Hello, I’m Jason Walzer. With over 25 years of experience, I’m a UX Leader that puts humans at the center of product strategy, service & platform innovation, design leadership and people management.

Based on a foundation of understanding the aspirations and behavior of real people in their everyday lives, I lead multidisciplinary teams to design meaningful products and services for home, work, or on the go.

From start-ups to multinationals such as Google, HP, Samsung, LG, Motorola, BlackBerry, Autodesk, Best Buy, Target, SC Johnson, FedEx, McDonald's, PepsiCo, AB InBev, Johnson & Johnson – plus a few dudes by the name of Frampton, Boulud and Hefner. 

Specialties: user / customer / developer experience; design for AI; interaction, visual and conversation design; agentive & multimodal experiences (voice, visual, haptic and environmental); design systems; new category / service / product opportunities; innovation design strategy; digital and real-world service design; ubiquitous computing; wearables; motorcycling; fly-fishing; wrangling kids; and running slowly. I also kind of fancy myself a fairly competent table tennis player, but have been proven wrong many times.

Google · Senior Staff UX Manager / Design Lead

2013 - Present
Mountain View, CA and Boulder, CO

Google Maps Platform

  • Customer, Developer, and End User Experience 

  • Geospatial Building Blocks and Tools

  • AI Augmentation, Delivery/Rideshare Logistics, Driving Experience, Analytics, Geocoding, Map Customization

Google Assistant (nka Gemini, DeepMind), Cross-Surfaces

  • Multimodal Agentive Experiences

  • Cross-Surface Design Systems (Mobile, Wearable, Home, TV, Auto)

  • Assistant + Gemini

Google Drive, Workspace

  • AI Collaborative Awareness

  • Natural Language Finding

  • Organizational Knowledge Graph 

  • Enterprise Content Management

  • 2P and 3P Interoperability 

Android, Services & Apps

  • Voice Assistant

  • Wearables

  • Fitness

  • Emerging Markets

  • Internet of Things

  • Ecommerce

  • Utility

Ongoing Community and Citizenship

  • UX Hiring Committee for all of Google

  • Co-defined UX Hiring Rubrics for all of Google

  • G2G Manager Coach serving Google’s thousands of Managers

  • DEI Committee

  • Leadership Sponsorship Program for under-represented groups

  • Community Outreach Events

  • New Employee (“Noogler”) / New Manager Mentor for incoming or recently promoted Managers

  • Performance Reporting Consultation Program for ERGs

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Smart Design · Associate Director,
Interaction Design and Brand Experience

2008 - 2013
New York City

  • Innovation Consulting

  • Human Centered Design

  • Physical, Digital, and Service Design

  • UX, Home Goods, Electronics, Consumer Packaged Goods, Healthcare

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Addison · Senior Designer

2007 - 2008
New York City

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Faust · Senior Designer

2004 - 2007
Chicago

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Spunk Design Machine · Designer

2000 - 2004
Minneapolis

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Pizza Hut · Fantastic Dishwasher & Mediocre Cook

1997 - 1998
Minneapolis

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University of Minnesota · College of Human Ecology

1997 - 2001
Twin Cities

  • Bachelors in Design Communication