Lance Shields
Verified Expert in Design
Designer
Los Angeles, CA, United States
Toptal member since January 31, 2019
Lance is a senior product designer and design leader with deep experience guiding large-scale digital and AI transformations through human-centered design. He shaped AI-first eCommerce experiences at Walmart, reimagining search, discovery, and multimodal interactions for 580+ million monthly visitors. At Adobe, he helped evolve Adobe Express into an AI-powered enterprise platform. He's known for pairing vision with deep execution across brands, including Visa, Red Bull, Chase, and Fitbit.
Portfolio
Modere eCommerce Website
Work Experience
Design Director (contract)
LegalOn
- Design leadership for a Japanese legal AI company expanding into the US and EU. Worked directly with the Chief Design Officer and design and marketing teams in Tokyo and the US to build the company and product brand platform.
- Led creation of global brand guidelines and the company's global website, repositioning the brand for credibility in Western markets.
- Set product design direction for the company's AI contract review products as they entered US and EU markets.
- Bridged Japanese and American teams across design, marketing, and product, drawing on 17 years working in Japan.
Design Director
Walmart
- Led AI-powered eCommerce design for Walmart, shaping shopping experiences for over 580 million monthly visitors across web and app. Drove innovation and craft at scale through AI-driven, human-centered, and ethical design.
- Oversaw product design for Walmart’s core commerce ecosystem, including search, product detail pages, and customer reviews.
- Led the design transformation of search and PDP by embedding Walmart’s proprietary AI models into every stage of the discovery flow: bridging behavior, context, and intent to redefine how customers find and fall in love with products.
- Pioneered the Walmart Live Camera, integrating AI, computer vision, and AR simulation to let customers use their camera, voice, or room scans to discover and visualize products.
Design Director - Adobe Express
Adobe
- Led multiple design teams to develop the Adobe Express integrations platform and ecosystem, collaborating with the Acrobat team to merge Adobe's flagship app with its newest tools.
- Directed two design teams at Adobe to drive innovation in Adobe Express's integrations and extensibility, resulting in improved user engagement and product adoption.
- Spearheaded design of Adobe Express add-on platform and partner integrations to increase creative capabilities across first- and third-party platforms and achieved 415% growth in MAU using add-ons.
- Achieved eight percent MAU growth within one quarter by leading Adobe Express SDK integration in Acrobat.
- Won the 2024 Webby Award for Best AI-powered All-in-one Creative Platform for my design direction and design.
Head of Design and Co-founder
Ideas in Digital
- Co-founded and ran award-winning digital design agency Ideas in Digital, headquartered in San Francisco.
- Headed design and strategy, did hands-on UX and UI design work, led a team of designers and art directors, and handled the brand experiences, digital platforms, and campaigns of clients’ global consumer and B2B projects.
- Created customer-centered and marketing-focused strategies on a global scale across a variety of industries, including finance, technology, food/beverage, CPG, travel, insurance, and nonprofits.
- Focused on creative direction, design, and a collaborative, mission-driven team culture.
- Led the design and strategy of five brand marketing sites, three mobile apps, three eCommerce sites, three major food sites, and four marketing videos.
- Won 10 design awards, including two Webby Awards, four W3 Awards, two Davey Awards, and two Communicator Awards.
Digital Marketing Group Director
MRM/McCann
- Provided vision and strategy leadership for MRM and McCann Worldgroup in Tokyo, Japan.
- Led the social strategy and planning for Japan's fastest-growing Facebook community for a major confectionery brand.
- Facilitated conversation and an evergreen application to host a series of branded UGC contests on PC, smartphone, and mobile.
- Spearheaded the region's first social media platform service at MRM which provides a holistic solution including social strategy, planning, cross-media integration, community management implementation, client training, KPI development, and reporting.
- Championed cross-group (McCann Worldgroup) digital integration initiatives that helped the larger advertising organization innovate towards higher digital capability for a variety of industries.
- Recruited and mentored strategists, designers, and account people in the agency.
Head of Innovation Strategy and Design
Amway
- Drove digital initiative strategies and vision, with full ownership of creative and brand strategy, business plans, budgets, and realization of KPIs.
