A little different

by design

a photo of meghan, smiling on her design leadership summit speaker card

Designing the frontier, not the feature

I’m Meghan, a Staff Product Designer with over a decade in B2B SaaS, specializing in complex systems, adoption, and growth. Much of my work has been in security-sensitive spaces where design has to balance usability with compliance.

Most designers look for places to insert AI. I look for the unseen spaces where AI and human needs converge, uncovering opportunities, defining what’s next, and shaping systems people can trust.

My approach bridges user needs, product goals, and business outcomes. I’ve turned messy problems into measurable impact: improving adoption by 300%, reducing churn, and driving over $4M in revenue retention and growth.

My superpowers are vision and systems architecture. Craft matters to me too, but my portfolio reflects the reality of my roles: design systems, compliance flows, and complex enterprise challenges that don’t always look “Dribbble-ready.” What I bring is business-informed, customer-driven design that balances team needs with long-term vision.

I thrive in problem spaces that others may avoid — compliance, security, finance — and I excel in the messy spaces, when no one’s sure what the real problem is yet. I care deeply about impact and ethics: design has the power and responsibility to make complex systems usable again. I won’t help build things that cause harm.

Leadership

I contribute design thoughts, learnings, and perspectives on UX Collective, UX Bootcamp, Medium, and have spoken on design panels for UXDX and DesignX Community's "Design Leadership Summit" in January 2025. I've been featured in additional publications such as ADPList's newsletter, engaging hundreds of thousands of designers.

I’m passionate about supporting the design community. I released The Product Designer’s Interview Playbook, which reached over 600K designers globally.

I regularly mentor through OutInTech during the fall semesters and currently lead the Sustainable UX Network (SUX) community initiatives. Between October 2024 and January 2025, I mentored ~150 designers and taught a design strategy course on Maven.

The Architect

My design archetype is the Architect: a systems thinker who simplifies complexity and builds experiences with structure, connection, and foresight.

Affiliative

I lead with empathy and care. I make space for questions, welcome feedback, and focus on building trust so teams can do their best work together.

Connector

I bring people into the process early and often. I work side by side with product, eng, & stakeholders, making sure every voice shapes the solution.

Principled

I stand up for design that’s responsible and human. For me, it’s never just about how something looks. it’s about how it works, who it includes, and the impact it creates.

Strategic

I think in systems and outcomes, tying design choices to both user needs and business goals. I make sure what we design today can grow with what’s next.

Work

Skills

Design skills

design collaboration icon
Vision Setting & Storytelling
Responsive & Adaptive Design
Design Systems (Tokens, Variables, Modes)
Information Architecture & Systems Thinking
User Research & Usability Testing
Behavioral Science Principles
Customer Journey Mapping & Service Blueprints
Interaction Design
Strategic Alignment, Workshops, and DesignOps

Product strategy

product strategy and leadership icon
Stakeholder Management
Product Market Fit & Product-Led Growth Strategy
Cross-Functional Leadership
Roadmap Planning
Agile & Scrum Methodologies
Metrics & Analytics Interpretation
Team Mentorship & Development

Systems & infrastructure

systems and infrastructure icon
API Architecture & Platform Integrations
Generative AI tools (ChatGPT, co-pilot)
Accessibility (WCAG)
API & Developer Tools UX
GDPR & Compliance Design

Using AI today

I use AI in my current role to speed up both design and operations. For design, I’ve been leveraging AI to quickly generate prototypes — for example, at Thrivent, I recently built a CodePen demo using Highcharts APIs to show engineers and product owners what we could achieve if we moved beyond Chart.js for our retirement income distribution charts, allowing advisors to dig deeper into retirement income categories. It helped secure buy-in for a stronger tech stack by giving stakeholders something tangible to react to earlier in the process. AI also helps me generate quick variations, so I spend less time mocking up options and more time getting alignment.

On the operations side, I use AI for everyday tasks like drafting emails, customer outreach, and internal documentation, which frees up time for deeper design work.

I’m also building my foundation with courses through DeepLearning.AI — I just finished Generative AI for Everyone and plan to continue with courses on LLMOps, Python for beginners, and AI safety and ethics.

As we face new digital challenges, from AI to misinformation, design carries a responsibility: to build trust, clarity, and connection in an increasingly complex world. It’s a commitment to use creativity and strategy as tools for positive change.

Good design makes space for what’s unseen and unmeasurable. User experience exists to defend the messy, vulnerable, and contradictory parts of being human.

