Yvonne Doll, Product Design Leader

About me

For over 20 years, I’ve led globally distributed teams across SaaS, publishing, marketplaces, sports tech, nonprofits, and AI-enabled products, including those serving more than 30 million customers worldwide. My work connects product strategy, user insight, cross-functional alignment, and high-quality execution.

I’m also an abstract oil painter, singer, guitarist, and songwriter in The Locals. That creative life is not separate from my design work. It is where I learned composition, restraint, critique, improvisation, and how to keep going until the thing finally works.

My passions include lean research, iterative design processes, and design strategies that address real user problems while generating significant business impact. I have led globally distributed teams that have served over 30 million customers worldwide and understand how to develop design strategies that scale effectively.

For over 20 years, I’ve led globally distributed teams across SaaS, publishing, marketplaces, sports tech, nonprofits, and AI-enabled products, including those serving more than 30 million customers worldwide. My work connects product strategy, user insight, cross-functional alignment, and high-quality execution.

I’m also an abstract oil painter, singer, guitarist, and songwriter in The Locals. That creative life is not separate from my design work. It is where I learned composition, restraint, critique, improvisation, and how to keep going until the thing finally works.

How i can help

Your AI workflows are in place.
The business impact is not.

AI helps teams see faster: where the interface is sticky, where users get stuck, and where the product is quietly leaking momentum. I expect my teams to measure, learn, and iterate. New tools are only useful if they change the work.

You’re adopting AI, but your product process needs to evolve with it.

I help teams design the parts AI makes messy: system behavior, model outputs, prompts, evaluation criteria, human-in-the-loop workflows, and trust patterns that actually hold up in product.

You need someone who can move from ambiguity to shipped product.

Founders, I can translate. I’ve led products from 0→1, rough ideas, evolving strategies, and “we need this yesterday” ambiguity into focused product direction and shipped experiences across SaaS, marketplaces, publishing, sports tech, nonprofits, and AI-enabled products.

Your teams need stronger cross-functional alignment.

I partner deeply with product, engineering, research, marketing, sales, support, and executive stakeholders to turn competing inputs into clear product decisions.

Your product decisions need stronger customer signals.

I build practical research programs that help teams understand customer behavior, validate direction, reduce risk, and make better product decisions without slowing
engineering momentum.

Kustomer.com

2026-Present

Head of design

CoPilotIQ/Biofourmis

2025-Present

Head of design

Automattic/Wordpress

2019 - 2024

Head of Design (Jetpack)

Stack Sp0rts

2016 - 2019

Director of Product Design

Director of USER Experience

giveforward

2014 - 2016

Director of user eXperience

Director of user eXperience

Fanfueled

2012 - 2014

Director of product Development/Design

Gannett/Usa Today

2007 - 2012

Creative director/Director
of product development

People leadership

People leadership

Desing Leader, Yvonne Doll, A rising tide lifts all boats
Desing Leader, Yvonne Doll, A rising tide lifts all boats

foster a culture of

Collaboration

feed and reward

INnovation

Lead with curiousity &

Empathy

EMPOWER

autonomy

Kind words from excellent humans

Company culture is everything. I'm proud of the strong relationships I've built with my colleagues. I help build supportive, innovative, and action-oriented teams that uplift one another and collaborate to create exceptional work..

Company culture is essential. I'm proud of the relationships I've built with colleagues, and for my next role, I seek a supportive and innovative team that collaborates to achieve great results.

  • I had the pleasure of working alongside Yvonne during her time as a Design Director at Automattic, where she made a big impact on the Jetpack design team and our company culture overall. Yvonne created a supportive and inspiring environment, making everyone feel valued and motivated to do their best work, and it showed!She was a fantastic mentor to me, always leading by example and pushing for creativity. Yvonne is an empathetic leader and genuine creative spirit!

    Andrei Slobstov Brand Design | automattic

  • Yvonne encompasses the most attractive qualities you'd want in a leader. She hires quality people and trusts them to do good work. Her style of management fosters engaged developers and designers that feel free to be creative while offering valuable input. She is a fantastic listener and outwardly demonstrates respect for all points of view and is always looking out for the best interest of the user. Yvonne brings energy to any team and has demonstrated that her work has the power to re-inspire a company during a pivot. She is an invaluable asset.

    Caiti Vincel Lead Product Manager | Sprout Social

  • Yvonne is a triple threat designer in that she understand design architecture, visual design and product design. It was a pleasure working with and learning from her during our time together in Jetpack. Yvonne not only led our design team, but was also an integral member of our executive leadership group at Jetpack. Her experience and insights into understanding customers helped us to revolutionize the Jetpack experience. She was also a driving force in aligning our design, development and customer service teams and building a collaborative environment that fostered better customer focused experiences. Yvonne would be a fantastic addition to any team looking for a person who both leads and contributes at a high level.

