About

I help teams create digital experiences that make challenging workflows feel easier, calmer, and more connected.

Portrait of Kyle Garzia

I've spent over 20 years designing digital experiences. The last decade has been focused on product design, where I grew from a hands-on UX/UI contributor into someone who leads products and not just screens. Much of that work has centered on operational platforms and data-intensive products—helping businesses and their users make sense of complexity at scale.

At my core, I’m drawn to problems that feel messy, human, and high-trust. I love taking something complicated, whether it is a workflow, a system, or a moment in someone’s day, and turning it into something clear, supportive, and easy to move through. When people tell me, “This finally makes sense,” that is the good stuff.

What motivates me most is understanding what people are actually dealing with. Not just their tasks or metrics, but their frustrations, hopes, routines, and shortcuts. Design gets better the closer you get to those moments, and I try to stay as close as possible.

I am a collaborative designer by nature. I like working things out together, sketching, questioning, simplifying, and finding clarity as a team. Whether I am shaping a new experience, evolving a design system, or helping another designer think through a difficult problem, I try to make the work feel grounded, transparent, and purposeful.

At the end of the day, good design should help people feel confident and in control. That is the standard I try to bring to every project, big or small.

Experience

Lead Product Designer

Beyond the Whiteboard · January 2022 – October 2025

  • Led a small team of designers across multiple projects to ensure seamless collaboration and high-quality deliverables.
  • Partnered with stakeholders, PMs, developers, and users to shape product strategy from discovery through launch.
  • Designed detailed user flows and high-fidelity UI, iterating quickly based on feedback and live usage.
  • Built and maintained a cohesive design system that supported multiple surfaces while leaving room for product-specific expression.
  • Balanced hands-on design work with mentoring and guiding other designers on the team.

Key Projects

Senior Product Designer

AppGrooves · November 2020 – January 2022

  • Designed and tested comparison and discovery experiences for mobile apps, used by 2M+ monthly active users.
  • Conducted user research and testing (moderated and unmoderated), translating findings into product improvements.
  • Maintained and evolved the company design system, ensuring design scalability and cross-team adoption.
  • Managed a multi-disciplinary design and research team, driving consistent delivery of 2+ product updates weekly.
  • Collaborated daily with developers for smooth handoff, maintaining release speed without sacrificing quality.

UX Designer

AppGrooves · November 2019 – November 2020

  • Worked collaboratively across product, engineering, and marketing to create shared clarity around user goals and product direction.
  • Explored concepts through sketches, flows, and prototypes, using feedback and critique to refine ideas into shippable solutions.
  • Supported the development of design systems and patterns that helped the team move faster while keeping the experience cohesive.

UX / UI Designer & Business Intelligence

CrossFit, Inc. · September 2017 – February 2019

  • Led UX/UI design across CrossFit's digital ecosystem with a focus on business intelligence dashboards and data visualization tools used by global operations teams, affiliate management, and athlete workflows.
  • Designed analytics interfaces that translated high-volume operational datasets into clear, actionable insights—enabling fast, data-informed decisions across thousands of affiliate locations and hundreds of thousands of athletes worldwide.
  • Built BI dashboards surfacing key performance metrics, engagement trends, and operational KPIs for internal teams managing a global fitness network. Worked closely with data engineers, product managers, and executive stakeholders to ensure analytics tools met both technical requirements and business objectives.
  • Maintained and evolved design systems to ensure consistent, scalable interfaces across web, mobile, and broadcast platforms—from consumer-facing competition experiences to internal operational tools.

Key Projects

How I work

My process is flexible to the team and product, but it usually follows a simple pattern: understand the real workflow, define the system, explore quickly, then craft and refine with the people who use it every day.

  1. Understand the problem. I start with the actual workflow — interviews, mapping, and operational context, not just screens.
  2. Define the system. Before UI, I clarify how data, entry points, and edge cases connect across surfaces.
  3. Explore quickly. Sketches, flows, and prototypes help align PMs, engineers, and stakeholders early.
  4. Craft the experience. I focus on clear interactions, readable layouts, and a calm, intentional visual system.
  5. Iterate with real usage. Feedback from owners, coaches, and athletes shapes the final details.

Let’s connect

Seeking Principal and Staff roles where I can lead design for data-intensive products that help people make better decisions.