Zak Edey 

Design Lead

Principal Product Designer | Innovator | Cross-Disciplinary Glue

A forward-thinking Lead Product Designer with 10+ years of progressive success driving innovation and delivering value across industries, including transportation, DevSecOps, AI, technology, and healthcare. Devoted to the craft of human-centered design. Experienced leading teams and taking a product, feature, or idea from concept to production. Sought after for shaping the vision, simplifying complex systems, delivering engaging cohesive solutions, building and managing WCAG 2.1 AA accessible design systems.

Career Highlights

  • Promoted for multi-disciplinary expertise and success in leading user-centered design from discovery to production.

  • Praised for seeking solutions to the most impactful problems and creating cohesive experiences across touchpoints.

  • Recognized for balancing systematic processes and intuition throughout design exploration and refinement cycles.

  • Sought after for navigating ambiguous spaces, rethinking established paradigms, and developing 0-to-1 solutions.

  • Promoted for seeking the right solution, leading with humility, and knowing when ‘no design is the best design.’

  • Fostered an inclusive environment for creativity and growth while championing cross-functional collaboration.

Areas of Expertise

  • Leading User-Centered Design

  • Cohesive Product Experiences 

  • Information Architecture

  • Transforming Research Insights

  • User Journeys / Flows

  • Workshop Facilitation

  • Design Systems

  • Product Vision

  • Prototyping / Usability / User Testing

  • Interaction / Motion Design

  • Accessibility / Responsive Design

  • Cross-functional Collaboration

Professional Overview

See Linkedin for more detail on my role and impact at these companies

Lead Product Designer | Particle Design, a Wind River Company | 2021 – 2024

Leading end-to-end product design for the Wind River Studio toolsuite

  • Led a modern and cohesive transformation of the toolsuite

  • Formed and continually updated product vision which helped align cross-functional teams and design thinking workshops towards our product ambitions

  • Led 0-to-1 product design for new Studio products

  • Led iterative product design cycles for existing Studio products

  • Met regularly with the design team to facilitate ideation sessions, reviews, and drive alignment with product vision

  • Influenced executive leadership with a clear point of view, driving impactful solutions with measurable contributions to business growth

  • Led product design for key customer partnerships to accelerate the Software-Defined Vehicle

  • Built & managed our WCAG 2.1 AA accessible design system

  • Championed new best practices, cross-functional design thinking, and agile release cycles

  • Mentored other designs, providing feedback, coaching, and opportunities that aligned with their growth interests

Senior Product Designer | Particle Design | 2018 – 2021

Leading 0-to-1 design at a digital product and innovation firm for clients in transportation, technology, and healthcare

  • Continuously entrusted to own the design process with larger clients; eventually leading the HMI for an EV automotive company

    • Led the creation of a new UX/UI/interaction framework for a lineup of electric vehicles

    • Owned product design of several applications and oversaw the team as we went from 0-to-1 to deliver a holistic set of applications

    • Built a 1:1 scale vehicle interior with preproduction hardware for design reviews and user testing research

  • Expanded our service offerings and attracted new clients through a commitment to excellence and exceptional customer care

  • Owned design and brought products, features, and idea from ideation to delivery for startups to Fortune 100 companies

  • Worked across disciplines, facilitated workshops, planned and facilitated research, helped leadership scope projects

  • Mentored early career designers

Product Designer (Digital & Industrial) | RKS Design | 2017 – 2018

Leading digital product design at a global design firm and innovation consultancy

  • Identified an unforeseen opportunity and ensured we delivered an exceptional product for a key client across all touchpoints

  • Led digital product design from 0-to-1 for a Bay Area biomedical companies flagship product and ecosystem of digital products

  • Took on responsibilities beyond my initial role, from scoping complex projects and shaping new service offerings to planning and facilitating client workshops

  • Collaborated closely with our design director, researchers, visual designers, and other industrial designers to help deliver impactful products for our clients

Los Angeles Co-Chair | Industrial Designers Society of America | 2017 – 2018

Design community engagement, supporting local creatives and businesses, asset generation and social media

Industrial Designer | Edey FX | 2015 – 2017

Owning Industrial Design from ideation to manufacturing for several products and scaling the design firms business

Industrial Design Intern | Shape Products | 2014 – 2015

Collaborated closely with the full-service design team throughout product development for international clients

Education

Bachelor of Industrial Design | Studies in UX/UI/HMI | Carleton University School of Industrial Design, Ottawa, Canada