UX professional, Vitaly Friedman
Former client and founder, Sam Reader
Playbook reader, Gabrielle
Former manager, Mel Allums

Reviews

an eng colleague, Taylor Jones
Taylor Jones
Sr Software Engineer @ ApolloGraphQL
Engineering Partner

"I love working with Meghan because she is not only thoughtful about her designs but drives them using data and best practices. She is one of the best storytellers I have had the pleasure of working with and works extremely hard to understand the users what their personas need in a way that makes a positive impact not only for our users but for our company. She also is super easy to work with and makes sure I have all of the information and assets I need as a developer to implement her designs."

a product design professional, Wendy Chang
Wendy Y Chang
Sr Product Designer II @ Amazon
Product Design Professional

“Meghan put out an amazing piece of work with her playbook, I love how the writings are warm, supportive but not condescending to junior, mid, senior level or just about anyone who is still figuring things out in this tough market. Thank you Meghan and all the other co-authors!"

A former client, Steven Cohn
Steven Cohn
Founder, CEO of Winware.ai | Prev Founder of Validately
Founder, Past Client

"Meghan was an integral part of designing our MVP. She is great at capturing user needs and turning them into elegant designs. She works well with both developers and the business team. I loved partnering with Meghan."

Former eng colleague, Kaushik Sahoo
Kaushik Sahoo
Engineering Manager, ApolloGraphQL
Engineering Partner

"Meghan and I have worked on a variety of projects at Apollo, and her number one skill as a design partner is her ability to critically think through any problem a business is facing/might face. She is driven by data and analytical insights, and when this is mixed with her ability to create beautiful user interfaces, it creates for a stellar combo. You can always trust Meghan to work with all stakeholders to ensure there is proper buy-in across the organization. I greatly appreciate her natural inclination towards product-led growth and desire to consistently start from the perspective of truly understanding what customers want first and foremost."

Coaching client, Nithya
Nithya Subramaniam
Senior Product Designer | Investor | Experience Design | Design Architect
Coaching Client

"I can’t thank Meghan enough for the invaluable support and guidance she provided during my job search. Her structured process, insightful feedback, and well-crafted mock interviews helped me navigate a high-stress interview landscape with confidence. The templates and frameworks she shared weren’t just tools—they were a way to reframe my thinking, analyze my strengths, and approach each interview with clarity and strategy. Meghan’s expertise goes far beyond interview prep. She helps you see your value and show up as your strongest self. I can’t recommend her enough."

Former design peer, Josh Skinner
Josh Skinner
Design Leader & Professor of Design at Centennial College
Design Peer

"Meghan was genuinely such a pleasure to work with. From the day she started, she displayed a strong willingness to learn and explore new concepts and ideas. Meghan is also a versatile designer; she is quick to adapt to new problem spaces and environments all while providing a thoughtful and elevated solution in the end. She also spearheaded several critical initiatives at Lever, laying the groundwork for a successful design team. I look forward to having the privilege to work with Meghan again in the future."

Coaching client, Juan Pablo
Juan Pablo Jou-Valencia
Product Design Leader, Prev Deloitte
Coaching Client

"I reached out to Meghan for advice during my job search and interview process. She gave me pragmatic feedback and concrete steps to improve my portfolio and draft interview responses. Meghan truly knows the industry. Thanks to her help I got the job I was applying for! I highly recommend Meghan as a mentor."

Playbook Reader, Mitchell C
Mitchell Clements
Sr. Product Design Manager @ nCinco Inc | Career Coach
Playbook Reader

"Read Meghan Logan's new product design interview playbook.It's short, straight to the point, and helps you navigate what recruiters and hiring managers are looking for. And it's FREE. As a hiring manager, I couldn't agree more with the advice in there."

Former student, Mayank Kinger
Mayank Kinger
Product Designer @ Ikon Technologies
Course Alum

"I absolutely loved Meghan's course! It helped me identify my unique strengths as a designer, improve my storytelling, and sharpen my technical design interview skills. Meghan shared powerful techniques and frameworks for using various narrative arcs to communicate your story effectively and emphasize the impact of your work, even when metrics aren’t available to support it."

Former client, Sophie Edelman
Sophie Edelman
Sr Tech Recruiter, Ford | Prev. Unity
Founder, Past Client

"I hired Meghan to help design my website. Meghan knocked it out of the park! I was so impressed with how she improved my website designs. She took a standard template I had put together and within a week the entire site had been overhauled and it was such an improvement. I'm very pleased with the work she produced and it was a joy working with her. I recommend!"

Playbook reader, Dawn Delatte
Dawn Delatte
Dir. of Design Strategy at Thoughtbot Inc.
Playbook Reader

"Came across Meghan’s Design Interview playbook on Linkedin. It’s a really great resource! Thanks for sharing :). It's a great resource for our design team, especially as they work with other client organizations that have different needs than our own.”

