Application as Head of Product Design

Dear Hiring Team,

I am applying for the Head of Product Design role. Building a design team for an AI-first B2B product — from a small nucleus to a full function — is exactly the trajectory I have executed before and am looking for again.

I have built design functions from scratch. At ABS Safety, I established the entire design discipline in an industrial B2B company: hired and led seven designers across three product teams, built the design system, introduced UX debt management, a research repository, and the first product metrics. I also created the career framework and restructured the team into a hybrid model with a central design pool. Before that, I was the founding designer at ShiftDigital — sole designer for three years, then CEO for four — where I built a design system that served a complex multi-sided platform for six years until acquisition.

AI-first design is my current practice. I introduced AI enablement at ABS Safety through weekly show-and-tells on AI-augmented prototyping and research. In my own work, I use AI daily — for prototyping, workflow automation, UX research, and knowledge management. I am also building matgrid, an AI-powered product for construction material determination. Designing how users interact with AI-driven workflows — establishing clear interaction patterns, making complex AI outputs actionable — is where my thinking and my tooling converge.

Complex, data-heavy B2B products are my domain. ShiftDigital: workflow engine with conditional logic, multi-step processes, and role-based views for government administrators. ABS Safety: planning tools for fall protection systems on roof layouts, where technical precision and usability had to coexist. I know how to take intricate data models and turn them into interfaces that expert users can work with efficiently.

Scaling a design team from small to fully staffed while maintaining craft quality and shipping velocity — that is the leadership challenge I am best at. I look forward to discussing how I can contribute.

Best regards
David Latz