Sharon S Kong

Product Designer

I'm a product designer with a background in social design, health tech, and enterprise software.

I grew up in Seoul, left to study Communication Design at Carnegie Mellon, and kept going until I had a Master's in Social Design from MICA.

I co-founded and led design at emocha Mobile Health, did research and strategy at Tomorrow Partners, then spent five years at Cisco Meraki helping grow a design team from 3 people to 30+. After that, I took some time to travel, live abroad, and work on my own terms — which reminded me why I got into this work in the first place. I like people, and I like making things that work better for them. Now I'm back in the Bay Area doing exactly that.

I also have a habit of picking up creative hobbies the way some people collect houseplants. Current and former obsessions include tattooing, motion graphics, and basket weaving.

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Sharon S Kong
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Experience
2022 — Present
Freelance Product Designer
Independent

End-to-end product strategy, UX/UI design, and design systems for startups and growing teams. Helping turn complex problems into intuitive experiences that drive measurable impact.

San Francisco
2021 — 2022
UX Design Lead
Cisco Meraki

Led design for the network management platform from Seoul, managing a cross-timezone team and driving product strategy for enterprise IT tools.

Seoul
2019 — 2021
UX Design Manager
Cisco Meraki

Managed a team of 4–6 designers, built design operations processes, and partnered with product and engineering leadership to shape strategy and grow a design culture.

San Francisco
2017 — 2019
Senior UX Designer
Cisco Meraki

Designed enterprise networking software and led UX for Meraki Go — a consumer mobile app for small business owners new to networking.

San Francisco
2015 — 2017
UX Designer
Tomorrow Partners

Research-driven design strategy across brand, product, and service design. Led user research, journey mapping, and UX for a range of clients.

San Francisco
2014 — 2015
Design Lead
emocha Mobile Health

Founding design hire. Built UX for a mobile health platform, managed product development and client relationships, and shaped the company's brand and visual identity.

Baltimore
Skills
Strategy + Leadership
Design systems architectureCross-functional strategyStakeholder managementMentorshipDesign opsDesign advocacy
Product Design
Information architectureContent strategyUI/UXDesign sprintsUser researchService blueprintsPrompt-to-prototype workflows
Software + Technical
FigmaClaudeAdobe SuiteLovableHTML / CSS / ReactNotion, Linear, Atlassian
Education
2012 — 2013
MA, Social Design
Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA)
2008 — 2012
BFA, Communication Design
Carnegie Mellon University
More
Based in
San Francisco, CA
Languages
English, Korean
Tools
Figma, Claude, Lovable,
Linear, Miro, Notion, Jira
Also into
Tattooing, motion graphics, and basket weaving