Hi. My name is Kit.
I am a human experience designer.
Over the past 20 years I’ve delivered multi-million enterprise 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. Other than leading product design teams and transforming business challenges into user-centered solutions, 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 three.
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 work with AI directly, not just talk about it: custom-built LLMs inside business apps, AI-powered prototypes, faster and smarter design iterations. I lead design at Answersfrom.me, an AI-native, expert-driven knowledge platform. And I’m a black belt in Figma and design systems (not just karate), which mostly means I help my teams build processes that actually hold up.
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 care about a culture of trust, collaboration, and results. Regular 10:10 feedback sessions, storytelling-driven weekly meetings, whatever it takes for the team to feel supported and actually do their best work. I believe everyone in a company can shape the design process. So I spend a lot of time teaching, evangelizing, and sharing why good UX makes people’s lives better.
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+ USPS customers. I set the strategy in 2019; USPS shipped a unified, native app along those lines in 2025.
Capital One Branch Transformation
Omni-channel, Apple-recognized ecosystem of products and services for retail bank spaces.
Capital 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.