Julie Ahn
UX Design Leader, MBA
San Diego, CA 92123 | 401.261.0591
ahnju.creative@gmail.com | linkedin.com/in/ahnju/
Design Manager · Product Design Lead · UX Strategy · Design Systems/Ops
Product Design Manager and UX Strategy Leader with experience shaping scalable digital experiences across mobile, web, console, living room, and connected ecosystems. Known for translating customer insight, ambiguity, and business goals into clear product direction, high-quality UX, and strategic design solutions. Blends deep design craft with business acumen and a people-first leadership approach grounded in trust, curiosity, operational discipline, to align with cross-functional teams to deliver thoughtful, customer-centered experiences that achieve meaningful business outcomes.
Key Skills and Leadership Success
Figma · Adobe CC · Sketch · Jira · Wrike · Miro · M365 Suite · HTML5 · Claude Code · Open AI
Streaming Media · Living Room, Mobile, Web, Console Design · CPG · Retail Packaging · Digital Marketing · Business Strategy · Brand Identity · Photography · Motion/Video Design · 3D Illustration
• Product & UX: Led UX initiatives alongside cross-functional partners to meet target milestones and business goals through progressive collaboration, ensuring clear alignment around user needs, success metrics, and design process.
• Team & Operations: Managed a team of 7–9 remote/hybrid designers across 3–4 product areas YoY. Regularly ensuring IC success through roadmap/capacity planning, clear prioritization, risk tracking, supported onboarding, design review rituals, and work/life balance check-ins.
• People-growth Multiplier: Supported designer hard- and soft-skills development to improve craft confidence, visibility, and more effective team work through structured coaching, feedback, growth plans, and enabling stretch opportunities.
• Innovation Culture Builder: Contributed beyond the business roadmap organizing patents workshops, AI community discussions, internal conference speaking events, and future-facing research and projects.
Relevant Experience
Sony Interactive Entertainment, PlayStation
Scope: Led user and customer experiences in the “Player” domain, focused on connected experiences and music/video streaming. Facilitated 0 to 1, n-1 product UX, people management, design ops, emerging AI workflows and cross-functional collaboration across console, mobile, web, PlayStation Portal, media, and future-facing product initiatives. Managed and coached a team of 7–9 junior to staff designers to become subject matter experts in the social and multiplayer, identity, video streaming, R&D and companion music-player gameplay spaces.
Impact Highlights
• Strengthened UX/CX influence across partner teams by moving business-led product ideas from brainstorming through release, strategically activating design phases to ensure quality outcomes within fixed timelines.
• Reduced ambiguity around ownership, decision points, timelines, and stakeholder expectations, raising designers’ product judgment, communication, and accountability.
• Expanded design impact beyond roadmap work through creative problem-solving, innovation programs, patent activity, future-facing research, and AI/UX community-building.
• Built a stronger team collaboration and feedback culture, driving measurable gains in feedback, action-taking, belonging, and recognition.
• Improved workflow efficiency through a redesigned handoff process, adapting to shifting priorities, ambiguous scope, and evolving stakeholder needs.
• Filed 3 accepted patents, with 1 pending.
Core Responsibilities
• Led design across 3–4 programs per year, each spanning 4–8 features across consumer-facing and platform experiences.
• Aligned UX/CX strategy with roadmap priorities, KPIs, product goals, user needs, success metrics, and stakeholder expectations.
• Supported product discovery, concept development, feature exploration, and future-facing UX strategy across cross-functional initiatives.
• Managed a team of designers, driving end-to-end execution and skills growth through 1:1s, critique, retrospectives, risk tracking, and documentation.
VUDU, Inc.
• Managed five direct reports while overseeing daily creative delivery, administrative needs, coaching, bandwidth, morale, and a positive team environment.
• Led product work across feature lifecycles: UI, UX flows, wireframes, prototypes, logic definition, user journeys, vision work, research support, accessibility, and style-guide development for TV, device, mobile, and web platforms.
• Delivered major initiatives including Digital Video by Vudu, Disc to Digital, Vudu Inception Redesign, Vudu-Fandango merge and onboarding, Library Organization, and Account Settings across platforms.
Graphic Designer
• Supported high-volume marketing and brand initiatives; weekly digital assets, motion graphics, art direction, style guides, print, Walmart integrations, Watch What We Do Campaign, Comic-Con events, and in-store placements.
Selected Earlier Experience
Remote · November 2021 – April 2022
Walnut Creek, CA · January 2015 – November 2017
Framingham, MA · January 2013 – December 2015
New Bedford, MA · January 2009 – December 2013
North Providence, RI · January 2007 – December 2009
Education
MBA, Dual Degree, Entrepreneurship & Marketing
Northeastern University, Boston, MA · Hybrid
BFA, Photography
Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY