Seth Thomas

Hi, my name is Seth

I'm a UX manager and product design lead with over 15 years experience crafting digital products and leading creative teams big and small: from indie bands, to fashion retail, to Microsoft, MTV, and Google.

Engineering delightful experiences used to be the center of my design practice, but as more of my work gets woven into people's everyday lives, I've developed a values-centric design practice to help me create tools that better meet everyone's needs. In addition to great design, I've helped my teams create product missions, metrics/OKRs that mirror core values, developed learning resources, expanded tool access and accessibility, and promoted equitable outcomes.

In short, my goal as a product designer is to measurably help both individuals and communities achieve their goals together.

Helping Google hire better

I grew Google's Hiring UX team from just me to more than a dozen UXers supporting more than 100 engineers. Along the way, my team and I modernized Google's custom suite of collaborative hiring software to help the company assess millions of applicants a year, matching over 25 thousand new employees with the perfect job at Google--all faster, more consistently, and with less bias than ever before.

• Led mid-size team of UX designers, researchers, and prototypers
• Expertise in designing large-scale collaboration tools
• Hands-on with accessibility & responsive web design best-practices
• Extremely deep domain knowledge regarding hiring, DEI (diversity, equity, inclusion), and talent evaluation at scale

A few select projects

Creative side projects

I've got a lot of creative energy that never seems to get completely soaked up at work (thank goodness). For me, this adds up to numerous side projects. I make music and run a small recording studio. I also love drawing, photography, graphic design, and I've begun to dabble in electronics.

Defining digital interaction

The iPhone didn't exist yet when I began my design career 20 years ago. Every new technology unleashed a wave of creativity, and I was driven to innovate at the bleeding edge. Coming from the arts, my creative imagination helped me push the boundaries of what digital experiences could be; The marriage of creativity and technology is a very potent combination indeed.

My knack for video & audio production, advanced Actionscript programming, and designing engaging interfaces helped me establish my career. My deep toolkit attracted many clients, and I helped create the first wave of controller-less interfaces at XBox, pioneered interactive video shopping at Nordstrom, and led the design of MTVs first flagship on-demand-video app.

A few select projects

Thanks for visiting

I appreciate you taking a few moments to look through my work. If you'd like to know more, please see my resume and don't hesitate to reach out directly.