Experience

By Tobi Jo Lebron · With edits from Gemini and Claude

2018 – Present

Senior UX Manager
Cloud Storage & Databases

Organization

Established UX OKRs as a top-line priority in official Cloud Storage planning, aligning 7 products, 50 stakeholders and cross-functional executives on one set of priorities.
Redesigned the Storage UX organization, shifting a flat 21-person team into 4 strategic pillars with a global footprint — each led by a senior practitioner partnered with a dedicated product manager. Founded and staffed the Cloud Storage Research function.

AI vision

Pioneered the AI Trust & Agency program, a one-of-a-kind responsible AI initiative building a scalable framework for human-first AI experiences in GCP. Authored the framework, guidelines, design system and multi-agent app.
Design leader for GCP’s AI Innovation Lab, working side by side with senior executives on long-range AI vision.

Business impact

Led research, writing, design and engineering across 23 launches, delivering the roadmap commitments that secured and maintained Cloud Storage’s place in the Gartner Magic Quadrant Leaders category.
Pioneered the generative AI code refactoring vision for Mainframe Modernization, shaping a new platform.
Conceived and executed the executive-facing User Voice metrics program, driving an 11-point NPS increase for Cloud Storage and directly funding the quantitative research team.
Established GCP’s canonical page-level UI patterns, adopted by 192 engineering projects and saving 85 person-years of design and engineering work.

Team health & talent

Turned around a struggling team, earning gains across employee sentiment measures — Strategic Alignment +36 pts, Accessibility Practice +52 pts, Decision Making Speed +36 pts.
Authored and taught several courses, guides and formal classes; earned dozens of accolades and peer bonuses for a caring leadership style. Personally awarded the 2025 Customer Empathy Award by Google Senior VP Thomas Kurian.

2014 – 2018

Principal Product Designer & Senior UX Director

Founder and principal designer of a product design firm delivering high-value platforms for public sector, renewable energy and telecommunications clients. Defined business-critical KPIs and product roadmaps that balanced aggressive revenue targets with user needs.
Led the redesign of NYSERDA.NY.gov, New York State’s clean energy resource hub supporting the state’s goal of a 40% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. Initiated and led the large-scale content strategy work, reorganizing 2,000+ pages of dense policy content into audience-driven experiences and reducing findability complaints by 71%.
Directed a $6M retail transformation account across Bed Bath & Beyond and buybuy BABY.

2010 – 2014

Associate UX Director

Directed multi-channel vision prototypes, design systems and style libraries for Fortune 100 brands.
Hands-on leadership of digital transformation for AARP, Target, American Express, Capital One and the City of New York. Awarded the 2014 CODiE Award for Digital.NYC.
Program director and teacher for HUGE School, an accelerated paid apprenticeship in product, research, design and strategy.

2006 – 2010

UX Lead

Planned and executed user-centered digital redesigns for six prominent magazine properties, leading the transition of legacy print publications into high-engagement digital products by establishing Time Inc.’s first centralized design system.
Partnered with data librarians to architect early algorithmic recommendation systems, faceted search and structured content schemas, optimizing discoverability for millions of daily readers.
Awarded the 2009 MIN Award for SouthernLiving.com and the 2009 Webby Award for CookingLight.com.