Dan Olsavsky

About

Dan Olsavsky

I’m a product design leader with 20+ years of experience designing and scaling real-world software. I specialize in turning ambiguity into shippable products, strengthening design practices, and mentoring designers within cross-functional teams. My work spans enterprise platforms, consumer products, design systems, and advisory consulting, with a focus on clarity, usability, and long-term maintainability.

Experience

Principal Product Designer

Big Nerd Design
Sep 2025 – Present • Salt Lake City, UT • Pittsburgh, PA

  • Lead AI-assisted product discovery through rapid prototyping and experimentation
  • Facilitate workshops and hackathons for learning and validation
  • Advise on product strategy and UX design (selective, non-operational)

Lead Product Designer

Scaled Agile
Sep 2018 – Aug 2025 • Boulder, CO

  • Lead a community of 12+ designers across multiple workstreams
  • Manage the enterprise design system and ensure consistency at scale
  • Mentor designers and contribute to hiring pipelines
  • Drive UX strategy through research and cross-team collaboration
  • Led UX/UI internship program, delivering a new user-focused product
  • Won multiple internal hackathons for innovative product and product ideas adopted by leadership

UX/UI Career Mentor

Springboard.com
May 2020 – April 2024 • Remote

  • Provide personalized career guidance and portfolio reviews
  • Align mentoring with industry needs and hiring trends
  • Rated 4.92/5 by mentees across 179 sessions
  • 80% career placement rate
  • 75% graduation rate

Lead User Interface Designer

PK Global (acquired by Concentrix)
Sep 2017 – Feb 2018 • Contract • Denver, CO

  • Designed T-Mobile’s Sentinel app UI to match brand and user goals
  • Reduced law enforcement request turnaround by ~33%
  • Integrated new components into the T-Mobile GLUE design system
  • Created an extensible, Bootstrap-based design system derived from GLUE to support scalable development
  • Championed responsive design and accessibility standards

Principal Product Designer

Antfarm Collaborative
Nov 2013 – Aug 2017 • Denver, CO

  • Founded and led a boutique product design agency
  • Delivered over 20 projects for clients including Microsoft and Towers Watson
  • Designed award-winning app Stackup, which achieved adoption by over 10 million users
  • Managed design efforts end-to-end: research, design, implementation, OKRs

Earlier Career (2005 – 2013)

Nov 2012 – Nov 2013 • Denver, CO

  • Built and documented an extensible design system using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript
  • Developed rapid prototyping frameworks to accelerate design iteration
  • Collaborated with product design and engineering teams to bridge design and development workflows

Jan 2011 – Nov 2012 • Denver, CO

  • Led usability initiatives and redesigns for enterprise portals
  • Increased online registrations by 900%, reducing call center cases
  • Developed an award-winning mobile marketing experience

Feb 2010 – Jan 2011 • Denver, CO

  • Established and led the UI practice, shaping team structure and hiring strategy
  • Improved code quality, created internal style guides
  • Earned Employee of the Quarter for leadership and innovation

Feb 2010 – Jan 2011 • Boulder, CO

  • Developed global e-commerce templates for 30+ countries
  • Enhanced UX with accessibility and localization improvements

Aug 2006 – Apr 2007 • Aurora, CO

  • Taught courses in UX, UI, and front-end development
  • Mentored students and supported curriculum development
  • 86.7% graduation rate
  • 2 graduates hired immediately upon completion.

Jul 2005 – Jun 2009 • Denver, CO

  • Led a team of 10 web designers
  • Led CMS platform adoption, improving turnaround and scalability
  • Designed developed and maintained over 40 client websites


Earlier academic, tutoring, and internship roles available upon request.

“In my years working with many professionals in IT, I have not run across anyone as passionate about their work as Dan. He holds himself to the highest standards in his deliverables – and through solid, fearless leadership encourages the best from his colleagues. He always is on top of the latest UI techniques and technologies and is particularly talented in seeing “the big picture” in a large, complex implementation but also easily focuses on the details and executes even the smallest detail flawlessly.”

– Deanna E., Scrum Master at Healthgrades

Core Competencies

  • Systems & Scalable Practices
  • Design Leadership/Mentorship
  • Hiring & Team Development
  • Design Operations
  • Strategic Product Thinking
  • Cross-functional Alignment

Industry Knowledge

  • Product Design (End-to-End)
  • User Interface Design
  • User Experience Design
  • Rapid Prototyping
  • User Research
  • Design System Management
  • Responsive Design
  • Native Mobile Design
  • Accessibility
  • Globalization
  • OKR Tracking & Reporting
  • Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Other Skills

  • HTML
  • CSS
  • JavaScript

Honors & Awards

  • Startup of the Year – Denver Post
  • Best in Show – The OMMA Awards
  • Employee of the Quarter – HealthGrades, Inc
  • Dean’s List (3.7 GPA) – The Art Institute

Education

Bachelor of Science (B.S.)
Multimedia Arts & Animation
The Art Institute of Pittsburgh

Projects/Highlights

  • Boeing
  • Carnegie Science Center
  • Crocs
  • Healthgrades
  • Oppenheimer Funds (Invesco)
  • Microsoft
  • National Multiple Sclerosis Foundation
  • Pittsburgh Penguins
  • Sony Interactive Entertainment
  • Stackup (Global Grid for Learning)
  • T-Mobile
  • Welltok (Virgin Pulse)
  • Willis Towers Watson

Reading/Influences