Product & Design Lead

Product & Design Lead

Remote - United States

We re a small team within Blackboard building a new AI-native product. This is not a feature team, and it s not an enhancement to an existing product — we re building something new.

Ideas start in an LLM — clarifying intent, surfacing constraints, drafting requirements. Prototyping happens in code, using tools like Claude Code and Cursor, before it ever reaches high-fidelity design. Figma is for systems and polish, not for exploration.

We need a Product & Design Lead who can operate in this model fluently and be the  founding  product and design leader.

You will define the user experience, prototype interactions directly in code with AI tools, and work hand-in-hand with engineering to ship. You will own the full product vision from the user s perspective: how intelligence surfaces in ways that feel clear and motivating, and how design decisions translate directly into behavior change.

This is a maker role first. If you re looking to primarily direct others, this isn t the right fit. We need someone who still loves designing and building — and is exceptional at it.

• A proactive, daily user experience that surfaces the right information at the right moment — without cognitive overload
• Interfaces that make AI-driven recommendations feel clear, trustworthy, and actionable — not robotic
• A design system built for speed and consistency across multiple product surfaces

• Progress and momentum mechanics grounded in learning science — habit formation, not dark patterns
• Visual systems that communicate state and trajectory in ways users actually understand and act on

• Own the product roadmap from v1 through v2 in close partnership with the technical and scientific leads
• Define success metrics for the user experience and build feedback loops that inform iteration
• Translate evidence-based principles into product decisions — not as a constraint, but as a competitive advantage

• Build and maintain a component library that enables the engineering team to move fast without breaking consistency
• Establish a design culture that is opinionated, user-first, and evidence-informed

Define the product experience from scratch.

Real autonomy and real users: your work ships to people who depend on it, with a fast and visible feedback loop

A team operating at the intersection of AI, science, and institutional infrastructure — with distribution advantages no independent product can match

You believe great design isn t decoration — it s the mechanism by which intelligence becomes useful. You re energized by the challenge of making something complex feel effortless. You know the difference between a feature that looks good in a demo and one that actually changes behavior.

You re skeptical of engagement for engagement s sake. You d rather design one interaction that genuinely helps a user than ten that just generate clicks. You think in systems, not screens.

You hold strong opinions, loosely held — and you care more about impact than credit.

Please include a link to your portfolio as part of your application.

• You ve shipped consumer-facing products that real users actually love — and you have a portfolio that proves it
• You can prototype directly in code using AI tools (Cursor, Claude Code, or equivalent) — Figma isn t the starting point for exploration
• Strong visual and interaction design craft — you can produce high-fidelity work yourself, not just direct others
• Product thinking that goes beyond UI — you understand retention, habit formation, and behavior change
• You ve worked in deeply integrated cross-functional teams where design and engineering aren t separated by handoffs
• You use AI tools actively in your current workflow and can articulate how they ve changed how you work
• Fluency in written and spoken English

• Experience designing AI-powered or data-driven consumer products
• Background in domains where behavior change and motivation design matter (EdTech, health tech, fitness tech)
• Familiarity…