About · AJ Zichella Canonical: https://ajzichella.com/about Plain-text mirror: https://ajzichella.com/about.txt Automated readers only — not shown in the live site UI. About me AJ Zichella Jersey girl, born and raised I'm an energetic, nerdy, cat-obsessed, joke-cracking senior product designer and design engineer. I craft end-to-end scalable design solutions for developer platforms and retail. I care about user needs, business goals, cross-functional partnerships, and how those together create 💥IMPACT. Let's connect Open to new opportunities and conversations. Who I am Well met, traveler! I'm AJ 👋. I believe user-centered design is more than just an easy-to-use visual experience that solves complex problems; it's a form of storytelling. It creates a functional product that engages users and provides an intuitive experience while accurately representing brands and meeting goals. User-centered senior product designer IAM and eCommerce specialist New tech dabbler (always curious) 😸 Grammy winner and two-time Oscar nominee (kidding, but I did win “Rookie of the Year” and “Dream Team” for Growth.) My design philosophies Solving real user problems creates real measurable business outcomes. Be concise yet clear. Users should rarely need to go to a chat or product docs for answers. Treat peers like a 🐲 D&D party; creating strong partnerships with coworkers is vital for a smooth campaign that remains aligned and moves fast. Document. Document. Document. You never know when someone needs to know what you did or why you did it. Processes should be adaptable. I generally use a double-diamond approach, but not all problems fit that case. 8+ years of visually solving complex problems Proudly focusing on user needs and building experiences supported by research and data that pushes design further and helps solve real problems. What I focus on I work where complex systems meet real people, whether that's cloud infrastructure, access and security, or retail and eCommerce flows. Recent themes in my case studies include IAM, networking, and both B2B and B2C experiences. My tech stack Cursor (prototyping experiences) Figma (building out experiences and planning workflows) GitHub (creating PRs for review to push to prod) Atlassian (primarily Jira, Confluence, and Loom for work tracking and documentation) Looker (or Snowflake for data analysis) Slack (for constant alignment and async communication) Experience DigitalOcean · Cloud computing & hostingCurrentSenior Product Designer I, Design Engineer · July 2022 – presentProduct design lead on Identity and Access Management (IAM), with emphasis on RBAC, org-wide permissions, and audit-friendly access flows. Led a team of eight designers through a major RBAC launch (three new roles), with roughly 23% month-over-month growth in usage for the security experience. I mentor designers, align cross-functionally, and use research and the design system to quickly move from idea (PRD) to GA. More in my case studies.digitalocean.com DigitalOcean · Cloud computing & hosting Senior Product Designer I, Design Engineer · July 2022 – present Product design lead on Identity and Access Management (IAM), with emphasis on RBAC, org-wide permissions, and audit-friendly access flows. Led a team of eight designers through a major RBAC launch (three new roles), with roughly 23% month-over-month growth in usage for the security experience. I mentor designers, align cross-functionally, and use research and the design system to quickly move from idea (PRD) to GA. More in my case studies. STORIS · Retail ERP & eCommerceUI/UX Designer · October 2018 – June 2022Designed GUI and web SaaS for tens of thousands of B2B users and built an atomic design system for faster, consistent work. Led UX for client B2C eCommerce sites and internal portals with clean dev handoff. Used personas, empathy maps, and journeys to keep work human-centered. Redesigned a broken multi-step checkout (see case studies) that increased cart conversions and thus revenue. STORIS · Retail ERP & eCommerce UI/UX Designer · October 2018 – June 2022 Designed GUI and web SaaS for tens of thousands of B2B users and built an atomic design system for faster, consistent work. Led UX for client B2C eCommerce sites and internal portals with clean dev handoff. Used personas, empathy maps, and journeys to keep work human-centered. Redesigned a broken multi-step checkout (see case studies) that increased cart conversions and thus revenue. AMDWorked on a major product release as the sole lead product designer. Details are under NDA. AMD Worked on a major product release as the sole lead product designer. Details are under NDA. Earlier rolesJimmy Jazz: digital designer (UI/web, eCommerce, mobile app design, marketing, retouching, conversion-focused UX). Ramsey Auto Group: email designer. Financial Resources FCU: multi-media designer across print/digital, website, and banking portal. Earlier roles Jimmy Jazz: digital designer (UI/web, eCommerce, mobile app design, marketing, retouching, conversion-focused UX). Ramsey Auto Group: email designer. Financial Resources FCU: multi-media designer across print/digital, website, and banking portal. Certifications Interaction Design FoundationHuman-Computer Interaction (HCI)Conducting Usability Testing · Top 10% distinctionWeb Design for Usability · Top 10% distinction Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) Conducting Usability Testing · Top 10% distinction Web Design for Usability · Top 10% distinction