Application as Lead Product Designer

Dear Hiring Team,

I am applying for the Lead Product Designer role at RIB Software. With 18+ years in digital product design, a startup exit, and direct experience in the construction industry, I bring the combination of design leadership, systems thinking, and domain knowledge your Hub product line needs.

Construction is where I work. As Team Lead Product Design at ABS Safety (2024–2026), I led 7 designers across 3 product teams in a construction-adjacent industrial company — fall protection, flat roof systems, safety planning. I built the design infrastructure from scratch: design system, UX debt backlog, research repository, user feedback formats, and first product metrics. Beyond that, I am building matgrid, my own AI-powered product for material determination in construction. I understand the complexity of AEC workflows, regulatory requirements, and the gap between what practitioners need and what software delivers.

Design systems and operations are my craft. At ABS Safety, I established a design system that unified a fragmented product landscape. Before that, I maintained and evolved a design system for 6 years at ShiftDigital, a GovTech startup I founded and led to acquisition. I know what it takes to build systems that scale — not just component libraries, but governance, adoption, and the team culture around them. I also restructured the team into a hybrid model with a central design pool, introduced career frameworks, and ran weekly AI enablement sessions for prototyping and research.

AI is a real tool in my practice, not an aspiration. I use AI daily for prototyping, UX research, workflow automation, and knowledge management. I can bring this into your team as a practical capability, not a roadmap item.

What draws me to RIB Software: construction is an industry where good design has outsized impact. The products are complex, the users are underserved, and the opportunity to shape UX strategy across a product line like Hub is exactly the kind of challenge where I do my best work — leading cross-functional teams from first hypothesis to shipped product.

I look forward to discussing how I can contribute.

Best regards
David Latz