UX professional, Vitaly Friedman
Vitaly Friedman
Founder of SmashingMag
Top UX Voice, Playbook Reader

“Meghan wrote a practical little guide to guide designers through each interview phase, with helpful tips and strategies on things to keep in mind, talking points, questions to ask, red flags to watch out for and how to tell a compelling story about yourself and your work. Kindly put together by Meghan Logan. 👏🏼👏🏽👏🏾"

Former manager, Danielle Man
Danielle Man
Sr. Director of Engineering @ ApolloGraphQL
Former Manager

"Meghan has an impressive ability to tackle complex systems design problems. She's a good storyteller, she runs her own research, she's constantly teaching herself new things and keeping up with industry trends. More than other folks, I think she approaches her role with fearlessness and the energy she brings can be the rising tide to lift boats around her. At Apollo, I have seen her build productive x-functional relationships and take initiative to own full business problems and champion design thinking time and time again.  I think her ceiling is extremely high."

Former product peer, Deep Jani
Deep Jani
Product @ OneTrust (CIPP/E)
Product Team Peer

"I worked with Meghan during her time at Lever. Meghan and I were overseeing highly impactful product areas such as data compliance & privacy and User Access & Permissions. I have become a huge advocate for her as she displayed the ability to understand, extract, and synthesize customers’ needs through continuous discovery & research. Not only that but her raw horsepower coupled with strong user empathy bolstered our ability to develop scalable solutions that addressed the most complex user needs while keeping business objectives in sight."

Playbook reader, Madhavi
Madhavi Raheja
Sr Principal User Experience Designer @ Medtronic Diabetes
Playbook Reader

"Meghan's Playbook is Such amazing work! Not only is this helpful for designers preparing for interviews but also insightful on different interview styles of hiring managers. Thanks for sharing this!"

Former Mentee, Cortney Ho
Cortney Ho
Mentee from OutinTech
Career Coaching Client

"Meghan was my Out in Tech mentor last fall, and truly the best I could’ve asked for. Over our 8 weeks together, she was incredibly patient, supportive, and consistently helped me stay focused on the goals we set. Her guidance deepened my understanding of the tech industry’s many paths, and gave me the tools to confidently bring together design, UI principles, and performance expectations in a mock product requirements doc. When we started, I had no idea what to expect from post-grad life—now, as I job hunt, I feel confident and prepared to step into the professional world."

RESOURCES

a collage, zine inspired image of two founders meghans work with in the past, one wearing a crown, and both with speech bubbles speaking to meghans work

Professional Partnership and UX Services

Usability and experience optimization: UX audits, heuristic evaluations, human-centered AI design, PLG, and more.

a collage, zine inspired image of meghan overlaying content she's written and produced

Design Guides and How-to's

Everything I wish someone had told me sooner.

a collage, zine inspired image of a cutout hand pointing to meghan talking on a stage, with a backdrop of torn paper

Published Content

Thoughts from someone still figuring it out too.

Curiousities

Questions you likely have about me.
Can you tell me more about your visual craft?
Absolutely. In my case studies, the visuals were built on top of existing design systems — but my craft shows up in how I apply them: typography hierarchy, spacing rhythm, color usage, accessibility contrast, and micro-interactions that bring clarity. I focus on making complex information feel intuitive and clean, not just consistent.
Have you had to design somewhere that did not have a design system in place?
When systems were incomplete (common at startups), I created new tokens, components, and patterns to fill gaps, always balancing usability with aesthetic polish. I also stay sharp by experimenting with personal projects — reworking flows, playing with modern typographic grids, and testing out motion design. For me, visual craft is the layer that makes strategy and usability resonate.
Why do you job hop?
Most of my roles have been at startups or smaller orgs (<500 people), where leadership turnover creates seismic shifts. In the last five roles, design leaders often left within my first 3–6 months — leaving teams without design leadership or representation. At ApolloGraphQL and Lever, we ended up reporting directly into engineering or product. At Twilio, my director quit on my third day, my manager by week two, followed by layoffs. At Thrivent, I left Apollo to follow a director I deeply respected only for her to depart early 2025.

In environments like these, a designer’s impact depends on ownership, stability, and support. My choices have always been about ensuring I can contribute meaningfully and grow, not about chasing titles or running away.
Why not just stay anyways?
I don’t leave companies lightly. Both paths are difficult: onboarding into a new role takes energy, and interviews can feel like circus rings. The reality of being perceived as a "job hopper" can ruin opportunities before they even begin.

But it came down to this asking myself this: Which is worse?

1) Leave early when it’s clear there’s no room to grow, learn, or make meaningful impact.
-or-
2) Stay put for the optics of longevity, but risk years of shallow work that undersell your true level.

For me, the answer is obvious: let go, or be dragged.
Do you offer fractional support?
Yes. I partner with teams on a fractional basis when they need senior design leadership without a full-time hire. This can look like shaping product strategy, building or extending a design system, running discovery workshops, mentoring designers, or helping ship high-stakes features. Most engagements are 5–15 hours per week, scoped to the outcomes your team needs most.
If you’re interested in fractional support, let’s talk. ⚡️