Kelsey Scherer

Experience

VP of Product Design and UX Research, BuzzFeed

July 2022 – December 2022

Managed a team of 15-19 product designers, managers, and UX researchers across 9 consumer facing and internal tools teams. In addition to leading the design team, worked closely with the VPs of Product, Engineering, Data, and Project Management to lead the BuzzFeed tech org by guiding execution, determining staffing, and building a healthy and collaborative culture. Acted as the executive sponsor for diversity, inclusion, and belonging initiatives across tech.

Senior Director of Product Design and UX Research, BuzzFeed

March 2021 – July 2022

Managed a team of 15-19 product designers, managers, and UX researchers across 9 consumer facing and internal tools teams. Led product design operations by improving our career ladder, writing documentation on process, and managing the team’s budget. Worked closely with the leaders of product, engineering, data, and project management to define strategic direction and guide execution across all teams in the BuzzFeed tech org.

Director of Product Design, BuzzFeed

June 2018 – March 2021

Managed a team of 12 design managers and product designers who were responsible for all aspects of design, from research to execution. The team worked on the BuzzFeed website and app, the Tasty website and app, the BuzzFeed CMS, internal social publishing tools, new products and features for our clients, and more. Worked closely with the leaders of product, engineering, data, and project management to define strategic direction and guide execution across all teams in the BuzzFeed tech org.

Product Design Manager, BuzzFeed

September 2017 – June 2018

Managed a team of 3–5 product designers. Supported my team's career growth by setting goals, calibrating their skills against our internal ladder, and promoting designers. Provided design direction to designers across the entire team. Collaborated with leaders in Product, Data, and Engineering to make staffing changes and provide strategic input to tech teams. Alongside other design managers and VP of Design, led the product design team operations by revising our career ladder, facilitating team critiques, and managing the team budget.

Design Director, Storytelling Studio, Vox Media

Led design of storytelling projects across multiple platforms. Managed storytelling designers. Provided design feedback on storytelling projects across various teams of designers and engineers. Defined and iterated on the team’s design process. Worked with other team leadership members to scope and assign work to the team. Published blog posts about individual project processes as well as overall team processes. Tracked the impact of the team’s work. Collaborated closely with a cross-functional team as well as various editorial and video teams. Established a process for design critique and maintained a healthy design culture within the team. 

Senior Product Designer, Storytelling Studio, Vox Media

Executed design of storytelling projects across multiple platforms. Led individual storytelling projects. Collaborated with engineers, design leadership, project manager, editorial teams, engagement editors, photo editors, and video producers. Tested assumptions often and early through rapid prototyping and user testing. Helped iterate on the team’s design process. Led critiques for all projects. Advocated for accessible design decisions.

Senior Product Designer, Editorial Products, Vox Media

Led design of our reusable, scalable, and embeddable storytelling tools. Implemented a product design process that incorporates research, brainstorming, and sketching for all of our new tools. Supported other designers and engineers on the team. Gave design feedback to various editorial teams. Provided and received design critiques. Managed design interns.

Designer, Vox Media 

Relaunched Racked and Eater on Vox Media's platform, Chorus. Collaborated with Senior Designers and Design Directors to establish a refreshed brand identity. Designed responsive mocks. Presented design directions to editorial and product stakeholders. Logged visual bugs and worked with engineers to polish site design. Provided post-launch design support to editorial teams.

Design Intern, Vox Media 

Aligned Vox Media’s brand with various other brands to create proposals for advertisements on SB Nation, The Verge, and Polygon. Designed internal  presentations.