AI-Forward Design Leader: Bridging the Gap Between AI Innovation & Business Outcomes

Design Systems & AI/ML Strategy for Enterprise scale
Builder | Builder of High-Performance Teams
PORTFOLIO

WHO

With 20+ years of experience in End-to-End User Experience (UX) and Service Design, I lead global organizations that bridge the gap between human-centered innovation and measurable business outcomes. My expertise lies in orchestrating cultural shifts—transforming feature-led roadmaps into outcomes-driven experience strategies that accelerate time-to-market and drive sustainable growth.

I specialize in building and scaling high-performing teams across high-stakes domains like AI-Native Networking, FinTech, and Cloud Infrastructure (SaaS). By integrating Jobs-to-be-Done (JTBD), Lean UX, and Dual-Track Agile, I empower cross-functional teams to navigate complexity with clarity. I don’t just manage designers; I develop directors and leaders who speak the language of the business.

"Good design is good business"
- Thomas J Watson
Steven Roy

WHAT

AI Product Strategy & Agentic UX

Pioneering the transition from static interfaces to Intelligent, Autonomous Systems. I focus on the "Trust Layer" of AI—designing for explainability, reliability, and seamless human-agent collaboration.

Business Orchestration & ROI

I translate design quality into C-suite KPIs. By sharpening "Product Sense," I align design vision with engineering feasibility and market timing to ensure every pixel contributes to the P&L.

DesignOps & Operational Excellence

I bridge the "What" and the "How," maturing Design Operations to increase shipping velocity and maintain a high-quality bar across distributed global systems.

Omni-Channel Service Design

Redefining customer journeys for an AI-first world, ensuring that technology acts as a catalyst for human progress rather than a barrier.

Culture & Teams

Proven and repeatable method for building teams from the ground up with established mature design cultures capable of solving wicked problems.

Experience Design

From napkin sketch to fully functional simulations, I understand how to balance intuition with behavioral evidence and research that solve problems and addresses unmet needs.

20+ years of building better outcomes. Still building.

WHERE

I specialize in transforming complex enterprise environments into human-centered, outcome-driven organizations. My leadership focuses on the intersection of AI/ML strategy and scalable design systems, moving beyond static interfaces to create intelligent, agentic workflows.

Most recently, as Senior Director of Product Experience at Extreme Networks, I pioneered the vision for Extreme Platform ONE. By integrating networking and security data into a unified AI core, I led the shift from manual NetOps to "flexible AI modes" and supervised automation.

Prior to this, I served as a Design Leader at Dell Technologies, where I scaled a 45-person team to launch APEX (PaaS)—a move that contributed to $1B in revenue growth within 18 months. My foundation in FinTech was solidified at Charles Schwab, where I built the firm’s largest multidisciplinary UX team from the ground up and launched the industry-leading "robo-advisor," Schwab Intelligent Portfolios.

Clients

WORK

Charles Schwab: Investing Services

The Challenge

Schwab’s branch locator was crippled by technical debt, utilizing an obsolete mapping engine (MapBlast) powered by 16 fragmented databases and dual CMS platforms. This redundancy not only degraded the user experience but severely diluted the firm’s SEO authority across duplicate domains.
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Impact & Outcomes‍
• Unified Ecosystem: Consolidated 16 legacy databases and two domains into a single, high-performance architecture, significantly boosting organic SEO and brand visibility.
• Modernized UX: Replaced MapBlast with a streamlined, Google Maps-integrated interface, validated through rigorous user testing and journey mapping.
• Operational Efficiency: Eliminated CMS redundancy, reducing the internal content management overhead required to maintain thousands of branch locations.

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Case Studies

HELLO

I'm always interested in talking about good design in buildings, brands, the digital realm and the natural world.

ROY@STEVENKROY.COMLinkedIn