Alexander Kempf
Product Designer
+
MHCID
+
Army Veteran
I design software that anticipates friction + builds trust in complex, 0-to-1 products.
0-to-1 feature
Web
UX research
VR/AR/MR
Unity engine
Vibe-Coding
AI
0-to-1 feature
Web
UX overhaul
Systems design
Mobile app
TL;DR
5+ years in product design & living in Orange County, CA
+ Master of Human-Computer Interaction & Design (MHCID)
+ U.S. Army Distinguished Honor Graduate.
Former graphic designer with 8+ years of total design experience. Previously at Pulse Labs AI where I led the design of research products used every day by teams at Google, Amazon, Rivian, Volvo, and more. I love being a product designer.
DESIGN APPROACH
Radical user empathy
+ Deep systems thinking
+ Ego-free collaboration.
I turn hard, complex product problems into intuitive experiences by proactively championing the user. I protect their goals and safety as if they’re my own and collaboratively design solutions with the entire system in mind, without pursuing personal credit. A great UX always follows.
MOTIVATIONS
Propelling humanity forward with good design
+ Growing as a designer & leader.
I believe design is best used to solve the world's most important problems. If that resonates, let's talk.
CURRENTLY
Freelancing
+ Teaching my son to count to 20 30.
I like 3D printing, horror stories, running, and cooking.
EXPERIENCE
Product Designer, Freelance
March 2025 – Present
Advised startup founders on UX strategy, turning ambiguous business requirements into user-first roadmaps, and led design of mobile and web MVPs with smoother onboarding to build early-adopter trust.
Product Designer, Pulse Labs AI
January 2022 – March 2025
Owned end-to-end design across an AI-enabled B2B SaaS research platform, from journey mapping, user flows, and prototyping to developer handoff, shipping responsive, multi-user workflows and dashboards used by Google, Amazon, Rivian, Volvo, and more.
Designed, prototyped, and shipped a 0-to-1 video player for research analysis with Google's Android Auto team, shaping it through client discovery and prototype feedback. Adopted at scale by research teams on Android Auto (250M+ cars), Gemini (1B+ monthly users), and Amazon Alexa (600M+ devices), it surfaced deeper insights and saved dozens of hours per study.
Introduced Pulse Labs' first AI feature, a self-serve participant recruiting tool built for transparency, flexibility, and trust, saving internal teams hundreds of hours on high-stakes studies for big tech and automaker clients.
Led the redesign of mobile study recording and its underlying systems, sharply cutting support tickets, dropouts, and rejected study data to save hundreds of support hours and boost client satisfaction.
Facilitated discovery and validation workshops, requirements sessions, and demos to align leadership, stakeholders, and cross-functional teams in an Agile environment.
Established a scalable design system and component library with design tokens and documentation that improved design consistency and sped up engineering implementation.
Championed accessibility (WCAG) and mentored peers in design workflows and systems thinking.
UX Design Intern, J.P. Morgan
March 2021 – August 2021
Evaluated InstaMed, J.P. Morgan's healthcare payments software, through heuristic review, stakeholder interviews, and user testing, delivering a user-validated redesign concept.
Healthcare Specialist, U.S. Army
April 2016 – May 2017
Managed readiness and movement coordination for 100+ soldiers in Advanced Individual Training. Earned the Distinguished Honor Graduate award for excellence in leadership, fitness, academics, and marksmanship. Medically and honorably retired.
EDUCATION
Master of Human-Computer Interaction & Design (MHCID), UC Irvine
August 2020 – August 2021
Bachelor of Arts in Studio Art, UC Irvine
August 2011 – August 2014
SKILLS
UX design
UI design
Wireframing
High-fidelity prototyping
AI-assisted prototyping
Design systems
Systems thinking
User empathy
Leadership
Cross-functional collaboration
User research
Usability testing
Figma
Claude Code
Adobe Creative Cloud
Webflow
HTML
CSS
Unity