jason kyle — human-centered systems design and leadership
Human-centered systems design & leadership.
I anchor on humans. I help people and teams find shared goals through technology, and I approach that work with a service mindset.
- Based
- Seattle, WA
- Tenure
- 20+ years in design and product
- Mode
- Prefer remote, open to hybrid and in-office in the PNW
What I'm looking for.
I'm open to design leadership roles where the work makes the world a more equitable place, and where a leader is expected to shape the problem, not decorate the answer.
- Products that enable joy, help the disenfranchised, or push for political change and awareness.
- Teams that want a design leader in the room during problem framing, not after the spec is written.
- Organizations where design owns outcomes rather than deliverables, and research is a habit rather than a phase.
- Based
- Seattle, WA
- Mode
- Remote first. Open to hybrid or in-office in the PNW.
- Tenure
- 20+ years in design and product leadership
Design doesn't happen
in a vacuum.
The last several years have changed how people work, what they carry, and what they need from the systems around them. Human-centered design means acknowledging that reality.
My job as a design leader is to protect people's ability to do meaningful work, and to help teams deliver outcomes together without grinding anyone down.
Outcomes over
output.
I'm at my best when nobody agrees on the problem yet, the system is a mess, and the obvious path forward is wrong.
AI is a tool.
Agency is the point.
I use AI to get past blank pages, expose options, and make ideas testable sooner. Judgment, context, safety, and the final call stay with people.
- Where AI helps
- Drafts competing problem statements so we have something to argue with in minutes.
- What stays mine
- I decide which framing is honest. A convincing sentence about the wrong problem is still wrong.
Illustrative examples from my own practice, not claims about any employer.
Experience,
compressed.
Over two decades of leading design and building products across large organizations. I'm comfortable moving between strategy and execution.
What I'm
building now.
Design as calm infrastructure, expressed outdoors, at the dinner table, on a shirt, and one thing still hidden behind a curtain.
The living
part.
The work matters. So does everything else.
Let's build something together that respects people.
If you're working on complex human-centered problems, or building teams where people actually want to show up, I'd welcome the conversation.
© Jason Kyle · Seattle, WA
Seriously unserious.