# Stephen Sherwood Product Designer · Founder · AI-Native Builder Seattle, WA · stephensherwood@icloud.com · linkedin.com/in/sherwoodstephen --- ## 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 ### Founder & Product Designer **Somware (MoodiBoard)** · Seattle, WA · Oct 2025 – Present 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 `React` `Next.js` `Python` `Stable Diffusion` `ControlNet` `Claude Code` `Figma MCP` `v0` `Vercel` --- ### Founding Designer **smash** · Seattle, WA (Remote) · Oct 2021 – Jan 2025 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 negative to +43 points (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 `Figma` `Design Systems` `UX Research` `Information Architecture` `User Flows` `Journey Mapping` `OpenEdX` `Azure` --- ### Technical Project Coordinator **WattTime.org** · Feb – Sep 2022 Led a team of 6 developers to scrape real-time emissions data from Indian government grid databases to support Azure cloud decarbonization. --- ### Teaching Assistant: Design Methods (INFO 360) **University of Washington Information School** · Seattle, WA · Dec 2020 – Dec 2021 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 `UX Research` `Figma` `Usability Testing` `Prototyping` `Design Critique` `Coaching` --- ### Information Technology Specialist **Willis Towers Watson** · Seattle, WA · Jan 2018 – Sep 2018 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 ### University of Washington **B.S., Informatics (Human-Computer Interaction) & Comparative Philosophy (CHID)** · Sep 2018 – Jun 2022 4.0 GPA in major · 3.8 GPA across 15 Informatics and Design courses · Dean's List --- ## Selected Projects **The Idea Network** Undergraduate Thesis · University of Washington · Jan 2021 – Jun 2022 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. **Nurture** Mobile App Design · Mar 2020 – Jun 2020 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 **Design:** Figma · Design Systems · UX Research · User Flows · Information Architecture · Prototyping · Wireframing · Usability Testing · Journey Mapping · Interaction Design · Visual Design · Responsive Web Design **Engineering:** React · Next.js · Python · JavaScript · HTML/CSS · Tailwind · Firebase · Vercel · SQL **AI & Agentic Tools:** Claude Code · MCP Servers · Stable Diffusion · ControlNet · v0 · Figma MCP **Methods:** User Interviews · Surveys · Personas · User Stories · KPI Definition · Sprint Planning · Agile --- ## Volunteering **Student Tech Fee Committee, Voting Member** · University of Washington · Sep 2019 – Dec 2021 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.