About me
I lead UX for AI-powered features on Google Drive, defining interaction models for how users find, organize, and work with AI across a billion-user scale product. I'm a design leader and maker who brings 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. I stay close to the craft and never stopped designing.
For nearly a decade on Drive, I've led design across enterprise products, AI features, and cross-platform experiences. As an IC, I led Information Governance UX, which included Drive Labels, an enterprise classification system spanning Drive, Docs, Sheets, and Slides that directly unblocked a major enterprise deal by solving a flagship customer's non-negotiable security requirements. As a manager, I lead design strategy for Drive's AI investments and recently led a team of up to 14 designers through a major leadership transition, contributing to 100+ launches over my tenure. A peer described this period as “translating chaos into concrete, record-speed delivery.”
I studied 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 I'm most focused on now is the design problem at the center of AI: helping people calibrate trust in systems that are confident by default. Most AI interfaces feel authoritative regardless of accuracy, and users have few tools to evaluate what they're told. 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. That's the work I want to do next.
Outside work: improvised music, board sports, meditation, and whatever book on consciousness, epistemology, or philosophy of mind is rewiring my assumptions this month.
Ryan Spohn
Product Designer
Philosophy & skills
HOW I WORK
Sees the whole picture, not only the interface
Business objectives, technical constraints, user segments, product positioning. I work across all of these as part of any UX process.
“Ryan has shown a strong ability to distill product complexity down to an understandable narrative.”
— Engineering Manager
Speaks engineering and product natively
I earn trust from cross-functional partners by thinking in their frameworks, pushing back constructively on scope and technical tradeoffs, and building alignment through clarity.
“Ryan steps up, takes responsibility for the product, sees through the noise, focuses on the user, and gets the rest of the team to face the hard problems.”
— Product Manager
Turns ambiguity into shipped product
When leadership gaps open, timelines compress, or strategy is unclear, I step into whatever role is needed to keep the team focused and the work moving.
“When the prior PM rolled off, you stepped into the breach and did months of gritty work, including really tough cross-PA negotiations. I’m certain we couldn’t have ever launched without your strong hand.”
— Director, Product Management
HOW I LEAD TEAMS
Creates stability when everything around the team is changing
I shield teams from organizational noise so designers can focus on the work. In addition, I’ve led the team through multiple leadership transitions, absorbing ambiguity at the top so it doesn’t cascade down.
“I particularly appreciate his steadfast approach; it creates a sense of stability and confidence when facing cross-functional challenges.”
— Direct report
Develops people, not just products
I invest in helping designers grow their strategic thinking and their confidence in ambiguous situations. I’ve supported designers through promotions, career pivots, and the IC-to-management transition.
“He doesn’t micromanage, yet still provides advice and guidance that helps me make an impactful contribution to the team and company. He leaves plenty of room for ICs to make their best design choices.”
— Direct report
Builds a culture of craft and honest feedback
I run the team’s design critiques, established our pre-implementation review process, and built a culture where feedback happens continuously, in crits, standups, and chat. The formal gates work because the daily conversation already does.
“Ryan runs team crits, creating a twice-weekly forum that many ICs report is their most interesting, fun, and helpful meeting of the week.”
— Manager
SKILLS & SPECIALTIES
Team leadership
- End-to-end product design, concept to launch
- Leading and scaling UX teams
- Org design, resource allocation, and capacity planning
- Executive presentation design and delivery
- Product strategy, roadmap definition
- Mentorship, coaching, and career development
Scale & AI
- Enterprise UX system design for billion-user platforms (Google Drive, Salesforce)
- Cross-platform design: web, iOS, Android, Windows, and Mac
- Human-AI interaction and product strategy; roadmaps, primitives
- Trustworthy, interpretable AI interfaces and agentic workflows
Design craft
- Operational product excellence: critique culture, reviews, weekly bug bashes, design sprints
- Prototyping in code (HTML/CSS/JS) and Figma
- Design systems at scale (Salesforce Lightning Design System)
- Guidance and best practice documentation