Nate Kennelly

About Nate Kennelly

Portfolio: https://natedotio.framer.website/I’m a UX designer with 7+ years of experience, passionate about creating intuitive, user-centered experiences that drive business impact. Having worked in both enterprise and startup environments, I bring a unique perspective on designing for scale, innovation, and agility.A core strength of mine is talking to customers—I love engaging with users to uncover pain points, validate ideas, and ensure that design decisions align with real-world needs. Whether through generative research, usability testing, or ongoing feedback loops, I thrive on translating customer insights into actionable design solutions.At Moody’s, I worked in the fintech space, focusing on innovation-driven UX to explore and develop new financial solutions. Later, at AppOmni, I led multiple high-impact projects, including launching the Shadow IT / SaaS Discovery feature from inception and owning the UX for Operationalization and Automation features. I also created and led the UX Ops function, improving design efficiency and collaboration across teams.Beyond designing intuitive interfaces, I’m passionate about shaping UX strategy, building scalable design systems, and advocating for the user at every stage of the product lifecycle. I thrive in cross-functional environments, working closely with product managers, engineers, and stakeholders to bring user-focused solutions to life.Let’s connect and talk UX, security, SaaS, fintech, or anything in between!

Experience

1. Senior Ux Designer & Head of Design Ops

   Appomni

   Jul 2023 — Present

   Owned the end-to-end UX for Operationalization and Automation features, designing seamless, scalable workflows that streamlined security operations and improved user efficiency.• Led the inception of the Shadow IT / SaaS Discovery feature, conducting generative research, defining user needs, and coauthoring the product roadmap. Partnering with Product leadership, drove every phase of this feature development through ideation and high-fidelity design.• Created and led the UX Ops function, implementing processes that improved design efficiency, UX/UI cohesion, and collaboration with Engineering and Product counterparts.• Contributed to the creation of a new Design System, driving the creation of new components and patterns to ensure UI consistency and scalability across the product. • Led multiple UX research initiatives, including generative research, usability testing, and establishment of a Design Partner initiative for regular customer engagement.• Maintained continuous feedback loops by regularly interface with customers and prospects, ensuring design decisions were informed by real-world use cases and evolving user needs.

Education

• Columbia Engineering

  UX / UI Design Certification, Behavioral Sciences

• Boston College

  Bachelor of Arts - BA, Economics, History

  2012 — 2016