Product Design Leader
Leadership | Design | Research
I lead teams to deliver customer-centered experiences that drive business impact. By aligning product, engineering, and design, I turn strategic vision into cohesive, high-impact outcomes.
Areas of Expertise
Customer-Centered Design
I center design around real customer needs from the very beginning. Through interviews, usability testing, and continuous feedback, I ensure we’re solving the right problems, not just validating solutions. This approach grounds decisions in real behavior, reduces guesswork, and leads to more meaningful, effective outcomes.
In a recent redesign at Shutterfly, this approach contributed to higher conversion rates and increased average order value, enabling the business to transition to the new experience ahead of schedule.​
​
Team Leadership
I bring over 10 years of experience leading designers and researchers across all levels, including teams of 12+ people. I build high-performing teams through mentorship, clear feedback, and structured growth plans. This approach has resulted in strong retention and consistent career progression, with team members advancing to roles at leading companies such as Apple and Zoom.
Vision and Strategy
I lead design vision and strategy for complex, large-scale initiatives. In a recent redesign at Shutterfly, I led the team to create a unified experience across multiple product creation flows, including the consolidation of three distinct photo book builders.
​
This work required creating a consistent experience across builders, preserving familiarity, retaining all features while introducing improvements, and integrating new capabilities. The final design spanned over 1,300 screens and was informed by extensive user testing.
​
By driving alignment across design, development, and research, we delivered the new designs on a compressed timeline. The release exceeded business expectations, with higher conversion rates and increased average order value, enabling a faster transition to the new site.​
Leadership philosophy
I value people as individuals and as designers, fostering a culture where diverse perspectives are respected, ideas and feedback are openly shared, and teams feel supported in their growth and success.
​
I set teams up for success by ensuring strong partnerships with product and engineering, clear goals and requirements, and time to validate design approaches. When gaps arise, I work collaboratively to address them.
I support team members in growing in the directions that matter most to them while contributing to team success. Mentoring, shared learning, and structured feedback help create a cohesive, high-performing culture.
​
About me
I've been designing and leading user experience teams for over 20 years. I'm passionate about solving complex problems, improving customer experiences, and coaching designers to reach their potential.
​
Case studies
Replatforming and improving product builders
View case study
​New builder architecture
-
Consolidated experiences
-
Maintained all features
-
Improved usability
-
Added new features
Project scope
-
1300+ screens
-
300+ User testing sessions
-
Books, cards, calendars, wall art, multi-surface, prints +
-
Desktop and mobile
Result
-
Higher conversion rate
-
Higher average order value
-
Faster transition than planned
​
Comments from colleagues
Lisa Geer, Director of Product
I’ve had the pleasure of working with Lisa for the past 10 years across several different roles. One constant throughout that time has been my appreciation for the authenticity Lisa brings to every interaction. She communicates her perspectives with clarity and conviction, always grounded in deep knowledge and sound reasoning.
​
Lisa listens—truly listens—to other viewpoints and thoughtfully evaluates their merits. Her ability to balance strong, clear direction with openness to feedback is a rare and valuable trait.
​
One of Lisa’s true superpowers is the way she supports her team and those around her. She is a trusted and respected manager, as echoed by many of her former team members. Lisa consistently advocates for her team, encourages their growth, and leads by lifting others up—while also challenging them to reach their potential.
​
She leads with integrity, strength, and empathy—a combination that inspires those around her.
Ketki Naik, Senior Product Owner
I had the privilege of working closely with Lisa Sterling at Snapfish, where she led the UX team. She brings a rare blend of strategic vision and hands-on expertise to every project. Her strong analytical skills allow her to uncover deep customer insights, and she has an incredible ability to translate those into thoughtful, customer-focused design solutions.
What stood out most to me was her approach to design thinking—always centered on the customer, yet balanced with business goals. She consistently fostered collaboration across teams, guiding us to build experiences that were not only intuitive and engaging but also impactful for the business.
Beyond her skills, Lisa is a natural leader and mentor. She inspires those around her to think bigger, push boundaries, and never lose sight of the end user. Any team would be fortunate to have her driving UX strategy and innovation.
Alfred Chang, Product Owner
Lisa is a strong UX leader that designers adore. She loves her users, the passion that she has for the people she designs for is admirable and infectious to the product and engineering team. Her ability to always refer back to the data helps the team make reliable decisions. Most importantly, her level headedness when under pressure, helps the team focus and execute successfully.
