A Bit About

Nathan Brooks

Design Thinking

Systems Thinking

Always Curious

I love solving problems and evolving strategies through design thinking methodologies and first principals.

Lead Product Designer with 8+ years of experience in designing and developing high-impact solutions for industries including manufacturing, technology, and life sciences. Specialized in human-centered design, I excel in creating innovative, cloud-based solutions through collaboration with engineers, data scientists, and program managers. Experienced in driving product strategy, design thinking, and cross-functional leadership to solve complex customer challenges and deliver engaging user experiences. Passionate about contributing to open-source projects and building scalable design systems that enhance user productivity.

First Resonance

Sr. Product Designer (Jul. 2022 - Feb. 2024)

Led the redesign of ION, a cloud-based factory operating system, collaborating closely with cross-functional teams including engineers and stakeholders to deliver a new user experience which streamlined key workflows and introduced a new, digestible, visual language.
Drove product vision and strategy, leading to a 2x improvement in user productivity and an ARR increase of $2.6M by redesigning innovative workflows like the “Redline” process, aBOM manager, and Run Execution.
Established a design team and implemented formal processes for discovery, research, prototyping, and user testing, ensuring a customer-centric approach in product development.
Created and evolved a versatile design system focused on user productivity, enhancing the user interface and experience for future scalability.

Cognizant

Cognizant UX Lead (Nov. 2015 - Jun 2022)

Led UX and design system development for global clients, driving digital transformation across industries such as healthcare and automotive.
Spearheaded large-scale projects in collaboration with engineers, product teams, and business stakeholders, including a design system for AbbVie that boosted engineering productivity by 40%.
Designed and implemented components for 3 experience management systems for Abbott delivering seamless customer experiences that improved engagement and efficiency. 41 websites launched internationally within 10 months.
Partnered with clients' engineers and business teams to innovate and solve user challenges, leveraging cloud-based solutions and scalable design practices.

Select Clients: Ford Motor Company, Medstar Health, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Incyte, Abbvie, Abbott, BMS, Gilead, Santen, Amicus, AmeriHealth, GlaxoSmithKline, General Parts Company

Backe Digital Brand Marketing

Director of Design and UX (Dec. 2013 - Nov. 2015)

Led a multidisciplinary design team to deliver integrated digital and print solutions, overseeing the creative process from concept to completion for branding, advertising, email campaign, and web design projects.
Introduced UX testing and design thinking methodologies to enhance user interaction and optimize product designs, leading to measurable engagement improvements for clients.
Fostered collaboration across design, development, and account teams, standardizing iterative workflows and mentoring junior designers to drive innovation and performance.

Select Clients: GlaxoSmithKline, Project Management Institute, HTH Worldwide, YSC Sports, Delaware Valley University, Gesu School, Endo Pharmaceutical

Jacobs

Senior Creative Specialist (Aug. 2011 - Dec. 2013)

Designed and delivered creative assets for sales, management, and client teams, including presentations, infographics, and advertisements for the Pharmabio and semiconductor industries.
Contributed design solutions that helped sales teams secure over $1B in contracts and increased participation in sustainability campaigns by 50%.

Brooksmade

That Freelance Though (2003 – Present)

Operate a consultancy specializing in design projects ranging from small marketing collateral to complete branding packages across print, web, and social media platforms.

Select Clients: Digitas Health, D4 Creative Group, and Starr Restaurant Organization

Skills

Design Leadership: Product Design, UX Design, Design Systems, Human-Centered Design, PRDs, Motion Design
Product Strategy: Systems Thinking, Design Thinking, Customer-Centric Design, Prototyping, Interaction Design
Tooling: Figma, Webflow, Framer, Photoshop, After Effects, Illustrator, InDesign, Mix Panel, Userberry, Notion, Linear
Coding Knowledge: Some HTML, Some CSS, Some JS
Collaboration & Leadership: Cross-Functional Collaboration, Cloud-Based Solutions, Mentoring, Open-Source Contributions