About
Ed Yahn
Explorer. Thinker. Creator. Leader.
I work with design teams to create products and services that engage people and improve their way of life. For over 20 years, I’ve solved problems through design that intersects psychology, business, and technology.
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Design leadership principles
I use 3 core principles to lead healthy, influential, and highly-functioning design teams. CULTURE: I hire for diversity, and unite through mission and values. STRATEGY: I make sure our strategy supports the users of our products and services, while clearly tying it to business goals and technology. EXECUTION: I coach designers to produce quality work quickly for their partners, while inspiring them to create a vision for the future.
Experience
I've been gifted the opportunity to work on challenges in many different industries and acquire deep and diverse expertise in the ever-changing discipline of experience design. For the last ten years, I’ve been building and managing design teams, while still making space to explore, think, and create.
Product Design Manager
Spotify: 2020-2023Led a team of product designers that created business products for podcast publishers and advertisers.
Design Director
Megaphone (Acquired by Spotify): 2020Build a new design practice in a growing podcast technology startup where I oversaw both marketing and product design.
Senior Manager of User Experience
Asurion: 2017 - 2020Led the retail design team responsible for the end-to-end experience of customers that purchased product protection and tech support plans.
Lead Associate
Booz Allen Hamilton: 2010 - 2016Senior manager of a UX team within the Strategic Innovation Group (SIG) where I managed designers on project teams for both external clients and internal initiatives.
Senior Designer
ACS Creative: 2007 - 2010Managed accounts, developed brand and campaign identities, and created effective user experiences for some of the firm's top-billing clients.
JBS Art Director
Art Director: 2005 - 2006Designed and maintained new brand identities for 5 consumer electronics brands, which included 39 total products sold at large automotive and discount retailers.
Website Designer
NASA Classroom of the Future: 2002 - 2004Designed clean intuitive interfaces and layouts for easy navigation and content delivery for software, websites, and flash projects.
Growth
My experience has evolved along with the ever-changing practice of design. Over the course of my career, I’ve grown from a web designer in the early 2000s to a design leader of complex omnichannel service and product experiences.
Process
I approach each challenge with a unique mix of tools and techniques that have a foundation in design thinking and cross-functional collaboration. We use research to discover and learn, collaborative workshops to define goals and generate ideas, and prototypes to test and iterate on new potential experiences.
Favorite Things
I live in the Washington, DC area with my family. I need to be constantly learning and creating - whether it’s designing products, helping others build their skills, inventing a new way of doing something, or cooking elaborate meals for friends. I try to infuse curiosity and creativity into every aspect of my life.