Stephen Sherwood
Product Designer · Founder · AI-Native Builder
Seattle, WA · stephensherwood@icloud.com · LinkedIn
Summary
Product designer with 4+ years owning design end-to-end: from blank Figma file to shipped product. I've been the only designer in the room more than once: building design systems from scratch, running research, partnering with engineering, and making hard calls with incomplete information. I work fluidly with AI tools and agentic workflows (Claude Code, MCP servers, v0) as a force multiplier, not a novelty. Currently building a solo generative art platform. Looking for roles where design, product thinking, and technical execution genuinely overlap.
Experience
Somware (MoodiBoard) · Seattle, WA
Building MoodiBoard, a living art platform where the interface is the data. Visuals on screen are driven by real-time signals the user defines, or that a generative AI agent selects autonomously, creating an ambient, ever-changing portrait of your day. Sole owner of product strategy, design, and engineering.
- Architected full-stack system solo: React + Tailwind, Next.js, Python, Vercel, Stable Diffusion + ControlNet
- Integrated generative AI agent for autonomous signal selection and real-time visual adaptation
- Operates entirely within an agentic development workflow: Claude Code, Figma MCP, v0
smash · Seattle, WA (Remote)
First design hire at a SaaS LMS startup built on OpenEdX + Azure. Owned design across the entire product surface as the sole designer, from early concept through shipped MVP and beyond.
- Shipped core MVP in 3 months, on time and on budget
- Drove a product strategy pivot mid-build that eliminated $220K+ in development costs
- Redesigned core user flows from research data; moved NPS from −17 to +43 (60-point improvement)
- Built and maintained a scalable Figma design system adopted across 3 engineering teams
- Led full research cycle: user interviews, surveys, journey mapping, user stories, KPIs, and feature prioritization
- Partnered with offshore engineering teams to maintain alignment in a high-ambiguity, async environment
WattTime.org
Led a team of 6 developers to scrape real-time emissions data from Indian government grid databases to support Azure cloud decarbonization.
University of Washington Information School · Seattle, WA
User-centered design curriculum across 5 quarters. First undergraduate student to TA two sections simultaneously, reducing department labor costs by 25%.
- Guided 195 individual and 46 team projects through full product lifecycles
- Taught core UX methods: user research, personas, usability testing, wireframing, prototyping, design critique
- Managed feedback and progress tracking across 70 students and 14 teams per quarter
Willis Towers Watson · Seattle, WA
IT support across 8 departments serving 175 employees. Managed hardware, software, onboarding/offboarding, network support, AV, and ServiceNow ticketing. Left to attend University of Washington full time.
Education
B.S., Informatics (Human-Computer Interaction) & Comparative Philosophy (CHID)
4.0 GPA in major · 3.8 GPA across 15 Informatics and Design courses · Dean's List
Selected Projects
Designed a system for decomposing all concepts into primitive nodes and edges to enable contradiction detection, knowledge traversal, and personalized concept presentation. The architecture independently converged on ideas now central to knowledge graphs, ontological reasoning, and neurosymbolic AI, all developed without prior exposure to AI research.
Designed a mobile community app for emotional well-being during pandemic lockdowns. Conducted user research and SME interviews to produce hi-fi prototypes and full design specifications. Outcome: hired as TA for Design Methods under two professors.
Skills
Volunteering
University of Washington
Entirely student-operated $10M technology fund (6 voting members). Vetted 78 projects, funded 55 totaling $2.76M. Championed LinkedIn Learning access for 46,000 UW Seattle students annually.