Is career a game of Tetris.
It’s more about how you place it. Do you see the next piece for me?
To learn about the pieces that formed my practice, in 16 years & 7+ industry sectors. Keep scrolling or
Extended Break
Explorer & Designer Mar 2024 - Jul 2025
sabbatical focused on exploration, learning, and creative incubation
Founded Lugugul Design, a boutique design studio and brand nursery.
Explored product directions in emerging AI trends; expressed through curated domain acquisitions (lugugul.com) and evolving concepts—some shared, many still brewing.
Invested time in reading, meditation, traveling, rock climbing, skiing - nurturing both self and creativity.


Paused to realign my curiosity, creativity, and what truly matters.
APTY series A startup Remote, CA
Director, Product Designer Nov 2023 - Feb 2024
Short but fun 90 days journey. This experience kickstarted my decision to explore my own business.
Worked directly with CEO to define unified product experience and explore new product direction.
Defined the product experience direction by position it as a "Augment Reality" layer of host app.
Designed (high-level) a new product on enabling a connected flow that “cog” in multi tenants in the process.


Connected the teams. learned to lead with clarity and care..
VENAFI acquired by thomabravo 2021 Palo Alto, CA
Lead Product Designer Mar 2020 - Nov 2022
Led the evolution of the design strategy & user experience for the Code Signing product line from new product introduction/initial launch version (v1.0) into a robust, market-focused and persona-driven design.
Led structured user research, uncovering previously ambiguous personas involved in the product lifecycle, enabling the conceptualization and implementation of key product enhancements
Discovered key gap in the core product value proposition. Conceptualized & implemented design from reactive reporting of misconfiguration/misuse, to a proactive “health check” approach
Identified key impediment to product deployment & use. Proposed, designed and delivered active functionality to ameliorate developer (user) objections, remove friction, and accelerate adoption
Redesigned Information Architecture (IA), shifting from a stateless, event-driven model to a stateful action-driven log, broadening Event Management capabilities & enabling auditability
Partnered with end-customers to materially refine product fit and finish, and improve usability


Faced complexity head-on. Simplicity reveals itself behind each intention.
Ten-x acquired by costar 2020 San Mateo, CA
Sr. Product Designer Sep 2018 - Mar 2020
Led the experience of the operation side of Ten-x CRE marketplace platform, from Asset Marketing, Fee Management to Contract & Closing. (multiple 0-1 workflows and features).
Planned and conducted structured research to identify components for automating the entire asset marketing process. Created system map and flow and reached agreement with key stakeholders
Connected multiple silos in the deal operation journey for the team by provided a high impact solution with limited resources
Take the system generated contract from half-baked to ready-to-sign by enabling new in-system fee-management, template management and visual builder for clauses and sections
Researched and created user journey for broker’s deal cycle. Designed and implemented action-drive buyer profile clearly mapped to the pain points in the deal journey.
Mapped out the full workflow for “Broker Self-service”, a key initiative to expanded Ten-X’s existing market, and delivered interaction design for two key sub-flows - asset onboarding the list building.


Built connective tissue in siloed experiences; found power in patterns.
APPTUS (Conga). acquired by thomabravo 2018 San Mateo, CA
Senior Product Designer Jul 2017 - Sep 2018
Owned product design for Apttus Finance Line, including Order Management, Billing and Revenue Recognition. Three Apttus product lines: Quoting, Contracting, Finance.
Complete redesigned and elevated the finance experience on Apttus Cloud, started with existing Salesforce functionality and led by participatory design and based on competitive product study.
Conceptualized “Prescriptive Account Page” for billing specialist and post sales to quickly choose the most effective way to communicate with account based on each account’s unique situation/behaviors.
Identified the shared interaction patterns of all Apttus product lines and defined the infrastructure level components of Nova Design System 2.0.


Practiced systems thinking through finance flows and design system.
SAP LABS Palo Alto, CA
Sr. UX Specialist Mar 2013 – Jul 2017
Customer Co-innovation
Co-innovated with enterprise customers to translate their needs into customized product solution and interactions design. featured customers including Dell (Sales Lifecycle), Catepiller (Manufacturing Efficiency), Aernow.developer and Employee Experience
Took a holistic service design approach aiming to streamline SAP development processes and improve overall employee experience. Delivered multiple services and tools, including Bridge (launchpad that brought fractions of a working day back together), Product Feature Database, Toolathon, SAPbot.AppHaus Special Projects
Designed for AppDesigner - a no-coding tool for business users to turn their deep business insights into mobile app - the project that attracted me to join SAP.


Learned to listen deeply—designing with, not just for, people.
Fall 2025. A new season, a new current,
flowing through a more curious, more grounded, more enabled me.
Do our paths align in this unfolding future?
How do you see our path aligning:
This is a place to share my exploration in design, tech and life.
curiowls@gmail.com
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