Hi. My name is Kit.
I am a human experience designer.
I have over 20 years of experience leading product design teams and transforming business challenges into user-centered solutions. Throughout my career, I’ve built and led UX teams, delivered multi-million dollar projects, coached, managed and mentored over 100 designers, helping them grow into leaders themselves. I’ve worked across industries, from financial institutions to government agencies, shaping user experiences that deliver both exceptional user value and measurable business outcomes. Over the past 20 years, I’ve been a design leader, a mentor, public speaker and writer, a product designer, an inventor, a consultant, a non-profit founder, a karate black belt and a loving father of two.
Product and UX Design Leadership
Results that Matter
I’ve consistently delivered results that matter. At OneMain Financial, I led the redesign of the loan application process, resulting in a 50% increase in conversion rates, a 15-point increase in NPS, and significant reductions in branch time and costs. At Fannie Mae, I drove $5-10M+ business applications, achieving 3x savings in development costs through the implementation of an enterprise-wide design system.
AI & Design Innovation
I am deeply fluent in leveraging AI in my work: from utilizing custom-built LLMs in business apps to creating innovative prototypes and solutions that harness the power of AI for faster, smarter design iterations. I lead design at AI-native expert-driven knowledge management startup, Answersfrom.me. I’m a black belt in Figma (not just karate) and design systems, helping my teams build effective and collaborative processes using design tools.
Building & Leading Teams
My mentorship is a cornerstone of my leadership. I’ve hired, managed, coached and nurtured over 100 designers, many of whom have gone on to lead successful teams and drive high-impact projects. I’ve launched UX Design Community of Practice at Fannie Mae educating hundreds of employees, resulting in 35% adoption of UX methodologies and design practices across the division.
Culture of Excellence
I’m committed to fostering a culture of trust, collaboration, and results. Whether it’s through regular 10:10 feedback sessions or storytelling-driven weekly team meetings, I ensure that my team feels supported, empowered, and equipped to deliver their best work. I believe that everyone in my company can influence design process. And I do my best to educate, evangelize, and share my passion for making human lives better through great UX design.
Here are some of the case studies I’ve worked on in the leadership roles — as a team manager, or as a senior strategic adviser. Also check out OneMain Financial highly successful acquisitions flow, Fannie Mae applications for commercial lenders and Department of Veterans Affairs $18M-saving workflow/form builder.
AI-native Knowledge Sharing Platform
0 → 1 agentic experience product design with growth loops and +200% user retention through strategic design and enhanced onboarding
Commercial Lending SaaS
Loan verification B2B app reducing risks and meeting regulatory compliance
USPS mobile app
Flagship mobile servicing experience for 25M+ customers of the United States Postal Service
Branch Service Design
Omni-channel award-winning ecosystem of products and services for retail bank spaces.
One Design System and Brand
Enterprise-wide design system and talent brand for a large-scale design org
As a leader, I’m happily sharing my experiences with other designers and technologists. I’m mentoring over 100 designers, frequently speak at design and tech conferences, and write articles about product design, management, philosophy and ethics.
While I am happy to lead others, I am accustomed to contributing myself—as a strategic consultant, or simply as a fellow designer. To me, being a human experience designer means caring deeply about people and using my skills to make their lives better, help my company grow, and develop our society as the whole. Here’s how.
My design approach
I’m a systems thinker.
My brain works in frameworks, journey maps, and complex integrated systems at large scale. I excel at navigating various zoom levels of a design project—from huge enterprise ecosystems and data streams to small UI components and design patterns. It all matters to me, and I love how those things fit together in a product or service I’m designing.
I start with “why”.
I start every design project by clearly defining a problem we’re trying to solve for the people, as well as the business objectives this project is trying to achieve. I’m also thoughtful about the design ethics, and the impact this project might have on the sustainability of our human society as a whole.
I blaze trails.
I love starting from scratch, and I love working on some big hairy problems. I don’t like to move fast and break things, but I sure love to learn fast. I prototype something quickly — with Figma, AI or just paper — to get collaborative insights and validate the idea as soon as possible, then iterate on the solution.
I’ve spent five years as an independent consultant, running my own design company. It was an amazing time of my life, I’ve learned so much working for hundreds of clients from all sorts of different industries from around the globe.
I had a distributed fully remote team of designers, researchers, front-end developers, back-end engineers and product managers to tackle some really challenging problems and deliver all kinds solutions—from enterprise apps and POS systems to branding and marketing websites—on time and on budget.
You can see many more examples of those consulting projects on my Dribbble and Tumblr portfolios.
That’s my story.
Thanks for reading! Feel free to reach out anytime, I’m always looking for new and exciting opportunities! Email me at kit.oliynyk@gmail.com or send me a message on Twitter or LinkedIn.
Kit Oliynyk 