About me

A design leader who still ships.

I'm Jeff Kinnelly, a product design leader based in Metro Detroit. For 18+ years I've helped companies including Ford, SiriusXM, HSBC, Google Ventures and May Mobility turn ambiguous problems into products that move the business forward. Today, that includes designing the experiences AI agents deliver.

I'm Jeff Kinnelly, a product design leader based in Metro Detroit. For 18+ years I've helped companies including Ford, SiriusXM, HSBC, Google Ventures and May Mobility turn ambiguous problems into products that move the business forward. Today, that includes designing the experiences AI agents deliver.

I'm Jeff Kinnelly, a product design leader based in Metro Detroit. For 18+ years I've helped companies including Ford, SiriusXM, HSBC, Google Ventures and May Mobility turn ambiguous problems into products that move the business forward. Today, that includes designing the experiences AI agents deliver.

My Story

I'm a builder — over the years I've learned how to build teams and systems that drive great products.

I spent the first half of my career in the craft as a product designer, starting at Pivotal Labs pairing daily with engineers, and the second half building the conditions for great design: the teams, the practices, and the systems people design with. As VP of Integrated Design & Product at Integral, I scaled a product practice from one consultant to eleven and helped launch Ford's direct-to-consumer commerce for Bronco and Mustang Mach-E. I've built career frameworks adopted across 30+ practitioners, and three design systems from scratch — for Ford Pro, Ford MS&S, and SiriusXM.

At SiriusXM, that last system has a new kind of user. I evolved it into a generative system — tokens, patterns, and guardrails that AI agents assemble on-brand experiences from — and I design the conversational experiences those agents deliver through ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini. A design system used to keep every designer and engineer consistent. Now it keeps every agent consistent too.

I lead 7 designers across four delivery teams and run experimentation programs that have lifted subscription conversion 3% and generate $2M+ in recurring revenue each. And I stay hands-on, prototyping daily with Claude Code — because a design leader who stops designing eventually stops leading anything real.

I'm a builder — over the years I've learned how to build teams and systems that drive great products.

I spent the first half of my career in the craft as a product designer, starting at Pivotal Labs pairing daily with engineers, and the second half building the conditions for great design: the teams, the practices, and the systems people design with. As VP of Integrated Design & Product at Integral, I scaled a product practice from one consultant to eleven and helped launch Ford's direct-to-consumer commerce for Bronco and Mustang Mach-E. I've built career frameworks adopted across 30+ practitioners, and three design systems from scratch — for Ford Pro, Ford MS&S, and SiriusXM.

At SiriusXM, that last system has a new kind of user. I evolved it into a generative system — tokens, patterns, and guardrails that AI agents assemble on-brand experiences from — and I design the conversational experiences those agents deliver through ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini. A design system used to keep every designer and engineer consistent. Now it keeps every agent consistent too.

I lead 7 designers across four delivery teams and run experimentation programs that have lifted subscription conversion 3% and generate $2M+ in recurring revenue each. And I stay hands-on, prototyping daily with Claude Code — because a design leader who stops designing eventually stops leading anything real.

I'm a builder — over the years I've learned how to build teams and systems that drive great products.

I spent the first half of my career in the craft as a product designer, starting at Pivotal Labs pairing daily with engineers, and the second half building the conditions for great design: the teams, the practices, and the systems people design with. As VP of Integrated Design & Product at Integral, I scaled a product practice from one consultant to eleven and helped launch Ford's direct-to-consumer commerce for Bronco and Mustang Mach-E. I've built career frameworks adopted across 30+ practitioners, and three design systems from scratch — for Ford Pro, Ford MS&S, and SiriusXM.

At SiriusXM, that last system has a new kind of user. I evolved it into a generative system — tokens, patterns, and guardrails that AI agents assemble on-brand experiences from — and I design the conversational experiences those agents deliver through ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini. A design system used to keep every designer and engineer consistent. Now it keeps every agent consistent too.

I lead 7 designers across four delivery teams and run experimentation programs that have lifted subscription conversion 3% and generate $2M+ in recurring revenue each. And I stay hands-on, prototyping daily with Claude Code — because a design leader who stops designing eventually stops leading anything real.

How I Lead

Four behaviors shape how I lead.
Whether I'm supporting one team or ten.

Four behaviors shape how I lead.
Whether I'm supporting one team or ten.

Four behaviors shape how I lead.
Whether I'm supporting one team or ten.

Player-coach, always.

I lead the strategy and I do the work. My teams see me in the file, in the research session, in the prototype, in the sprint — not just in the review.

Autonomy, backed by trust.

The best designers I've worked with didn't need direction; they needed clarity, context, and someone to clear the path. I set the destination and defend the space for people to find their way there.

Outcomes over output.

Beautiful work that doesn't move a metric is a portfolio piece, not a product. I connect design decisions to business results — and I make sure my teams get credit when the numbers move.

Grow every person, every year.

I've been a people and hiring manager since 2017. Every designer I lead has a growth plan, and my proudest wins are the 10+ promotions on my teams, not the launches.

What's Next

Where I'm pushing the craft next, and how I give back.

Where I'm pushing the craft next, and how I give back.

Where I'm pushing the craft next, and how I give back.

AI-Native Design

I was early: I built LLM-powered research synthesis tooling in 2023, before most design orgs had touched it. Today I lead AI tooling for UX and product design at SiriusXM. With engineering, I rebuilt our delivery lifecycle around Claude Code and MCP, so designers prototype against real components and live services for web and native mobile, cutting production time 20% and definition time 50%. I'm not interested in AI as a novelty; I'm interested in what it does to the craft: faster discovery, cheaper experiments, and designers who spend their time on judgment instead of production.

Community

I'm a founding member and speaker for the Detroit chapter of the AI Collective, where I help run events and talks, including bringing in speakers from leading AI companies like Anthropic and Windsurf. Detroit's design and tech community shaped my career, and I try to give back to the people coming up in it.

My Work

See how I've turned ambiguous problems into shipped products.

See how I've turned ambiguous problems into shipped products.

See how I've turned ambiguous problems into shipped products.

My Work