About

Profile Picture

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.

+ Let’s connect

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.

Current Role Image

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.

  1. Product Design Manager

    Spotify: 2020-2023

    Led a team of product designers that created business products for podcast publishers and advertisers.

  2. Design Director

    Megaphone (Acquired by Spotify): 2020

    Build a new design practice in a growing podcast technology startup where I oversaw both marketing and product design.

  3. Senior Manager of User Experience

    Asurion: 2017 - 2020

    Led the retail design team responsible for the end-to-end experience of customers that purchased product protection and tech support plans.

  4. Lead Associate

    Booz Allen Hamilton: 2010 - 2016

    Senior 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.

  5. Senior Designer

    ACS Creative: 2007 - 2010

    Managed accounts, developed brand and campaign identities, and created effective user experiences for some of the firm's top-billing clients.

  6. JBS Art Director

    Art Director: 2005 - 2006

    Designed and maintained new brand identities for 5 consumer electronics brands, which included 39 total products sold at large automotive and discount retailers.

  7. Website Designer

    NASA Classroom of the Future: 2002 - 2004

    Designed 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.

Growth Image

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.

Process Image

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.

Favorite Things

Home