- Devised digital assets to increase brand recognition, market share, and revenue.
- Oversaw market research, competitive analysis, user profiling, ethnographic studies, and project planning.
- Provided strategic leadership and vision to drive digital transformation.
- Delivered strategy and creative direction for enterprise-level mobile application to drive new business.
- Led and evangelized the first social marketing projects in this region.
- Provided the creative strategy and customer experience for a new loyalty program.
Creative Director
Scient
- Championed hands-on, creative direction for digital and print media, brand building, and interactive marketing.
- Led a team of eight art directors and designers to form a premier digital branding agency unlike any other in Japan at the time.
- Was a leader in international design in Japan, which supported Japanese companies' growth overseas. Ran the design studio in Japanese.
- Launched global websites for Adidas, ANA, Hitachi, Chanel, DoCoMo, Yokogawa Electric, and Panasonic.
- Led and directed multiple new business pitches against local Japanese agencies to grow the agency from 6 to 35 creatives.
- Won the highly respected Good Design Award for the global rollout of Hitachi.com and Best B2B Branding from Japan Marketing Association.
Senior Art Director
Agency.com
- Contributed as a vital part of a dynamic, collaborative creative digital team during the Dotcom boom in the late 90s/early 2000s.
- Learned from the best while taking on large-budget, high-profile client work to sharpen my skills.
- Launched websites and interactive campaigns for Visa.com, Discovery Channel, i2 Technologies and Answer Financial.
- Served as design lead for a small team of three designers while doing hands-on design.
- Played a key part in agency business development that delivered persuasive pitch work and winning projects with Toyota, Williams-Sonoma, and Openwave.
Education
Master's Degree in Business Administration
McGill University - Tokyo, Japan
Bachelors of Fine Arts Degree in Fine Arts
San Francisco Art Institute - San Francisco, California
Certifications
Claude Code In Action
Anthropic
Designing and Building AI Products and Services
MIT
Skills
Tools
Sketch, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Experience Design (XD), Axure RP Pro, Illustrator 2018, InDesign CC, InVision App, InVision, AI Tools, After Effects CC, Adobe Premiere Pro, FigJam, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe InDesign, Adobe After Effects, Microsoft Office, Photoshop Design, Lightroom CC
Platforms
Figma, WordPress, Shopify
Industry Expertise
Advertising, Product Ideation, Luxury Goods, Marketing
Other
Creative Direction, UX Design, UI Design, Branding, Product Design, UX Strategy, Digital Marketing, Design Direction, Web Design, Mobile UX, Mobile App UI, User Testing, Design Research, Design Sprints, Wireframing, Identity Design, User Flows, Analytics, Japan, Global Strategy, Logo Design, Design Workshops, Usability, User Interviews, Writing & Editing, Graphics, Prototyping, Mobile App Design, PowerPoint Design, Growth, B2B, Visual Design, User Interface (UI), User Experience (UX), Design Strategy, Team Management, User Research, Campaigns, eCommerce, Squarespace, Responsive Web Design (RWD), Human-centered Design (HCD), Generative Computing, Mobile Design, Web App Design, Mobile UX Design, AI Design, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Pitch Deck Design, Collateral Design, Presentation Design, Graphic Design, Pitch Decks, Vibe Coding, Agentic AI, Design Thinking, High-fidelity Prototypes, Product Leadership, Brainstorming, Product Strategy, Ideation, Design Leadership, Rapid Prototyping, Executive Presentations, Investor Presentations, User Experience Design, No-code Development, Stakeholder Management, User Journey Maps, Usability Testing, SaaS, Adobe Premiere, Nutrition & Supplements, Wellness, Cloud, Art Direction, Information Architecture (IA), Game Design, Designing AI-first products, Business, Accounting, Operations, Finance, Design, Art, Framer, ComfyUI, Relume, ChatGPT, WordPress Design, V0.dev, Brand Guidelines, Motion Design, AI Product Management, AI-generated Code, Claude Code, Cursor AI
Experience
- Visual Design - 20 years
- Creative Direction - 15 years
- Branding - 15 years
- Prototyping - 10 years
- UX Design - 10 years
- Product Design - 8 years
- Figma - 6 years
- Vibe Coding - 2 years
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