Case Study
Designed and developed a mobile app integrated with IoT hardware to provide farm owners with real-time irrigation and field insights. Delivered production-ready UI libraries, branding, and workflows that connected digital and physical product interactions into a cohesive experience. View Nagra Case Study
Designed and developed a mobile app integrated with IoT hardware to provide farm owners with real-time irrigation and field insights. Delivered production-ready UI libraries, branding, and workflows that connected digital and physical product interactions into a cohesive experience. View Nagra Case Study
Directed product and customer experience for a smart home IoT solution, aligning teams to launch companion apps, e-commerce, naming, branding, and packaging, delivering a unified physical–digital experience for the Tabs ecosystem. View Tabs Case Study
Directed product and customer experience for a smart home IoT solution, aligning teams to launch companion apps, e-commerce, naming, branding, and packaging, delivering a unified physical–digital experience for the Tabs ecosystem. View Tabs Case Study
Designed and built the open innovation software that managed UpPrize, a purpose-driven entrepreneurial competition in partnership with The Forbes Funds and BNY Mellon. Work included naming, branding, and software development. View UpPrize Case Study
Designed and built the open innovation software that managed UpPrize, a purpose-driven entrepreneurial competition in partnership with The Forbes Funds and BNY Mellon. Work included naming, branding, and software development. View UpPrize Case Study
Built a secure, responsive mental health screening app called AskMe.HearMe that was designed to educate, engage, and connect young people to critical resources. Built with a focus on accessibility, reliability, and data privacy, the platform delivers a human-centered experience that resonates with its audience and meets the sensitivity of its mission. View on Roket
Built a secure, responsive mental health screening app called AskMe.HearMe that was designed to educate, engage, and connect young people to critical resources. Built with a focus on accessibility, reliability, and data privacy, the platform delivers a human-centered experience that resonates with its audience and meets the sensitivity of its mission. View on Roket
'10 – '13
Sr Visual Designer
Thinktiv Venture Accelerator / Pittsburgh
Partnered directly with early-stage, venture-backed companies to achieve product-market fit and drive adoption through product strategy, UX, marketing, and digital experiences. Managed client relationships while delivering web and mobile apps, branding systems, and proof-of-concept software across SaaS, consumer technology, healthcare, social networking, and fintech.
'10 – '13
Sr Visual Designer
Thinktiv Venture Accelerator / Pittsburgh
Partnered directly with early-stage, venture-backed companies to achieve product-market fit and drive adoption through product strategy, UX, marketing, and digital experiences. Managed client relationships while delivering web and mobile apps, branding systems, and proof-of-concept software across SaaS, consumer technology, healthcare, social networking, and fintech.
2010 — 13
Sr Visual Designer
Thinktiv Venture Accelerator / Pittsburgh
Partnered directly with early-stage, venture-backed companies to achieve product-market fit and drive adoption through product strategy, UX, marketing, and digital experiences. Managed client relationships while delivering web and mobile apps, branding systems, and proof-of-concept software across SaaS, consumer technology, healthcare, social networking, and fintech.
How I Lead
How I Lead
Growth is a business decision
Running a design company taught me that management means deliberately balancing people’s growth with business needs. Choosing when to stretch someone, when to prioritize speed, and when to take on high-risk work myself. It also means giving candid feedback early enough for people to improve.
Influence without authority
For 12 years I led design without formal authority, earning influence by building trust, framing decisions around others' priorities, and choosing disagreements very carefully. Roket's multi-year engagements are the evidence. You don't get renewed for nine years unless the team wants you in the room.
Conviction to challenge
Discovery often surfaces a different problem than the brief describes. I bring the evidence and make the case for the real one. I expect designers to do the same, and to revise their position if the evidence does.
Show it, don't describe it
Building a working prototype resolves debates faster than documents, especially for dense interfaces where hierarchy and visual density only become clear with real data. Clickable prototypes, sketches, mockups all elicit more candid feedback, so teams should make ideas tangible when discussions stall.
Empathy is discipline, not generosity
Listening is less about kindness than resisting the urge to prove competence. By tolerating silence and uncertainty, you can uncover the real issues behind surface requests—whether flawed processes, missing trust, or unrealistic deadlines.