About Me

Hello! I'm Kay Hofmeester

Product Design Leader with 20+ years of expertise in product innovation, AI, and managing design organizations at scale. Proven success in defining strategy and vision, building high-performing teams of 25+, and driving cross-functional excellence with Product and Engineering. Expert in establishing scalable design systems, directly contributing to execution, championing user-centered design principles, and delivering industry-leading consumer products at Meta, Amazon, and Microsoft that enhance user engagement while maintaining quality.

Strategic Vision and Executive Leadership: Defined long-term design strategy and vision, collaborating with VP- / CEO-level executives (Bezos, Zuckerberg) to drive cross-functional excellence, align design efforts with business objectives at leading tech companies, and enhance user engagement

High-Performing Team Leadership: Built, mentored, and led 12+ multi-disciplinary design teams at scale across product design, prototyping, conversation design, and user research, establishing mature design organizations, including mentoring senior designers and managers

User-Centered Innovation: Delivered industry-leading UX solutions for consumer products including wearable devices, multimodal inputs (touch, voice, hands, gaze), and AI-powered technologies

Design Systems and Technology Development: Filed 30+ patents and drove scalable innovation in AI (vision and activity models), voice (TTS, ASR, NLU), and AR (display and rendering) technologies, establishing design principles and frameworks for consistency across platforms

Thought Leadership and Design Excellence: Presented at leading conferences, authored influential publications, taught user-centered design principles, elevating design craft

Skills

Leadership and Management: Team Building at Scale, Design Org Development, Exec Stakeholder Communication, Cross-Functional Partnership, Resource Planning, Team Mentorship, Adaptability

Strategy and Vision: Design Strategy and Roadmapping, Strategic Vision and Long-Term Planning, Innovation and Emerging Technology, Business Objective Alignment, Product Strategy

Design Systems and Quality: Scalable Design Principles, Design System Development, Design Quality Standards, Platform Consistency, Rapid Prototyping

User-Centered Design: User Research Integration, Data-Informed Decisions, Customer Journey Optimization, Usability, User Engagement and Retention

Collaboration and Process: Agile, Design Process Optimization, Workshop Facilitation, Design Operations

When I'm Not Designing

Outside of design, you might find me:

• 🎭 At improv
• ⛵ On the water sailing or kayaking
• 🤿 Under water scuba diving
• 🏋️ At CrossFit
• ✍️ Writing about design or health