About Me

Hi! I’m Thad Perkins

I’m a product designer with more than 20 years of hands-on UX across healthcare logistics, insurance claims and enterprise analytics. I’ve designed for hospital staff in 25+ U.S. markets, insurance adjusters away from their desks and 100,000 analysts a month, and I love making complicated work feel simple.

I start with people. I plan and run research, map journeys and information architecture, and partner closely with Product and Engineering to turn technical, regulatory and business requirements into clear, accessible experiences. Much of my work happens in high-stress moments, so I break dense processes into guided flows that explain each decision in plain language.

My experience spans user research, interaction and visual design, prototyping, accessibility and design systems. Along the way I’ve led design teams, mentored designers and built a component library that helped 30+ delivery teams ship faster and more consistently.

Portrait of Thad Perkins
Thad designing with purpose
Thad at work across his career
Thad’s design tools and workspace

Designing with purpose

Good design is equal parts empathy and clarity, and it starts long before anything gets drawn. A few principles guide how I work:

Fall in love with the problem

It’s tempting to rush to a solution. I’d rather stay with the problem a little longer, because the better I understand it, the more likely the solution is the right one and not just the first one.

Understanding leads to the best solution

The more I learn about the users, their goals and the constraints they work within, the clearer the path forward becomes. Research isn’t a phase I check off. It’s how I find the answer.

Make the problem visible

Complex problems are hard to solve when everyone holds a different picture of them. Mapping journeys, flows and systems gives product, engineering and design one shared view, so the team can make decisions faster and with more confidence.

Better ideas come from designing together

My best work has never come from designing alone. Bringing engineers, product partners and users into the process early brings out ideas and constraints I wouldn’t have found on my own, and it builds shared ownership of the result.

Get in touch

My journey in design

  1. Product Designer

    Arro Labs (contract) · Client: MedSpeed

    Mar 2026 – Jun 2026

  2. Product Design Lead

    NielsenIQ

    Jun 2022 – Nov 2025

  3. Product Design Lead

    IAA Inc.

    Jan 2022 – Jun 2022

  4. UX/UI Design Team Lead

    IAA Inc.

    Jun 2016 – Jan 2022

  5. Senior UX/UI Designer

    IAA Inc.

    Sep 2011 – Jun 2016

  6. Interactive Designer

    Professional Medical Inc., RIHA Design Group, AASM Medical Society

    2004 – 2011

My tech stack

I choose tools that help me think, collaborate and ship: Figma to design and hand off, FigJam and Miro to work through problems together, and AI to explore faster.

  • Figma

    My home base for UI design, prototyping and design systems, from variables and auto-layout to Dev Mode handoff and Figma Make.

  • FigJam & Miro

    Where journeys, workshops and whiteboard thinking come together with product and engineering partners.

  • Adobe Creative Suite

    For visual exploration, imagery and the finishing touches that round out a product’s look and feel.

  • Claude

    An AI partner for exploring ideas, synthesizing research and getting from concept to a working prototype faster.

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