Steven Harley

Delivered successful outcomes for clients from startups to enterprises while supporting internal team development.

• Product Discovery & Validation: Helped clients test their riskiest assumptions first. Built MVPs that answered real questions rather than checking boxes. Used lightweight validation techniques to uncover genuine user needs.

• Technical Design Integration: Applied my development background to design solutions that didn't require large engineering lift. Created designs on tight timelines that maintained quality without sacrificing feasibility.

• Mentorship & Team Development: Helped design apprentices navigate real client work and build confidence. Also focused on coding fundamentals with designers working in Ruby on Rails environments for the first time.

• Product Discovery Leadership: Ran focused Design Sprints for startups finding their footing. Helped teams move from idea to testable prototype in days instead of months.

• Notable Clients: Dropbox, Autodesk, TrueBotanicals, Joydrive, Silversheet (acquired by AMN Healthcare Services), San Mateo County, and others.

Joined through acquisition of General Things to become part of the new in-house Software and Services department.

• Agile Product Design: Collaborated with scrum-based teams to create engaging experiences for the marketing, e-commerce, and support sections of GoPro.com.

• Multi-Platform Experience Design: Researched how GoPro users interacted with content across devices. Designed experiences for Xbox, iOS, and web that felt native to each platform while maintaining the GoPro identity.

• End-to-End Design Process: Took features from concept through launch. Built interactive prototypes to validate ideas, worked alongside product and engineering to implement, and presented progress to executives in terms of user value.

Hired primarily to work with GoPro leading up to the acquisition and my transition to GoPro's new internal team. (See above.)

Product design and engineering for a Match Group incubator creating innovative social connection apps.

• Product Innovation: UI/UX development for Ravel, a photo-sharing application focused on connecting users with similar interests. Influenced the product from proof-of-concept to market-ready solution.

• User Research & Growth: Conducted user group sessions, interviews, and surveys to gather qualitative insights. Took on lead designer role focused on growing user acquisition and increasing engagement.

• Mobile Experience Design: Simplified our core user flows based on usage patterns. Reduced unnecessary features and focused on making discovery feel natural and rewarding.

• Technical Partnership: Collaborated with engineering to refactor the application using RubyMotion, significantly improving UI performance and responsiveness.

Transitioned from front-end developer responsibilities to a generalist role where I was responsible for end-to-end web design and development tasks for the marketing team.

• CMS Implementation: Gave marketing team control over content updates that previously required developer time.

• Cross-Channel Consistency: Designed custom email templates and ad assets so users had consistent experiences whether on our website, emails, or downloaded materials.

• Front-End Best Practices: Implemented development standards for performance, accessibility, and maintainability that improved Lighthouse metrics and user experience.

Provided design and development support for faculty and educational initiatives at MSU.

• Educational UX Design: Partnered with producers and faculty to develop virtual learning environments optimized for student engagement and learning outcomes.

• Brand Modernization: Redesigned communications for the Kellogg Biological Station, creating modern assets that improved clarity for students, faculty, and visitors.