Hi, I’m Ryan.
I design how people and agents create, review, refine, and share work together in Google Drive, a product more than a billion people use. I'm a designer who builds: I define the interaction models, then prove them with working prototypes in code. A decade of leading teams shapes how I work as an IC; I bring business constraints, technical tradeoffs, and product strategy to the design conversation. PM directors and engineering leads trust me as a cross-functional partner because I think across their frameworks, not just my own.
For nearly a decade on Drive, I've alternated between leading the work and leading the team. On the IC side, I led Information Governance UX, where Drive Labels, an enterprise classification system spanning Drive, Docs, Sheets, and Slides, directly unblocked a major enterprise deal by solving a flagship customer's non-negotiable security requirements. On the management side, I set design strategy for Drive's AI investments and led a team of up to 14 designers through a major leadership transition, work that contributed to 100+ launches over my tenure. A peer described that period as “translating chaos into concrete, record-speed delivery.”
Earlier chapters
I grew up in Cleveland, where I spent weekends in fine art classes, drawing and making things. That's what led me to Industrial Design, which taught me to think in systems, work across constraints, and keep people at the center. I spent ten years at five startups, co-founded one, and helped drive three acquisitions by doing whatever the company needed: design, code, customer support, and admin work. At Salesforce, I led mobile design and co-created the Lightning Design System. Each chapter built a different muscle. Together, they're why I partner credibly with engineering and product, earning trust by understanding their constraints and speaking their language.
What's next
My current chapter tilts back toward making. After years leading teams and setting strategy, I have my hands on the work again, and this moment in AI rewards people who build. The problem I most want to build for is the design problem at the center of AI: helping people calibrate trust in systems that are confident by default.
I believe that for AI to earn trust, it must be useful, interpretable, and aligned with human intent. Design is how you hold that line.
Outside of work
Outside work: improvised music, board sports, meditation, and whatever book on consciousness, epistemology, or philosophy of mind is rewiring my assumptions this month.
