I design software that's hard to explain.
I work with teams whose technology has outrun its interface. I turn what's complex and ambiguous into a product people can actually use — from first direction to shipped code.
The full arc — from figuring out what the product is, to the system that lets it scale. Start at any stage.
Product definition
Emerging technology or an ambiguous idea, turned into a product with a shape.
Product direction, 0→1, MVP definition, workflows, information architecture, prototyping, and validation.
Complex product design
Complex systems made understandable, and usable.
AI and LLM interfaces, agentic workflows, decision support, technical dashboards, enterprise and internal tools, developer and infrastructure products.
Product systems
The systems that let a complex product scale without losing coherence.
UX architecture, design systems, tokens, interaction patterns, production consistency, engineering collaboration, and governance.
Every one of these started out unclear.
| R. Gelb Creative · independent consultancy | ||||
| 01 | 2026–now | AI | Eliza AI. Product design, embedded with their team. | Principal product designer |
| 02 | 2026 | Consumer · fishing | ReelCaster: fishing forecast. Built with the founder — I designed it, implemented the front-end, and built the design system. A dozen tabs of conditions and regulations reduced to one score. | Design & front-end |
| 03 | 2025–26 | Fintech · compliance | Tax Guardian. Obligation made legible in a rules-heavy domain. | Principal product designer |
| 04 | 2025 | AI / LLM | MailSynth. A Gemini-based email assistant. Onboarding, summarisation, and automation for non-technical users with high-volume inboxes. | Principal product designer |
| Before · in-house | ||||
| 05 | 2023–25 | Enterprise SaaS | Imply: Polaris platform. Product architecture for Custom Projects. Ingestion monitoring, access control, billing, authentication, and admin tooling. | Principal product designer |
| 06 | 2020–22 | Autonomous vehicles | Zoox: fleet scheduling. Ten steps across three tools became one. Named inventor on the dispatch-queuing patent. | Lead product designer |
| 07 | 2019–21 | Ads platform | Google. Product design across several teams, including AdMob — delivery and reporting for publishers monetising mobile inventory. | Lead product designer |
| 08 | 2018 | Consumer fintech | Citi: Simple Savings, iOS. Projection-first vs goal-first, tested head to head with real customers. | Senior product designer |
One problem, many domains.
For 12 years the domain kept changing and the problem didn't — autonomous vehicles at Zoox, ad systems at Google, financial products at Citi, data infrastructure at Imply, independent practice since. Every one was a technology that had outpaced its interface.
Now I'm building an AI-native practice alongside client work: a multi-agent design framework that runs concept generation and critique against a written canon, and a production audit agent that flags design-system drift across live components.
Tell me what you're building.
You probably don't need more design capacity — you need someone who can figure out what the product should be, then help build it.
Now
Running R. Gelb Creative — partnering with founding teams and product orgs where the domain is genuinely hard, from first direction to shipped product.
Open to a few new engagements.
Elsewhere
- New York City
- EU and US business hours