I learned a lot from her during our time at Shutterfly, looking forward to what she will design next.
Tomoko Creed, Lead UX Researcher
I’ve had the pleasure of working with Lisa on many projects over the years at both Snapfish and Shutterfly. Most recently, I was part of her UX team, where we collaborated on a variety of UX research initiatives.
There are many qualities I deeply admire about Lisa. She consistently puts the customer experience at the forefront, with a remarkable ability to recognize how even small UX changes can have a meaningful impact. She successfully juggled multiple projects across both brands and brought an infectious “we can do it—let’s give it a try!” attitude to every challenge.
​
Lisa was truly one of my favorite colleagues to work with. She led by example and constantly inspired us to push the boundaries of how we could improve the user experience. I especially enjoyed brainstorming and collaborating with her on research projects—her insights were always thoughtful and grounded in a deep understanding of both brands, not only from a UX standpoint but also from an engineering and technical perspective. Her strong relationships with engineering and cross-functional teams were built on mutual respect and trust.
​
One of the most memorable projects we worked on together was the Holiday Product Workshop in Fort Collins. We hosted 50–75 Snapfish customers onsite, offering product demos led by product owners and UX designers, and facilitated user testing sessions. This event allowed us to gather invaluable, direct feedback from our users and build a strong community of engaged customers who continued to support our research efforts.
​
As a manager, Lisa gave clear direction while also challenging me to grow in my role as a senior UX researcher. She encouraged innovative thinking and always supported professional development, motivating us to attend webinars and classes to stay current with industry trends.
​
I feel incredibly fortunate to have had the opportunity to work alongside Lisa and contribute to improving UX at both Snapfish and Shutterfly. She is a thoughtful leader, a strategic thinker, and a passionate advocate for the user.
Ian Kelleigh, Principle UX Designer
Lisa has been one of the best and inspiring managers I've ever had the opportunity to work with. For over 12 years she has helped support me and my work with Snapfish and Shutterfly. She was always there to give input on design decisions and helped push me to try different approaches that I didn't even think about. Lisa's feedback was always positive and productive which helped elevate the quality of my work as well as others' work on the team. Lisa's knowledge of the creative customers at Shutterfly was invaluable and brought world class experiences to those users. Lisa always had the team in mind, and helped us grow together through group exercises and team outings that helped inspire us in our design work.
Shankar Kondoju, Senior UX Designer
I had the pleasure of working with Lisa our UX Director at Shutterfly. Her leadership goes far beyond project oversight—she brings a thoughtful, human-centered approach that uplifts the entire team. She consistently offered insightful feedback that pushed our designs to the next level, while also creating space for experimentation, passion projects, and cross-disciplinary collaboration.
What stood out most was how she encouraged us to bring our full creative selves to the table. Her ability to connect with team members across time zones and backgrounds made a lasting impact on our growth, confidence, and creativity. Lisa is a rare kind of leader—genuine, visionary, and deeply supportive—and I’d jump at the chance to work with her again.
Dileep Ajay Divvela, Senior UX Designer
I had the pleasure of working under Lisa Sterling in the UX team, and I was genuinely impressed by her depth of technical knowledge. During our conversations, it was clear how well she understood both design and engineering perspectives. She could effortlessly grasp the concerns of the engineering team and offer practical, thoughtful suggestions. Her approachable nature, combined with her expertise and leadership, made her an invaluable part of the team. Truly fortunate to have worked with such a leader.
Kondaiah Ageeru, Lead UX Designer
I’ve had the pleasure of working with Lisa for over 8 years across both Snapfish and Shutterfly. During this time, I had the opportunity to work on many UX projects under her guidance, and she remains the best UX manager I’ve had the privilege to work with. Lisa placed deep trust in her team, fostered a culture of creativity, and encouraged us to explore bold ideas while staying grounded in user value. Her leadership style was both empowering and inspiring—seamlessly blending innovation with real-world impact.
She’s a thoughtful and visionary UX leader who consistently puts the customer at the center and brings a strategic, solutions-oriented mindset to every challenge. Her ability to collaborate effortlessly with engineering, product, and research teams truly stands out—and she leads with authenticity, empathy, and a strong commitment to both user needs and team success.
One of my most memorable experiences was getting the opportunity to meet the UX team in San Francisco and work closely with them. At the time, I was still early in my UX journey, but Lisa’s belief in me gave me the confidence to grow. Her support made a lasting difference, and I’ll always be grateful for the opportunity to learn under her guidance.