James Schmittler · Minnesota
I design organizations that design better products.
I am a Senior UX and Product Design Leader working across growth, platform strategy, customer experience, and organizational scale.
From practitioner to organizational architect.
I began in information architecture and interaction design, drawn to the way structure could make complicated experiences understandable. Over more than 15 years, the scale of the problem changed—from screens, to products, to portfolios, to the teams and operating systems behind them.
At Autodesk and Thomson Reuters, I have led enterprise platform strategy, customer lifecycle experiences, multidisciplinary teams, design systems, growth experimentation, and organizational change. The throughline is consistent: make the system visible, create shared direction, and enable people to lead.
I am at my best when the initiative crosses functions, the transformation will take years, and the organization needs clarity more than another feature.
My work is to make progress feel possible.
The best outcome is not dependency on me. It is a stronger product, clearer decisions, and a more capable team that can keep moving.
Explore how I lead ↗Outside the room.
I live in Minnesota with my wife, Emily, our daughters, Matilda and Ramona, and our dog, Dot.
I love building things with my hands. Woodworking in the garage and 3D printing toys or small inventions with my kids are a tangible counterbalance to digital work. We hike, fish, ride scooters, play games, watch movies, and look for reasons to plan another Disneyland trip.
I also solve an unreasonable number of family problems with whiteboards and Post-its.
