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Work Experience

Senior Design Leader and Hands-On Product Designer with 20+ years of experience crafting intuitive, scalable enterprise B2B SaaS platforms, complex administrative tools, and eProcurement workflows. Proven track record of translating multi-stakeholder needs—across procurement, operations, finance, and end-users—into coherent digital products that accelerate onboarding, drive adoption, and fuel business growth. Skilled in leveraging AI-powered design tools, establishing robust design systems, and bridging product strategy with cross-functional execution.

CHAMP Titles
Dec 2025 - Present

Product Design Manager

  • Direct design operations, platform strategy, and user experience for enterprise B2B titling platforms, leading and growing a team of Product Designers.

  • Established standardized design system components, principles, and documentation.

  • Structured cross-functional design critiques, aligning product, engineering and design early in the software development lifecycle.

  • Conducted comprehensive UI/UX audits and interactive stakeholder walkthroughs for complex multi-state government and enterprise workflows, reducing operation complexity and handoff friction.

Varis
(The ODP Corporation)

Oct 2021 - Aug 2025

Head of Design / Product Design Manager

  • Defined and executed the end-to-end design strategy for Varis' eProcurement B2B administrative platform, cutting customer onboarding and marketplace stand-up time in half.

  • Partnered closely with product, engineering, and operations to design for complex administrative personas (procurement leads, finance, end-user buyers) ensuring multi-role handoffs were seamless and secure.

  • Integrated AI-powered workflows into the software development lifecycle, streamlining prototyping and research synthesis to dramatically shorten release cycles.

  • Managed and mentored a team of designers while maintaining hands-on contribution to system architecture, visual design, and core product feature design.

Office Depot
(The ODP Corporation)

Mar 2021 - Sep 2021

Senior Product Designer

  • Redesigned B2B search and procurement workflows to highlight in-contract items, guiding enterprise buyers toward compliant purchasing and decreasing rogue spend.

  • Established the organization's first customer design feedback program, translating frontline buyer feedback directly into product strategy.

  • Partnered with technical leads to modernize the search experience, creating flexible design foundations that were reused for Office Depot's B2C experience.

Meridian Knowledge Systems
Feb 2015 - Feb 2021

Senior Product Designer

  • Spearheaded UX strategy for enterprise administrative and learning management tool, lifting customer satisfaction scores by 15%.

  • Built a comprehensive UX requirements framework that reduced engineering rework, accelerated feature velocity, and ensured WCAG accessibility compliance across all experiences.

  • Led end-to-end user research and usability testing, grounding product roadmaps in empirical customer data and operational realities.

Blackboard
Nov 2007 - Jan 2015

Design Strategist

  • Shaped long-term design vision and architecture across multi-platform cloud applications with the UX leadership team.

  • Embedded accessibility standards and user-centered design practices into cross-functional development cycles.

Xythos Software
Aug 2001 - Oct 2007

Manager, User Experience

  • Led end-to-end UX for enterprise server and client applications, designing administrative management controls and user interfaces from concept to release.

Core Competencies

Design & Prototyping:  Figma, Sketch, Adobe XD, InVision  
Research & Strategy:  Usability testing, Customer research programs, Usertesting.com, Userlytics.com, Journey mapping, Responsive design  
Collaboration & Dev Tools:  Jira, Confluence, Cursor, Slack, Teams  
Technical:  HTML, CSS, Accessibility Standards (WCAG)
Professional Strengths: Cross-functional collaboration, Stakeholder communication, Relationship-building with engineering teams, Strategic thinking

 

© 2025 by Melissa H Kern

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