Hands-on design leadership, simplifying complex enterprise workflows.
Coherent platforms at scale
As Senior Staff Designer for Google Cloud Platform (GCP), I have been a hands-on lead for two successful AI-first products and two initiatives simplifying cross-platform workflows. I managed a 21-person team, including 5 managers.
Before Google, I was the design and research lead for New York State systems that turned multi-agency processes into one cohesive experience.
Enterprise systems that evolve
I have been evolving design systems for 23 years, for GCP, New York State and Time Inc., earning a MIN award and 2 Webby distinctions.
At GCP, I led a design system innovation that cut 1-2 months of front-end design and development per component, saving an estimated 85 person-years since 2021. I co-created GCP’s first production-ready GenUI prototype.
Scaled cross-team alignment and momentum
I’m the person executives call when they need clarity, focus and alignment to motivate large teams to quickly launch new initiatives.
“She is particularly strong at managing through ambiguity, bringing structure and forward motion to problems that do not yet have a clear shape.”
My role
As Senior Staff Designer, I was the hands-on product, design and research lead for MAT, with no PM for the first 9 months. When a Group Product Manager joined, my journey map became their on-ramp, and together we led a 20+ person cross-functional team.
- System definition and PRD
- Concept and executive alignment
- Rapid iterative design with SMEs
- Information architecture
- Interaction and visual design
- Design system
I conceived and designed the Mainframe Assessment Tool shown here, including how engineers work with Gemini.
Items marked launched are in the shipped product; the rest is my reimagining, not Google’s roadmap.
I designed the Mainframe Assessment Tool shown here using force-directed clustering, Louvain Community Detection, and zoom-dependent labeling.
I designed how engineers turn an assessment into a spec they can build from.
My own reimagining of the Mainframe Assessment Tool concept prototype I designed at Google, coded with AI tools. It uses sample data, not Google’s code or customer data.
My role
As Senior Staff Designer for GCP, I was head of design for Cloud Hub, a 6-month build of 194 Googlers, including 28 UXers, working with 13 engineering teams.
- System definition and PRD
- Concept and executive alignment
- Information architecture
- Interaction and visual design
- Design system
- Edge cases
- Prototyping
- Roadmap and prioritization
Cloud Hub home shows cloud operators what needs attention across their cloud estate at-a-glance. I was the hands-on design lead who defined:
All aspects of this design are Launched.
Each dashboard had a Product Manager and UX team. I guided each team and coordinated work between teams. I was the hands-on design lead who defined the underlying system:
- Onboarding (not shown)
- UX writing (not shown)
My Figma prototype was the single source of truth. The UX team, 28 UXers in all, worked in it, so conflicts surfaced early. I partnered with all 13 teams, including the Cloud Hub core team, using the prototype and my contributions to the PRD to guide implementation.
I was the UX launch approver accountable for every dashboard before it launched.
Cloud Hub went GA in December 2025. Six months later, nearly half of GCP console users were using it, and most were satisfied and coming back.
Awarded the 2026 Customer Empathy Award for Cloud Hub by the Google Cloud CEO.
Cloud Hub, as seen on the live Google Cloud console, with synthetic data.
My role
As Senior UX Manager for GCP, I led the 9-person global team that designed and built Page Components. We didn’t start with the answer. I led the team from defining the problem to components used widely across the GCP console.
Hands-on role:
- System definition and PRD
- Concept and executive alignment
- Roadmap and prioritization
- Success definition and metrics framework
- Pilot and roadshow with partner teams
Management role:
- Interaction and visual design leadership
- Design system leadership
- Edge cases leadership
I took over a churning team with dozens of competing priorities. The team had done a baseline diary showing that building pages in the legacy system cost UX and UI teams 1 to 2 months per component. With data, I reorganized our OKRs and through 3 workshops, aligned 30 platform leads on a 3-year strategy and quantitative success framework.
I led the team to start with the table design, not boiling the ocean with multiple Page Components at once. With our engineering partnership, the resulting component stretches to as many uses as possible while staying simple to use.
Two internal customer teams joined as pilot partners and gave feedback throughout. They demoed our new Table Page Component at an internal engineering forum of 400+ people. Our selling points carried rapid adoption:
That roadshow earned the investment for three more Page Components. Driven by grassroots demand, Page Components have become the standard starter kit for new products on GCP.
“Just one [code line] and a few tweaks to our testing… our [accessibility] process was unblocked.”
- 192 adopting engineering projects
- 1,239 component inserts
- An estimated 85 person-years saved
My recreations of Google Cloud console pages, with sample data.
About me
Move fast in the right direction.
Built from scratch
I grew up in poverty and intermittent homelessness. I am often asked, “How did you get out?” The short answer is curiosity, creativity and grit. I was likely the only kid in the trailer park in southern Appalachia trying to teach myself to read Plato Greek when I was 10 (with a modern Greek dictionary). I could have used a teacher. But later I learned how to learn and I succeeded in teaching myself design, research, leadership, cloud tech and AI. I have always built things in order to learn.
Make great things with great people
I’ve managed teams of up to 21, including 5 managers, across Seattle, New York, Tel Aviv and Bangalore. When I took over Storage UX at Google Cloud, my team rated me 96% favorable as a manager, and I successfully sponsored two senior promotions. I hold a high bar, and I lead with the care and clarity that help people reach it.
Technology in service of people
I know firsthand what dehumanization feels like. I hear echoes of it when our industry dismisses AI risks as the fair cost of progress. In enterprise AI, I design systems that absorb operational toil while keeping human agency at the center. I founded GCP’s first AI Trust & Agency program. Speaking up about it is the most important work I do: my writing on responsible AI reached 95K+ professionals this year, 94% of them outside my network.
Acclaim
She combines strategic clarity with rigorous execution…
Tobi has that rare blend of keen insight, bias toward action, and the ability to translate deep research into practical decisions… Respected by her peers, Tobi is a force multiplier, consistently making every team she’s a part of more effective.
Tobi is also very strategic and always brings along people across many teams to tackle very difficult and ambiguous challenges… she is a wonderful and kind human being who would lift up everyone around her.
She is by far the best UX person I have worked with… She is truly a rare talent and the best collaborator you can ask for.
She is very strategic and understands the business needs and implications on any given project. At the same [time], she is extremely insightful about users and a champion of user-centered design.
Media & contact
Tobi Jo Lebron
All writing
- Why AI Won’t Replace UXYouTube · Mind the Experience podcast · October 2026 · 4,500 views
- Study reveals LLMs show clear traits of sadism towards humans. Now what?Medium · September 2026 · 1,040 claps
- Don’t lose your shirt on AI tokensMedium · August 2026 · 217 claps
- Why traditional UI will never dieMedium · June 2026 · 145 claps
- With all due respect, Mr. Nielsen, you’re wrongMedium and LinkedIn · May 2026 · 2 claps
- Build friendly helper robots, not a replacement for humanityMedium · April 2026 · 422 claps
- How to grow a set of responsible AI principlesMedium · March 2026 · 191 claps
- To AI or not to AI?Medium · January 2026 · 193 claps
- AI is the panacea. AI is the pandemic.Medium · December 2025 · 6 claps
© 2026 Tobi Jo Lebron
Thank You© 2026 Tobi Jo Lebron