About

Photograph of Steven Neamonitakis

Hey, I'm Steven Neamonitakis (he/him/his), a passionate technologist who enjoys transforming ideas into digital products. With over a decade of experience as a hybrid designer/developer, I've gained valuable insight into how to approach building successful products. My journey in product design marks a commitment to quality, with a heavy emphasis on collaboration, empathy, and humility.

As the first Design hire at a high-growth startup, I've seen how products (and teams) must adapt and change based on their market placement. As a design consultant, I've led design sprints that have enabled startups to validate and de-risk their products. Part of what excites me about designing something is that I get to see it built. The need to see a concept through to production has been central to my interest in front-end development. Building the experiences I cooked up in Figma brings a developer's eye to any design decision I make.

A highlight of my job is the opportunity to collaborate with design teams, engineering teams, stakeholders, and early-stage founders. Throughout my career, my goal has been to use any tool necessary to deliver aesthetically pleasing, functional products focused on the user. With my formal education in Graphic Design, I set out to apply good standards to any project I participate in.

Skills & Technologies

Design

  • UX + UI Design,
  • Visual Design,
  • Responsive Mobile & Web,
  • Prototyping,
  • Design Systems,
  • Android & iOS Standards,
  • Figma,
  • Adobe Creative Suite

Product

  • User Research,
  • A/B Testing,
  • Usability Testing,
  • Leadership,
  • Agile,
  • Go-to-Market Strategy,
  • 0 to 1 Product Development

Development

  • UX Engineering,
  • WCAG Compliance,
  • React,
  • HTML5,
  • CSS3,
  • SCSS,
  • BEM Principles,
  • TailwindCSS,
  • Astro,
  • React Native,
  • Ruby on Rails,
  • CI/CD Tooling,
  • Netlify

Experience

thoughtbot

Design Director

April 2023 – Present

  • Created and codified an expectations matrix for career development and leveling up as a product designer, broken into Product Thinking, Interaction Design, Intentionality, Awareness, and Drive.
  • Conducted regular 1-on-1s with direct reports in the Design department.
  • Conducted quarterly reviews with designers to review how they've grown and determine what aspects of the expectations matrix they'd enjoy focusing time on.

Design Team Lead

May 2022 – April 2023

  • Conducted regular 1-on-1s with direct reports in the Design department.
  • Helped bridge the gap between design and engineering teams.
  • Mentored designers while supporting clients in the Healthcare industry.

Senior Product Designer

March 2021 – May 2022

  • Helped new companies take their ideas and make them a reality while validating with users.
  • Conducted product design sprints to validate and de-risk new startup products.
  • Partnered with a major NYC museum to rebuild and re-architecture their membership site.

Product Designer

April 2019 – March 2021

  • Conducted product design sprints to validate and de-risk new startup products.
  • Designed software from 0 to 1, contributing to user research, prototyping, visual design, and front-end development.

Splice

Product Designer

April 2014 – January 2019

  • First design hire and 8th employee at the dawn of a new startup that generated over $5MM to promote emerging music creators.
  • Contributed to a startup growing from 10 people to over 100 people, taking ideas from 0 to 1.
  • Collaborated with project and engineering managers to define project scope and direction.
  • Delivered production-ready graphics and prototypes for web, desktop, and mobile projects.

Next Big Sound

Product Designer

November 2012 – April 2014

  • Developed wireframes and visual designs for a data-visualization platform used to generate insights about A&R professionals and musicians.
  • Brainstormed with peers and other design team members to determine enhancements and product features.
  • Collaborated with the engineering team on GitHub to develop our final HTML and CSS implementations.

Carrot Creative

Designer

August 2011 – November 2012

  • Hired as a visual web designer to design social media creative for digital brand experiences.
  • Consulted with Producers and Account Managers to identify design requirements for each project.
  • Created Tumblr themes, Facebook Applications, and marketing websites using HTML and CSS to develop product mockups and prototype designs.

Education

Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) in Graphic Design

Purchase College, School of Art+Design

Class of 2011