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Strategic creativity + Product design leadership

I lead teams to design and deliver thoughtful, human-centered experiences. I coach designers to think big, explore boldly, and execute with clarity. My approach blends strategic creativity with processes that helps teams consistently deliver great work.

• Push beyond MVP: vision, experimentation, and polish
• Builder-coach: mentorship, critique, and design systems
• Consumer-grade quality across every product surface

Leadership

Over the years, I’ve helped teams grow stronger, clearer, and more confident in their craft. My leadership is rooted in mentoring designers to think strategically while encouraging innovative creativity.

I care a lot about outcomes, but I’m equally invested in sustainable ways of working. I’ve seen that when people have room for a real life outside of work, they bring more focus, resilience, and creativity to it. Several of my direct reports have earned promotions, from Intermediate to Senior and Senior to Staff, through coaching, candid design critique, and consistent career growth frameworks.

Coaching with Purpose

Building a culture of trust and mentorship where designers develop autonomy, confidence, and clarity. Personalized growth plans and regular critique sessions help turn feedback into growth.

Mentoring a designer at a whiteboard with a target

Design Processes and Alignment

Creating scalable patterns and processes that enable creativity while maintaining consistency. A well-structured system empowers teams to move fast without losing quality.

JTBD & ODI Thinking

Integrating Jobs-to-be-Done and Outcome-Driven Innovation principles to ground creativity in user goals. I help teams translate qualitative insights into actionable strategies and measurable success criteria.

What others say

A few words from people I’ve had the pleasure of working with over the years.

Design & Strategy

A selection of work that spans strategic discovery and hands-on product design. These projects show how I align teams around user outcomes and translate that into interfaces and systems for highly technical users at scale.

(TBD) JTBD and ODI strategic discovery initiative

JTBD/ODI Strategic Discovery

Cross-team initiative to define a core job, build a unified job map, outcome set, and north-star vision concepts, aligning multiple product areas around a single measurable direction.

Private case study

Network Testing Dashboard

Designed a dashboard to provide real-time visibility into active network tests, helping engineers and managers spot issues faster and stay aligned across projects.

Network Throughput Test

Designed a traffic-mix testing interface that lets engineers emulate real application workloads, ramp load, and validate device performance and policy accuracy under realistic conditions.

Maker Projects

Alongside leading design teams, I regularly design and build my own apps to stay sharp in visual craft, interaction design, prototyping, and product strategy. These projects move from sketch to working prototypes and near-production builds, letting me explore ideas quickly, validate workflows without organizational overhead, and stay fluent in end-to-end execution. Each app reflects my bias toward clarity, simplicity, and outcome-oriented design.

5MinuteFretboard

Teaching through interaction
A drill-based tool that helps guitarists master the fretboard through short, repeatable exercises.
My focus: progressive flows, light gamification, and accessible micro-learning.
Skills demonstrated: onboarding, state clarity, micro-interactions, scoring logic.

Jam Along

Creative tools for musicians
A practice app with pitch shifting, tempo control, and fast navigation for both Apple Music and local audio.
My focus: intuitive creative controls and reducing friction in deep-work sessions.
Skills demonstrated: multimodal interaction, keyboard shortcut integrations, expert workflows, early AI/ML exploration.

1MinuteWorkouts

Habit-forming movement for desk workers
A fitness app that nudges users to move and offers short and long workout options.
My focus: low friction starts and creating simple paths to action.
Skills demonstrated: habit-forming UX, haptics, content architecture, notification strategy.

Rounds Timer

Designing for clarity under pressure
A minimal, high-contrast interval timer built for quick glances and hands-free training.
My focus: real-time state clarity, sound cues, and glanceable layouts.
Skills demonstrated: motion timing, haptics, usability under cognitive load.

About

I’m a product design leader who pairs strategic clarity with a maker’s curiosity. For more than a decade, I’ve built and coached teams that deliver thoughtful, user-centered products, grounded in consistency, simplicity, and strong design craft.

Outside of work, I stay hands-on, building small iOS apps to solve my own Jobs-to-Be-Done, learning pottery from my wife, or quilting her pieced tops on our computerized, long-arm machine. These projects keep me experimenting, learning, and connected to the creative process. They’re a reminder that good work doesn’t require burning people out. I’ve seen again and again that when teams have space for life outside the product, the work gets sharper, more thoughtful, and more sustainable.

Contact

Email: justinmandell@gmail.com
Location: Remote (Indiana, US)

👋 Contact Me!

Whether you’re exploring ideas, looking for a collaborator, or just want to say hello 👋, I’d love to connect and talk about creating great software together.

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