Background

Engineer, then designer, then product leader. The through line is making complex systems usable.

I wrote spaceflight software for six years before I designed anything. That background in computer science and mathematics, a Master's in interactive design, and an Executive MBA lets me work across the decisions most teams split between three departments.

Now
Co-founder and CEO, SlateRoom. Founder, Buildcraft Design.
Most recent role
Senior Director of Design & Marketing, Verikai
Based in
Austin, Texas. Remote across time zones.
Open to
Head of Design, founding design leadership, fractional work, research collaboration

01

Experience

  1. 2026–now

    Co-founder and CEO

    SlateRoom

    Run product, technology, and operations for an AI product that shows video creators which edits matter to their audience. Case study

  2. 2025–now

    Founder and Head of Design

    Buildcraft Design

    Subscription design practice for early-stage startups, VCs, and SaaS teams: brand foundations, design systems, websites, pitch decks, and product UX. Clients include WriteWise and LEEO.

  3. 2023–2025

    Senior Director of Design & Marketing

    Verikai

    Directed the brand overhaul and built the Figma design system used across product and marketing. Ran the AI-driven marketing program that raised demo requests 500% and marketing engagement 353% within one quarter.

  4. 2022–2023

    Director of Design

    Verikai

    Set brand and product design strategy, ran design reviews, and guided engineering through the design work. Redesigned the platform underwriters used to act on machine-learning risk scores, and the CSV import flow that cut errors 90%. Case study

  5. 2021

    Principal Product Designer

    Verikai, acquired by American Financial Group for ~$120M in December 2021

    Joined Verikai the year the acquisition closed and was already doing the product design and branding. The Director title formalized that role afterwards.

  6. 2017–2021

    Senior Product Designer

    Netspend

    Redesigned onboarding for a prepaid fintech platform with 200M+ accounts, and partnered with engineering to cut page load times 30% across mobile and web.

  7. 2013–2015

    UX and Visual Designer

    Pearson Q-interactive

    Designed an iPad platform that digitized 20+ standardized clinical assessments, including accessibility work for visually impaired users.

  8. 2009–2013

    Senior Visual Designer

    CEB, now Gartner

    Redesigned a platform used by 16,000+ Fortune 500 executives and unified the visual language across products.

  9. 2003–2009

    Software Engineer

    L-3 Communications

    Delivered mission-critical spaceflight software for a Fortune 500 defense and aerospace contractor.

02

How I lead

Strategy before execution

Define who the product is for and what success looks like before anything gets made. The most expensive mistakes happen before the first screen.

Proof over marketing

Every claim sourced, every prediction held against what actually happened.

Systems scale taste

Design systems, templates, and repeatable craft let one point of view ship consistently without me in every file.

Lead from the work

I direct teams across brand, UX, and content while staying hands-on. The fastest way to earn a team's trust is to make the work better in front of them.

03

Education and recognition

  1. 2022–2024

    M.A., Interactive Design and Game Development

    Savannah College of Art and Design

  2. 2022

    Executive MBA

    Quantic School of Business and Technology

  3. 2002

    B.A., Computer Science, minor in Mathematics

    University of Miami

  4. 2025

    Three Indigo Design Awards

    For VisionDesigner, a VR interior design study from my M.A.

    Gold for UX, Interface & Navigation. Gold for Virtual Reality Design. Silver for Interactive Design.

04

Human-computer interaction, human-AI collaboration, and intelligent systems.

My professional work keeps returning to the point where artificial intelligence meets human judgment. At Verikai, underwriters had to act on risk scores they couldn't inspect. At SlateRoom, creators have to decide whether to follow an edit suggested by a model.

Both raised the same question: how should an intelligent system communicate complex information so people understand the evidence, uncertainty, and limits behind a recommendation, and calibrate their trust accordingly?

The thread through my work

  1. Verikai

    How can people understand and act on machine-learning outputs in high-stakes business workflows?

  2. SlateRoom

    How can AI help people make creative decisions without replacing their judgment?

Contact

Hiring for design or product leadership, or working on human-AI interaction research? I'd like to hear about it.

carl.brunson@gmail.com