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Elliott Golden
Verified Expert in Design
Designer
New York, NY, United States
Toptal member since December 28, 2019
Bio
As a director of product design, Elliott has helped Fortune 500s such as IKEA, Vanguard, and Discover bringing winning services to market, launched three products of his own, moderated over 400 user tests, and helped various Techstars and YCombinator startups hit their numbers, time after time.
Experience
- UX Design - 12 years
- UI Design - 12 years
- Product Design - 8 years
- Strategy - 8 years
- User Testing - 6 years
Portfolio
Concert Window – Video Broadcasting Platform for Live Shows
Product DesignUser TestingUX DesignUI DesignVideo StreamingMusic
Work Experience
UX Director
2016 - 2019
Fahrenheit 212
- Led product design for IKEA, Vanguard, Discover, and other Fortune 500 clients.
- Dove into lots of hands-on UX and visual design.
- Spearheaded the development of this global firm’s new digital product design service.
- Trained much of the agency on UX research and product design.
- Took multiple Fortune 500 products all the way from research to market.
Technologies: Lookback, Validately, Principle, InVision, Sketch
UX Design Professor
2017 - 2018
Pratt Institute
- Developed the curriculum and taught this prestigious design school's product design course.
- Instilled a broader problem-solving mindset in many young designers.
- Taught students about copy’s crucial role in design.
- Taught students to build and launch their own product pitch pages from scratch with HTML/CSS/JS.
Technologies: InVision, Sketch, Design Thinking
Lead Product Designer and Co-founder
2016 - 2018
Civic Shout
- Boosted primary conversion rate by 32% via methodical quant and qual test and learn tactics.
- Managed product and design for this progressive advocacy platform that delivered over 1000 constituent messages to the US Congress per day.
- Researched and reviewed external service providers before they were integrated into the system.
- Developed brand ID based on competitor positioning.
- Handled all company-wide visual design.
Technologies: Lookback, Validately, Principle, InVision, Sketch
Senior Product Designer
2013 - 2016
Independent
- Worked directly with startups to help them bring their products and services to the next level via research and hands-on UX and visual design. Here are a few of them.
- Worked with Keen Home with key eCommerce design issues, which led directly to increased revenue and acquisition within a year.
- Played a key role in the successful development and launch of General Assembly's second-gen marketing site and internal billing tools.
- Led product design and UX research with Concert Window during their peak years.
- Designed and iterated the core chat experience and developed the brand for Courier.
- Helped QallOut, through multi-sprint user testing, design iteration and product strategy, double time on site and increase return visits by over 30%.
Technologies: Pencil & Paper, Lookback, Validately, InVision, Sketch
Lead Product Designer and Co-Founder
2012 - 2013
Puppystream
- Helped Puppystream become the #1 photo sharing community for dog lovers.
- Boosted activation rate by 24% and monthly actives by 31% via measured experiments and variant testing.
- Conducted user interviews to help prove or disprove closely held assumptions.
- Implemented all UX and visual design.
- Raised angel funding to support growth and a team of three.
Technologies: Sketch
Director, Product Designer, and Full-stack Developer
2007 - 2012
Simple Circle
- Operated this NYC-based design and dev shop.
- Led teams through product design, development, and production launch.
- Engineered production solutions with Ruby on Rails, JavaScript, AWS, EC2 Linux builds, Postgres, and related tech.
- Led design direction on the majority of projects.
- Managed our custom CMS product, which helped us attract and win much or our business.
Technologies: CSS, Amazon EC2, PostgreSQL, Adobe, HTML, Ruby on Rails (RoR)
Education
2000 - 2001
Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in Design and Fine Art
School of Visual Arts - New York City
1997 - 2000
Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in Design and Fine Art
UNC Asheville - North Carolina
Skills
Tools
Adobe, Sketch, InVision, Validately, Lookback, Pencil & Paper, Principle
Languages
HTML, CSS
Platforms
Amazon EC2, iOS
Industry Expertise
Consumer Products, Music
Other
Product Design, UX Design, User Testing, UI Design, Strategy, Flexibility, Ruby on Rails (RoR), PostgreSQL, Design Thinking, UX Research, APIs, Fintech, Enterprise Software, Legal, Immigration Law, Chatbot Conversation Design, Chatbots, Conversational UX, Conversation, Video Streaming, Family, Prototyping
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