Sean Smith - Resume

Sean@seansmithdesign.com • linkedin.com/in/seansmithdesign • seansmithdesign.com

Product designer and leader with 15+ years of experience shaping AI-native, cross-platform products. Known for a player/coach approach that blends hands-on craft, systems thinking, and leadership with a modern, builder oriented mindset. Actively embrace generative design and AI-assisted development workflows to move faster from concept to production, using emerging tools to prototype, test, and ship ideas with clarity and quality at global scale.

Sean Smith Design

Fractional Product Designer & Builder

Nov 2025 – Present

Hands-on product design and development for early-stage teams, from product definition through production.
Building native and web apps using AI-assisted development workflows.

Microsoft

Microsoft Outlook

2021–December 2025 | Principal Product Design Leader

(previously Senior and Principal Product Design Manager roles)

Led design for Outlook Mobile and Mac through 2x+ MAU growth, spanning AI-powered experiences and core reading workflows.
Player/coach approach: hands-on design and prototyping balanced with strategic direction and cross-functional leadership.
Managed and mentored a global design team of 11, from early career through principal level.
Drove design systems adoption to reduce design debt and improve consistency across Outlook and partner teams.

Microsoft MileIQ / SMB Incubation

2015 – 2021 | Senior Designer & Senior Design Manager

First in-house designer at MileIQ (pre-acquisition); guided the transition from startup to Microsoft.
Led design across a suite of SMB and consumer apps including MileIQ, Spend, Visits, and Money in Excel.
Supported hiring and growth of the design team while balancing hands-on execution with product strategy.

Early Career

2015 | Lead Product Designer

MileIQ (Mobile Data Labs)

First in-house designer, partnered closely with founders and peers to refine MileIQ's core experience.
Led vision and design for a suite of SMB apps, supporting funding and acquisition strategy.
Built an early design system in Sketch and prototyped in Principle to streamline cross-team collaboration and engineering handoff.

2012–2015 | Lead Designer & Design Engineer

Best Apps Market & Fetch

Designed Android app store alternative; modernized the UI with Material Design.
Led front-end XML implementation and UI updates for Material design v1.

2009–2012 | Freelance Design

Led branding and UI work for startups.
Launched and ran an apparel business (design, printing, eCommerce).

Contact

Sean@seansmithdesign.com
linkedin.com/in/seansmithdesign
github.com/SeanSmithDesign
x.com/seansmithbuilds
seansmithdesign.com

Professional Development

Future London Academy

Executive Programme for Design Leaders ("Design MBA") | 2025-2026

Designer Fund

Design for Business Impact | 2019

Skills

Leadership & Strategy

Design Leadership, Team Management, Product Strategy, Storytelling, Mentorship, Human Centered Design, Cross-functional Collaboration

Favorite Tools Right Now

Claude Code, Cursor, Figma, v0, Vercel, Wispr Flow, Lovable, Jitter, Remotion

Education

Art Institute of California - San Francisco

Graphic Design | 2007-2010

Academy of Art

Graphic Design | 2006-2007