
Mini Kim
Verified Expert in Design
Researcher & Designer
New York, NY, United States
Toptal member since March 13, 2019
Mini has worked with a diverse array of clients for over a decade in New York City. She enjoys learning about different industries and their unique challenges, having worked with healthcare, finance, and technology companies, amongst others. Mini strongly believes that UX is about collaboration between the business, users, and technology. In every project, she uses various UX methods and deliverables to get the best results.
Portfolio
Work Experience
UX Researcher
Robinhood
- Conducted qualitative user interviews with Robinhood Gold customers (Robinhood's loyalty program) to understand how they think about and use retirement accounts.
- Conducted discovery research with Robinhood Gold customers to understand their views on custodial accounts for their children, informing the direction of the new offering.
- Helped Robinhood identify differences among customer segments and how these differences could influence future account types.
UX Researcher and Designer
Colgate-Palmolive
- Researched and created a user journey outlining the current process the innovation teams follow when developing new products.
- Led and helped design the process for how different teams collaborate on new product development, creating wireframes that outline how the new AI platform will organize ideas.
- Conducted user testing on the AI-generated idea and innovation prototype with target users.
Lead UX Researcher
Assurance
- Managed the UX research team and defined research methods for nine different product managers. Helped them define their problems and provide insights.
- Led the UX designers on the insurance agent side of the company by setting up UX design processes.
- Educated product teams on UX design and UX research.
- Contributed to planning sessions for each quarter and the planning direction of product features.
Vice President, Service Design
JPMorgan Chase
- Connected with stakeholders in the Corporate Investment Banking team to define the problems within the internal process.
- Led meetings with high-level stakeholders to discuss potential strategic changes to the internal process.
- Collaborated with UX designers in different teams to define research and guide them in design updates.
UX Designer
SRAM
- Planned and conducted in-person focus group research at an event within one week, delivering findings to help the team decide on upcoming digital projects.
- Created user personas for SRAM’s digital initiatives based on qualitative research.
- Developed UX research guidelines for the SRAM team as the first UX researcher on the digital team.
Hero Analytics Designer
Anheuser-Busch
- Interviewed the data team to understand their current work, mapping out their process to identify how it could be simplified with a dashboard.
- Designed data visualizations for the marketing and analytics teams managing global sales.
- Collaborated with the manager to design and conduct a workshop to uncover dashboard users’ needs.
Lead UX Design Instructor
General Assembly
- Designed a lesson plan with the General Assembly syllabus as a guide.
- Taught a 10-week-long, part-time UX design course.
- Created and led a 3-hour workshop on user journey mapping.
UX Research and Design
Icarus Lived
- Conducted discovery research in the early stage of the startup to define a user persona, helping the company clarify the target audience for its content app.
- Synthesized research findings and designed a remote, three-day, abbreviated Google Sprint (design thinking) workshop, facilitating sessions with the founders and team to define the MVP.
- Created multiple user flow diagrams to help the founder clarify the content product, followed by rapid prototype testing.
Senior Product Designer
Clover Network, Inc.
- Contributed to the internal process and design of the eCommerce section of Clover.com.
- Served as the main product designer for the growth team, working on improving the number of purchases of Clover devices online and making the application process easier for the customers.
- Suggested UX research methods for the project, drafted a research plan, facilitated user testing on Usabilitytesting.com, and created a research synthesis, user flow, and user journey map to communicate with the stakeholders.
Lead UX Researcher and Designer
Publicis Media (Publicis Groupe)
- Led the team involved in gathering user requirements, user testing, and wireframing for the in-house media planning tool.
- Handled the UX research to understand the media campaign flow and created a process map and user personas.
- Developed a research plan and usability testing template.
- Conducted a competitive analysis of different tools on multiple projects.
- Suggested UX research methods for a project based on the product team's needs.
Senior UX Researcher and Designer
Shutterstock
- Planned and conducted user research and created a report that demonstrated the users' needs and challenges through the map of the existing user flow.
- Managed junior UX designers and UX researchers and guided them in planning and running user testing.
- Conducted and facilitated a workshop for the users.
Director of Design and Interaction
UNICEF Office of Innovation
- Built a design-and-interaction team by hiring designers, developers, and data scientists.
- Determined priorities, defined the deliverables, and set timelines for different projects.
- Oversaw designers, data scientists, and developers throughout all the projects.
- Created a process for the whole team to determine what projects to prioritize.
UX/UI Designer
VivaKi (Publicis Groupe)
- Participated in wireframing exercises and meetings for the internal iPad dashboard of media buying for the CEO and CFO of Publicis Groupe.
- Designed the user interface and data visualization for the internal iPad dashboard.
- Mapped out the company's integration process and created an instruction manual.
Information Designer
Addison Design Company
- Researched and redesigned "Explanation of Benefit" for BlueCross BlueShield South Carolina.
- Created wireframes for the online 2011 GE annual report.
- Redesigned online and print collateral for TD Bank.
Education
Master of Fine Arts Degree in Interaction Design
School of Visual Arts - New York City, NY, USA
Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in Visual Communication
Washington University - St. Louis, MO, USA
Skills
Tools
Sketch, OmniGraffle, Lucidchart, MURAL, Slack, Apple Keynote, InVision, Google Slides, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Word, Microsoft PowerPoint, Adobe Illustrator, Zeplin, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe InDesign, Google Forms, Excel 2010, Sympli, FigJam, Jira, Confluence, Microsoft Power BI
Platforms
Figma, iOS, Android
Industry Expertise
Insurance
Other
Process Design, Qualitative Research, Interviews, Journey Mapping, Process Mapping, User Testing, UX Sketching, User Research, UX Strategy, Usability Testing, Usability Heuristics, Web Usability, User Interviews, Workshop Facilitation, Facilitation, UX Research, User Journey Maps, Service Design, Service Blueprints, User Flows, Personas, Sitemaps, Information Architecture (IA), Design Thinking, Wireframing, UX Design, Competitive Analysis, Lean UX, Product Design, Software as a Service (SaaS), Design Leadership, Product Discovery, B2B, Complex Web Systems, Point of Sale, Prototyping, Workshops, Stakeholder Interviews, Low-fidelity Prototypes, UX Audits, User Personas, User Journeys, Qualitative Analysis, Research, Fintech, Data-heavy Design, Information Design, Dashboards, UI Design, PowerPoint Design, Competitor Analysis & Profiling, UX Workshops, Card Sorting, User Interface (UI), Design Strategy, SaaS, SaaS Design, User Experience (UX), Web Design, Business Intelligence (BI), Mockups, Feature Analysis, Abstracts, Data Visualization, Dashboard Design, Finance Reports, Financial UX, Annotated Wireframes, Graphs, Stakeholder Engagement, Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A), Integration, Guidelines, Heuristic Evaluation, Quantitative Research, User-centered Design (UCD), Form Design, Health Insurance, Nonprofits, Non-governmental Organizations (NGOs), Maps, Survey Design, CartoDB, Financial Design, Workflow, Startups, Graphic Design, Typography, Excel 365, Presentations, Artificial Intelligence (AI), eCommerce, Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI), Mobile Design, Tablet Design, Analytic Design
Experience
- User Research - 13 years
- User Interviews - 13 years
- Service Design - 13 years
- Service Blueprints - 13 years
- Design Thinking - 13 years
- User Journey Maps - 13 years
- Usability Testing - 13 years
- Qualitative Research - 13 years
How to Work with Toptal
Toptal matches you directly with global industry experts from our network in hours—not weeks or months.
Share your needs
Choose your talent
Start your risk-free talent trial
Top talent is in high demand.
Start hiring






