MICHAEL JEFFERSON
Head of Design, UX, Product Innovation
San Francisco, CA
michael.s.jefferson@gmail.com
//BIO
With over fifteen years of design leadership expereince, Michael has grown teams across agencies and product groups, driving transformative customer experiences that deliver tangible business results. As the Director of UX for Google Maps, he led a global re-architecture of the product, expanding AI capabilities, and Gen Z adoption and retention. At Bank of America, he led adoption and scaling of enterprise wide user centered design, reshaping the roadmap and delivering on the vision of one app across Consumer and Investing. With a foundation in NYU’s ITP design program, Michael embodies collaboration, inclusion, and bold experimentation with his team and partners. His leadership and partnerships have helped make healthcare more attainable, financial goals achievable, and places around the world discoverable. Outside of his professional life, Michael dedicates time to his family, volunteers for ocean preservation and mentors early career designers.
//EXPERIENCE
Google - Director, Head of UX, Google Maps, Consumer
San Francisco – Jan 2022 to Jan 2024
Head of UX for Google Maps (mobile, web, wear) helping over a billion active users find and get things done in the real world. Managed a team of 40+ UX designers across product and design systems with a dotted line to additional Research and Studio team members. Aligned PM, UX and ENG through user-centric vision, mission and roadmap. Drove modernization of overall information architecture, integrating AI within place discovery and expanding access to rich, immersive view capability for understanding places and routes. Ensured success for teams and leaders advancing from feature idea to Google I/O conference and scaled launch.
Bank of America - SVP, Design, Digital & Physical, Consumer & Investing
San Francisco – Apr 2019 to Jan 2022
Digital lead for BofA's customer-facing applications in Consumer Banking, Wealth, Investing, Retirement, and Financial Centers, reaching 57m digital users across web, mobile and ATM. Managed and scaled a cross-discipline team to 50, empowering managers to own product areas and deliver together. Spearheaded initiatives to drive growth, retention, and deepening of customer relationships by defining a new, user-centric design practice, driving design system adoption and accelerating roadmap planning with idea-to-market methodology. Delivered on 35% deposit growth and climb to 87% percent CSAT by translating behavior, usability and accessibility insights into UX strategy. Transitioned team to fully remote, meeting all roadmap commitments and delivering customer and industry recognition including first in Mobile and Web by JD Power and Javelin Mobile Banking.
Fjord/ Accenture - Group Design Director
San Francisco – Sept 2015 to Apr 2019
Led strategic growth of creative teams, practice definition and expansion of accounts for fortune 100 clients. Grew the creative team from fifteen to seventy through hiring and acquisition. Expanded service design specialization to full-scale, digital & physical product design service, aligned with Accenture systems integration. Delivered Fjord’s highest ESAT for three consecutive years and reduced attrition by over 30%. Spearheaded business transformation including Carnival Corporation’s move to wearable and sensor technology to transform hospitality, Covered California’s health care enrollment connecting two million citizens with insurance and re-thinking the child welfare intake process to ensure the safety of 60,000 children in the state’s care.
R/GA – Executive Creative Director, Experience Design
San Francisco – August 2012 to Sept 2015
Creative leadership for a multi-disciplinary team, crafting new products and campaigns from concept to launch. Established new accounts including: Samsung, Google, Airbnb, Telstra, Nike. Partnered with leadership in the expansion of interaction design, research, analytics and development to deliver on the R/GA promise of blending system and story. Highlights include create.airbnb for Airbnb brand re-launch, Samsung Galaxy 11 launch, World Cup campaign, and Microsoft Surface launch.
frog design – Creative Director, Experience Design
San Francisco, CA - May 2006 to August 2012
Led design, strategy and execution, as a designer and manager of innovation teams on global accounts including: GE, AT&T, Disney, Qualcomm, Telstra. Five promotions in six years from Design Analyst to Creative Director. Client impact highlights include a global site evolution for GE, AT&T cloud address-book platform, multi-device messaging platform for Verizon, Nuance voice recognition (model for Siri), and three year digital transformation of Telstra, leading to the opening of frog Sydney.
NYU - ITP – Adjunct Professor
NY, NY January 2009 – June 2009
Developed curriculum and taught graduate students about the art and craft of prototyping to advance and gain confidence in their ideas. Advised students from a diverse range of professional backgrounds in testing and measuring results in hardware, software and service design with direct application to their Sr. thesis work.
//EDUCATION
New York University, NY, NY
Interactive Telecommunications Program, Masters, Spring 2006
Recipient of Dean's Fellowship
University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA
BA, Communications