Leo Vogel
Lead Product Designer · 11 years of UI/UX design experience building innovative software and world-class design systems.
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11 years of UI/UX design experience collaborating with startup CTOs and UX managers at enterprise-level organizations to create innovative software and world-class design systems with a focus on web SaaS platforms.
// highlights
- Led design of the New York State Design System: building 26 accessible components with full Figma–code parity, advanced Figma prototyping, automatic responsiveness, and Fidelity Modes for one-click conversion of FigJam wireframes to high fidelity — cutting design time by 50–60% across 14 product teams and achieving 99% component integrity with only 0.88% detachments across 32,000+ instance inserts.
- Increased revenue by $1 Million from 2.4 million tickets sold by leading product design transformation of web SaaS ticketing platform resulting in dramatic product adoption growth from 10 clients to over 200.
- Designed an AI-powered chatbot with a 90% reduced cost compared to the existing call center product.
- Conceptualized a preventative maintenance system that secured a $100,000 contract.
- Built a design system from base tokens into over 4,000+ shared components in Figma, ensuring consistency across 5 products.
- Achieved #1 Product Designer in USA on Uxcel.com Designer Rankings in April 2024.
// experience
- Refactored and modernized 10 core design system components (Alert, Badge, Breadcrumbs, Button Group, Button Dropdown, Card, Drawer, Text Input, Text Area, Toggle), improving consistency across a single shared component library and reducing duplicated UI patterns across product surfaces.
- Implemented Figma Slots in 8 high-usage UI components/patterns (Page Template, Drawer, Modal, Button Dropdown, Breadcrumbs, Tooltip, Tabs, plus additional slot expansions), increasing component flexibility while reducing the number of one-off variants needed for new use cases.
- Completed an initial audit of 58 design system components and designed, launched, and promoted an internal design system survey; analyzed results from 55 respondents and authored targeted user-group reports to benchmark current design system health and adoption at the start of tenure.
- Led design of the New York State Design System: building 26 accessible components with full Figma–code parity, achieving 54% parity with the U.S. Web Design System within the first year, cutting design time by 50–60% across 14 product teams.
- Built and maintained the system's most advanced Figma components using Auto Layout, variable-driven responsiveness, and inline documentation, achieving 99% component integrity with only 0.88% detachments across 32,000+ instance inserts.
- Evangelized statewide adoption through hands-on training workshops, 3 recorded onboarding videos, and in-Figma written guides, accelerating new-designer ramp-up.
- Invented, built, and operationalized the "Fidelity Modes" variable framework, enabling instant low-to-high fidelity switching in Figma and FigJam — finalist for a Zeroheight 2025 Design System award.
- Elevated visual and interaction design language by refining typography, spacing, and responsive patterns across 95 styles, 320 Variables, and 57 components in Figma.
A GovTech startup, Daupler builds AI software for 200+ organizations, with a product team of 8 people across 4 time zones.
- Designed an AI-powered chatbot with a 90% reduced cost compared to the existing call center product, improving efficiency and significantly simplifying the complexity of creating a service request online.
- Conceptualized a preventative maintenance system that secured a $100,000 contract by mapping user flows and creating mockups in Figma.
- Conducted usability testing achieving an 85% user confidence score for 2 key tasks and uncovering 3 core user pain points.
- Collaborated with PM to define KPIs using Google's HEART framework, providing clear benchmarks for user satisfaction and product success.
- Built a design system from base tokens into 4,000+ shared components in Figma, ensuring consistency across 5 products.
- Facilitated brainstorming of over 200 ideas in a Miro impact–effort grid that identified a strategic feature to build.
Acquired in 2019, UniversityTickets was a 22-person company that built live-event ticketing products for higher education.
- Led product design transformation increasing the client base from 10 to over 200 organizations, resulting in 2.3 million tickets sold.
- Identified and resolved a ticket scanning bottleneck leading to a 15% increase in scan accuracy through user research and ticket redesign.
- Developed a colorblind-accessible seating chart using HTML, CSS, OmniGraffle, and colorblindness simulation software.
- Updated the visual design of a 180-page POS and admin web app in 72 hours, resulting in a major version upgrade and 66% cut in page load times.
- Prioritized and executed 100 annual UX improvements using JIRA, collaborating with the CTO in sprint planning.
- Spearheaded an end-to-end responsive redesign in 11 months that increased company revenue by $1 million using mobile-first principles.
- Advocated for user-centered design leading to a dramatic increase in product adoption and 98% client retention rate.
- Optimized branding process by implementing CSS pre-processor LESS, achieving a 91% reduction in file size and accelerating site branding by 77%.
- Customized white-label SaaS platform with branding for 200+ clients using HTML, CSS, and Photoshop.
- Resolved over 794 customer service support requests with a personal average resolution time of under 7.5 hours.
- Implemented a centralized help desk system to streamline and increase transparency of customer support requests.
- Tested software in an Agile team to ensure high quality by checking for bugs and UX issues.
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Leo is a Figma wizard, an excellent systems thinker, and has proven himself a competent leader — skilled at the subtle art of collaborating well with both internal team members and external design system consumers.
During my time working with Leo, I was amazed at his constant desire to improve. Not a small desire, but a dedication to self-improvement not seen in many people. Leo thinks differently. He sees what other people miss, and he'll document the details.
Leo brings not only sharp design thinking and craftsmanship to his work, but also integrity, generosity, and a positive spirit to every collaboration.
Pro-level UI/UX skills, never hesitant to learn a new skill, and dives head-first into whatever he takes on.
Leo immediately stood out — I've seen his focus on quality and attention to detail within the context of streamlining processes and designs.
Leo's robust and well-developed UX skills have made a remarkable difference in the usability and enjoyment of our software — reducing the support and training load on our staff by making the system more intuitive.
Leo's UI and UX design are top-notch. He has always delivered above and beyond my expectations.
Leo's detailed feedback and dedication to my growth have made working with him a pleasure.
A great eye for detail, forward-thinking, a team player, passionate about his work, always there to help, and dedicated in everything that he is asked to do.
Leo's goal was always to design a product that was so intuitive it didn't need support.