    James Grierson CEO | Jetpack

  • Yvonne is one of the best leaders I have worked with. She recognized my skills and interests and helped me define my career goals. Under her leadership, I always felt included and supported. She created an amazing environment where everyone stayed motivated and committed to doing their best work while having a great time. Any company looking for someone to manage, lead, and inspire talented people would be lucky to have her. I also learned a lot about user research from her, knowledge that has helped me grow as a designer focused on validating hypotheses and delivering value to the business.

    EDER RENGIFO Senior ai designer | automattic

  • I've had the pleasure of working with Yvonne for the past 2.5 years, and it’s clear that her leadership goes far beyond technical expertise. What sets Yvonne apart is her ability to cultivate an environment where creativity thrives while maintaining a sharp focus on results. She has a rare combination of vision, empathy, and the drive to push teams toward success—always balancing strategic thinking with a deep understanding of individual team members’ strengths. Yvonne is someone who genuinely cares about the growth and well-being of those she leads. I’m grateful for the chance to work with someone of her caliber and would highly recommend her as a leader, mentor, and teammate.

    Ilona Jaudžemytė Senior UX Designer | Jetpack

  • Yvonne Doll is a one-in-a-million, multi-talented designer, artist, musician, and, above all, design leader. It was my pleasure and privilege to watch Yvonne mentor, encourage, inspire, and support the Jetpack design team. Beyond being a model colleague, she’s also tremendous fun, supremely cool, and somehow, despite being fun and cool, a grownup and mensch. I would hire her myself if I were in a position to do so, and consider myself fortunate indeed if she accepted the offer. Meet her. Hang out with her. Interview her. You’ll be glad you did.

    Jeffery Zeldman Executive Creative Director | Automattic

  • Yvonne has a gift for unifying teams and keeping everyone focused on delivering the best possible experience for the user. She brought her deep expertise in user research and implemented practical, effective research processes that have seeped through the entire company. Yvonne is highly impact-driven and doesn’t waste time on unnecessary fluff. She’s as pragmatic as they come, always focused on what will move the needle and deliver results, fast. But what really sets her apart is her integrity and the genuine care she has for her team.

    FILIPE Varela Design director | Jetpack

  • I was very lucky to be able to work for Yvonne. She's a fantastic UX design leader and product thinker. She has a data-driven approach to UX that fuels excellent product design. 10/10 would work with her again.

    Nick Kovacevich Head of UX Design & Research | AWS Marketplace

  • I had the pleasure of working alongside Yvonne during her time as a Design Director at Automattic, where she made a big impact on the Jetpack design team and our company culture overall. Yvonne created a supportive and inspiring environment, making everyone feel valued and motivated to do their best work, and it showed!She was a fantastic mentor to me, always leading by example and pushing for creativity. Yvonne is an empathetic leader and genuine creative spirit!

    Andrei Slobstov Brand Design | automattic

  • I had the pleasure of working under Yvonne for a few years. The way she leads the design team with extreme efficiency, knowledge, and empathy is truly remarkable. She is what you'd call a player/coach, helping the team through complex design problems and jumping in to assist whenever needed. She will tirelessly fight for your team and deliver results. I am grateful to have worked with Yvonne and wish to be like her for a day. :) Take advantage of the opportunity to work with Yvonne; you won't regret it.

    Ballio Chan Creative Director | Automattic

  • Yvonne was my Design Director at Automattic for nearly 4 years. Exceptionally creative and organized, she built incredibly efficient UX Research workflows, led the division's roadmap and strategy, and mentored a team of 8 senior designers. Yvonne excelled at both detailed design feedback and strategic, big-picture thinking across products. Yvonne is a true multiplier—uplifting everyone around her and giving them the tools to become the best person they can.

    Jeff Golenski Principle Designer/ Product Mgr. | Automattic

My design credo

My design credo

Clarity from complexity

Break down complex design problems with sketches and wireframes to align teams early.

Data informed

Creative solutions grounded in fundamental
user & behavioral data insights.

Prototype Forward

Test experiences, not static screens.

Cross-functional collaboration

Align design, stakeholders, sales, marketing, and engineering from the start.

Iterative Progress

Favor quick, focused cycles over slow,
massive projects.

User's voice

Keep customer's needs front and center throughout implementation.

Elegant Research

Iterative user research focused on actionable insights supporting engineering momentum and continuous progress.

Clarity from complexity

Break down complex design problems with sketches and wireframes to align teams early.

Data informed

Creative solutions grounded in fundamental
user & behavioral data insights.

Prototype Forward

Test experiences, not static screens.

Cross-functional collaboration

Align design, stakeholders, sales, marketing, and engineering from the start.

Iterative Progress

Favor quick, focused cycles over slow,
massive projects.

User's voice

Keep customer's needs front and center throughout implementation.

Elegant Research

Iterative user research focused on actionable insights supporting engineering momentum and continuous progress.

Unscripted

Yvonne Doll Fine Art and Music

When I’m not pushing pixels around, you’ll find me in my painting studio as an abstract oil painter or on stage rehearsing and performing as the lead singer and songwriter for the indie rock band, The Locals.

Even when I'm not on stage or at my painting studio, I usually have some interesting side art projects going on.


Check out my art/music ⭎