I'm Nick Clark.
A Product Designer
based in sunny Orlando FL.

10+ years experience building digital products and leading design initiatives in enterprise software

(The human is Nick Clark and the Chihuahua is Conner)

WORK EXPERIENCE

Companies I have worked for in the past

01

Denim
Senior Product Designer

First design hire reporting to the head of product. Responsible for all things UX and design within our product. Created a repeatable design process to deliver consistent results for a growing team. Created a design system and collaborated with engineering on a UI library to aid in efficient implementation of front-end components.

02

Stax
Product Designer

First design hire and second product hire reporting directly to the head of product. Responsible for aspects of product management and the holistic design of a rapidly scaling cross-platform financial product suite with over 20k monthly active users. Present during high-growth phase, exited after unicorn valuation.

03

Northrop Grumman
Software Engineer

Responsible for designing and implementing new features on the Distributed Mission Operations Network (DMON) program for the US Airforce. I worked on web-based systems designed to manage flight simulator mission scheduling, standardization, and training efforts. The tech stack was Adobe ColdFusion (backend), jQuery (frontend) for most of my time there until we migrated to a React frontend and a Java Spring backend.

Design Philosophy

I believe in designing solutions to problems that genuinely help improve the lives of the people who use our products, while also creating value for the business. Only by practicing empathy, listening to our users, and truly understanding the problem space do we stand the best chance of being successful.

Skills Highlight

A few key skills that I think help me stand out from the crowd...

Product Design

I've worked at several fast-growing startups as the first design hire. It's been my responsibility to build the UX function from nothing into something that can scale and deliver consistent results. I'm experienced designing innovative business-critical features and enhancements that are used by tens of thousands of users in the B2B space.

Visual Design

I take an elegant yet practical approach to visual design so as not to sacrifice usability for aesthetics. Both must exist in harmony to build trust and confidence with users.

Software Development

I started my career doing front-end development. I know how to build everything that I design and how difficult each part is. As a designer this has afforded me the ability to design great experiences that can fit within a variety of budgeting & time constraints while still delivering real value.

Design Systems

Well versed in creating, maintaining, and implementing accessible design systems. I'm experienced working across functions to advocate for the use of a design system as a way to ensure consistent experiences while reducing development and QA time.

Recent Projects

Denim Dashboard

Reimagined the face of the Denim application with a new dashboard. Researched and discovered metrics that matter to customers and displayed them in a way that was meaningful. Propelled the company to a successful series B round.

Stax Connect Settlements

Stax Connect is the payments-as-a-service arm of Stax and settlements was one of the biggest challenges since for a long time this part of our business was handled by 3rd parties. The goal of this project was to enable our internal risk team to approve merchant settlements for merchants processing payments via our new in-house settlements engine giving us more control over our customer experience.

Denim HUB

Created and helped implement (via storybook) a new design system to improve usability across the platform and reduce development time/complexity for future features. Within the first year I curated over 60 accessible components, styles, and design patterns.

Stax Pay Application

Designed nearly the entire virtual terminal application used by business owners to process payments via the web. This fintech product was comprised of reporting, invoicing, payments, customer tracking and more. During my tenure we took our DAU count from the 100's to the 10's of thousands.

My Process

I follow the double diamond approach as a structured way to bring repeatable results to the user centered design process. This process consists of 4 key steps: Discover, Define, Develop, Deliver.

Photography

One tenant of my design philosophy involves seeking out beauty and inspiration in completely unrelated mediums like architecture and in nature. I like to stay inspired by things that are outside of my day-to-day scope of work to help me continue to bring fresh ideas and designs to the table. The natural world is the gift that keeps on giving and Central Florida has no shortage of beauty to share.

View More on Instagram

But don't take my word for it...

Here are what some my colleges have to say about me.

‘’Nick is a fantastic teammate and professional. Nick is willing to do whatever is needed that's best for the business no questions asked. He has always helped push our view of design and move the Overton window for what we see as possible and usable. He'd be a great first design hire for any firm and sets a great example in a team of how to be a rockstar. Any organization would be lucky to have him, and I hope to work with him again very soon.’’
Sean Smith
Head of Product, Denim
‘’Nick is an absolute gem of a person. He joined us a Senior Product Designer and quickly impressed his manager, my co-founder, and I with the quality of his work, his work ethic, and his infectious energy.

While at Denim, Nick consistently produced clean, beautiful, and delightful designs for the business, but what stands out most to me was his reaction when we asked him to help us redesign our fundraising materials, in addition to his normal workload. Without batting an eye, Nick agreed to take on the project -- often working late nights and weekends in order to help us meet the tight deadlines required by the process. With his help, we were able to execute a successful fundraising process in a tough market.

Nick is a phenomenal designer and a true team player. I highly recommend him for any product design role.’’
Bharath Krishnamoorthy
Co-Founder & CEO, Denim
‘’I have had the pleasure of working with Nick during a time of hyper-growth for our company, and I can confidently say that he is a valuable asset to any team. Nick has an exceptional eye for detail and a unique ability to create aesthetically pleasing as well as highly functional designs. He is a skilled problem solver, able to identify and address potential issues promptly and effectively.

However, the best trait that Nick exemplifies in my opinion was beyond his technical design skills. At an early-stage startup, times may be difficult and we may ask people to take on more than what was in their job description.

Nick has one of the best "Team First" mentalities of anyone that I have worked with. He brought positive energy into every conversation, taking the time to listen to and incorporate the ideas of the team, and take on whatever work is necessary to help the team succeed. It was an absolute honor working with Nick and I am confident that he will excel in any role he is given.’’
Shawn Vo
Co-Founder & CTO, Denim
‘’Nick has an incredible mind. His ability to take big problems and break them down is unmatched. I've had the pleasure of working with him on countless cross-functional projects. He is a great asset to the team not only for his design ability but also for his skill at driving a team towards a common goal.’’
Emily Fox
Director of Marketing Operations, Stax