Tristan Plank, Senior Product Designer
Available for new projects or full-time work
Hi! 👋 I’m a senior product designer and design leader with 13+ years of experience across healthcare, utilities, B2B SaaS, finance, and defense. My experience may look agency-heavy, but I’ve been fortunate with several long-term projects that included embedding with design and engineering teams as an in-house designer.
I lead product design from strategy through launch, using research insights and AI-assisted prototyping to bring clarity to messy design problems.
Selected work
Some projects are under NDA and cannot be shared online.
Other projects
- 2024 – 2026
Defense clientDesigner, human factors engineer
Confidential
- 2025
Scott IPCProduct designer
Aero Charting App Design
- 2023
NASAProduct designer
Ground Control Station Design
- 2023
SoCalGasDesign director
MyAccount Redesign
- 2023
AvangridDesign director
New Connections Redesign
- 2023
AvangridDesign director
Outages Journey Redesign
- 2022
AmazonDesign director, product designer
Alexa Shopping Envisioning
- 2022
GoogleDesign director
Auto Buying Journey Mapping
- 2021
GesaLead designer
Website & Education Center Design
- 2020
AmazonResearcher, designer
AWS Sales Funnel
- 2019
MicrosoftResearcher, designer
Surface and Office Out of Box User Testing
- 2018 – 2019
WellSkyLead designer
CareTend Redesign
- 2017
AmazonUX designer
Prime TV App UX Audit
- 2015 – 2017
Farm CreditLead UX designer
Loan Origination System Redesign
- 2016
MicrosoftResearcher
Office 365 Usability Testing
- 2015
MicrosoftResearcher
Account Planning Strategy
- 2015
Swedish Cancer InstituteUX designer
Website Redesign
- 2015
SMGUX designer, researcher
Mobile App Redesign
- 2015
FlukeUX designer
Fluke Connect System Design
- 2014
Houston MethodistUX designer, researcher
Website Design and Testing
- 2014
LogRhythmUX designer
Case Management Design
- 2014
StarbucksUX designer
Partner Hub Design
- 2014
ViveraeUX designer
Member Health Dashboard Design
- 2013
AlacerUX designer
Money Laundering Dashboard Design
Playground
Passion projects and experiments with AI
About
Designing and improving products and systems for 13+ years.
I’ve spent more than 13 years helping teams make complex products, services, and systems safer and easier to use. I’m most at home in ambiguous, messy spaces where understanding the people, workflows, and systems behind the product matters.
My work spans product design, research, systems thinking, and human factors. I’ve led interdisciplinary teams and end-to-end engagements across healthcare, utilities, B2B SaaS, finance, and defense.
MS, Human Centered Design & Engineering, University of Washington
Experience
- Director of Product DesignHF Designworks2024 – Present
- Independent Product DesignerSelected clients, including BombBomb2016 – Present
- Design DirectorBlink UX2022 – 2024
- Principal DesignerBlink UX2020 – 2022
- DesignerBlink UX2013 – 2020
- Designer and ResearcherHF Designworks2008 – 2014
Expertise
- Product design for complex workflowsInformation architecture, interaction design, and product strategy for workflows where clarity and trust matter.
- Systems thinkingConnecting people, processes, policies, data, and technology to improve the end-to-end experience, not just the interface.
- Research and human factorsCustomer research, concept and usability testing, and human factors assessments that ground decisions in evidence.
- Design leadershipAligning teams and stakeholders around ambiguous problems and guiding the work through delivery.
- Design systemsReusable components, patterns, and documentation that help teams design and build consistently.
- Rapid prototypingHigh-fidelity and AI-assisted prototypes that clarify ideas, reduce ambiguity, and accelerate decisions.
Clients
Testimonials
“Tristan is a strategic Design leader and his knack for identifying opportunities and navigating complex challenges is second to none. He knows how to work effectively with executives and not only understands their unique needs and priorities but also has the finesse to influence change at the highest levels of an organization. Tristan’s insights and recommendations have consistently made a significant impact on our clients strategic design decisions.”
