Rob Gourley

I build design teams that ship products at scale

I've led design across autonomous systems, fintech platforms, and products used by millions. I specialize in establishing design as a strategic function: building teams, creating systems, and shipping products that turn complexity into experiences people actually understand.

What I Do

I'm a product design leader who builds teams and ships products at scale. Currently, I lead design at Shield AI, where we're creating the platform that enables autonomous systems for defense and commercial aviation. Before that, I built design teams at Kraken (handling $200B in trading volume), led design through Crunchyroll's $1.2B acquisition by Sony, and helped insurance carriers adopt machine learning at Federato.

My work spans the full spectrum of product design, from early-stage strategy and user research through detailed interaction design and design system creation. I lead by doing, working across product, engineering, and business to ensure design drives measurable outcomes.

How I Think About Design

Background & Experience

I started my career at the intersection of design and technology, working on everything from Apple website sections to digital experiences for National Geographic. In 2008, I founded Mojave, a design agency that was recognized as one of the top 99 product agencies globally. We created the National Geographic Facebook app that grew to 50 million followers and worked with brands ranging from startups to Fortune 500 companies.

The agency taught me how to work across industries, adapt to different technical constraints, and understand what clients actually need versus what they ask for. It also taught me that I'm most energized when I can go deep on complex products rather than jumping between projects every few weeks.

That led me to product design leadership roles where I could embed with teams and see products through from concept to scale. At Crunchyroll, I built a 10-person creative team and led design across mobile, web, and living room platforms during the company's growth to a $1.2B acquisition. At Kraken, I directed design for trading products handling $200B in volume. At Federato, I established the design function from scratch and created systems that dramatically accelerated the team's velocity.

Now at Shield AI, I'm working on some of the most technically complex products I've encountered: interfaces for building autonomous AI systems that make life-or-death decisions. It's the kind of challenge that requires everything I've learned about making complexity accessible.

Beyond the Work

I believe the best designers are constantly learning. I track AI/ML developments closely, not just because I design AI products but because these technologies are reshaping what's possible in product design. I follow design systems evolution, read extensively about team leadership, and stay current on the industries I design for.

I share what I learn through my newsletter, Design Mind, where I write about AI tools worth using, design team building tactics that actually work, and trends that matter versus noise. It's read by designers at Google, Airbnb, and startups worldwide because I focus on what's working right now, not theory.

I also believe good design requires understanding business realities. I've taken courses in stock valuation, completed certifications in agile methodologies, and make it a point to understand the financial and strategic context my designs operate within. Design decisions that ignore business constraints don't ship.

Recognition & Patents

My work has been recognized through multiple patents in the design and prototyping space:

These aren't academic exercises. They're solutions to real problems I encountered while building design tools and working with cross-functional teams to ship products faster.

What Drives Me

I'm motivated by hard problems that matter. Products where if the design fails, people can't do their jobs. Interfaces where complexity can't be avoided, only organized. Teams where design thinking needs to be established, not just applied.

I care about making sophisticated technology accessible without dumbing it down. I care about building teams that can operate independently. I care about creating products that users don't just tolerate but genuinely rely on.

And I care about doing this work with people who take craft seriously. Whether that's engineering teams who care about performance, product teams who care about outcomes, or business leaders who understand that good design is a competitive advantage, not a nice-to-have.

Let's Work Together

When my schedule allows, I take on select consulting engagements, typically fractional leadership roles, strategic advisory work, or specific initiatives like design system creation or team building.

If you're working on complex products that need strategic design leadership, let's talk.

Quick Facts