Director of Product Design
What I'd Bring
Dear Hiive Hiring Team,
Hiive's mission, bringing transparency and standardization to an opaque asset class, is the kind of complex, high-stakes problem I've built my practice around. My background is in federal digital services, where the tolerance for ambiguity is low and the design system has to hold up under real use. That discipline transfers directly to a marketplace where trust and clarity in the interface carry real financial weight.
Design systems
Leading and growing a design team
Research-driven practice
I've run think-aloud usability sessions grounded in accessibility standards on federal platforms serving millions of users, and used OOUX methods to restructure a high-stakes logged-in experience so users could act on their most consequential tasks faster. I set up a scalable research process so that evidence-driven design decisions, not assumptions, were shipped.
Working across technical and business audiences
Hiive is solving a problem where efficiency and trust are the product. I'd welcome the chance to bring that same rigor to your team.
Warmly,
Brent Schneider
P.S. If you're curious to see my AI and design thinking in practice, visit my AI lab, where I write about the same agentic and design questions this role is built around. Happy to walk through it live with you.
Hiive's mission, bringing transparency and standardization to an opaque asset class, is the kind of complex, high-stakes problem I've built my practice around. My background is in federal digital services, where the tolerance for ambiguity is low and the design system has to hold up under real use. That discipline transfers directly to a marketplace where trust and clarity in the interface carry real financial weight.
Design systems
- As UX Design Lead on the CMS Design System team, I helped consolidate three separate design systems, Medicare, Healthcare.gov, and CMS.gov, into one themeable design system without sacrificing brand traits across the individual product lines.
- On the CMS QPP team, I led the architecture of a token foundation in Figma, Style Dictionary, and JSON, enabling React and Angular teams to extend one system without forced migration or fragmentation.
- Earlier in my career, I built an enterprise design system from zero for 2ndWatch's SaaS suite, delivered as a 23-page developer-facing specification covering grid, typography, and a full component library.
Leading and growing a design team
- I direct a 12-person practice at Coforma as a player-coach, staying close to the craft while coaching three direct reports into senior and lead roles through documented growth plans. One designer moved from executing in their lane to operating as a platform lead within three weeks.
Research-driven practice
I've run think-aloud usability sessions grounded in accessibility standards on federal platforms serving millions of users, and used OOUX methods to restructure a high-stakes logged-in experience so users could act on their most consequential tasks faster. I set up a scalable research process so that evidence-driven design decisions, not assumptions, were shipped.
Working across technical and business audiences
- A lead engineer I worked with told his lead, the VP of engineering, that I brought engineers into the design process earlier, producing more refined designs and fewer mid-sprint changes.
- I've facilitated alignment across three separate brand teams on a single global header in under two months, work that required translating design intent for both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
Hiive is solving a problem where efficiency and trust are the product. I'd welcome the chance to bring that same rigor to your team.
Warmly,
Brent Schneider
P.S. If you're curious to see my AI and design thinking in practice, visit my AI lab, where I write about the same agentic and design questions this role is built around. Happy to walk through it live with you.