“Tristan is one of the most talented and thoughtful designers I’ve ever had the pleasure of working with. From the moment he joined our account, I felt reassured that our redesign work was in good hands. Tristan knows how to handle a room filled with stakeholders and subject matter experts at various levels and he has a delicate approach to challenging existing processes and addressing opportunities for improvement. He organized the team to ensure that the full, end-to-end, and behind-the-scenes journey was designed to truly deliver the best customer experience.”
“Tristan led our team effortlessly in our work to redesign a complex, technical title search product. He aligned a team of stakeholders on a vision and helped define a product strategy that went hand-in-hand with streamlined, user-centric designs. As a designer, I felt supported and empowered to do my best work as Tristan guided the project through twists and turns. He is calm under pressure, can read situations well, and knows how to be an advocate for design that respects clients’ processes while pushing them in forward-thinking directions”
“I had the pleasure of working with Tristan as part of a multi-year initiative to reimagine our flagship product. Tristan keenly understands the balance of time and resources when determining which UX / UI activities and deliverables will provide the most value. He has a remarkable aptitude to quickly assimilate information and new concepts, and synthesize those into efficient workflows. On top of providing next-level design, he is extremely personable and fun, and my team thoroughly enjoyed our collaboration with him.”
“Tristan was an invaluable resource on a very complex healthcare project where we required UI/UX resources to assist in the design of a new and innovative approach to our platforms. Not only did Tristan bring a level of professionalism and standard methodology in the realm of UI/UX to our team, he became a large contributor in innovating our platform overall. His approach also created a level of loyalty and trust on the team that is rarely experienced with a third party consultant.”
“Tristan was the first employee I hired for my then-fledgling company back in 2008. To this day, no other candidate has done the research on the company, the products, or the customers like he did. This innate skillset and attention to detail carries over to everything he does. Tristan is my go-to designer but also my thought partner when working with a variety of clients across industries. He can initiate a project, plan it out and maintain time and budget, create brilliant designs that meet both client and user needs, and most of all he builds wonderful relationships with clients and team members. Tristan has been an instrumental part of my company and our projects for years and I am proud to have his support professionally and personally.”
“Working alongside Tristan it was evident how thoughtful, detail-oriented, and professional he is. In addition to his drive to deliver high-quality, evidence-based designs, he brings an exceptional level of partnership to all of his projects. That relationship building is critical to the success he brings to every project. For me personally, Tristan was a designer I always looked up to and a key person that sparked my journey to becoming a UX Researcher.”
“Tristan brought a unique collection of skills to our organization. Certainly, he’s a great designer, but his ability to communicate product vision and empathy for the customer to executive stakeholders and delivery teams alike made him a very valuable part of our team. Working with Tristan never felt like working with a third party, it felt like working with a fellow team member, collaborator and friend. He always checked pride of ownership at the door on his ideas and took feedback willingly to influence his decisions.”
“Working with Tristan was a delight from start to finish. His expertise in design thinking made him an excellent partner when working on redesigning a highly complex user journey that impacted a variety of both internal stakeholders and end customers. Tristan approached each day of the project and it’s challenges with equal parts professionalism and inspiration — always able to think critically, creatively and innovate whenever pivoting was required. He led workshops with executives and traveled for stakeholder interviews, always willing to do what was needed to accomplish the goals for his client and the project.”
“I had a great experience as a researcher working under Tristan’s design direction. I appreciated his knowledge and understanding of the research process, where it best fit, and what questions it best helped answer throughout the human-centered design project we partnered together on. His expertise in design, navigating client communication and project management made an impression not just on the clients themselves but certainly on me – I’d love an opportunity to work with Tristan again!”
Philosophy
- Design is a team sport
The strongest products come from diverse, low-ego teams that respect each discipline and challenge one another’s assumptions.
- Evidence over opinion
Research, behavioral data, and market context keep decisions grounded in the people and problems the product serves.
- Communication is part of the design
From Figma comments during design to microcopy in the product, communication is part of the experience.
- Prototype, always
If a picture is worth a thousand words, a prototype is worth a thousand meetings (IDEO).
- Ship, learn, improve
Good teams ship, learn, and refine. Deadlines matter, but so does creating a clear path for the next iteration.










