Q Carlson is a design executive for global companies
With experience building & leading teams across B2C and B2B platforms in both early and growth stages
IMPACT
Under my leadership, product, design, and brand drive significant and measurable business impact. From building billions in enterprise value to unlocking industry-leading margins.
My work has been in the hands of hundreds of millions of consumers from Singapore to Stockholm; it has been white-labeled and leveraged by top Fortune 100 companies worldwide. My experience is segment agnostic: from beloved consumer apps to complex enterprise platforms.
I have built highly diverse, world-class design organizations that span multiple continents. I lead by example, managing designers through their work and taking responsibility for the final outcomes.
My leadership style is centered on authenticity, compassion, and embracing a growth mindset. I work to help designers upskill — from entry-level individual contributors through principal designers, managers of managers, and directors. Designers I lead outperform in business impact, grow in their career, inspire cross-functional collaboration, and love their job along the way.
CLIENTS
Abercrombie & Fitch
Apple
Away
Bird
BMW
Ceva
Costco
Exxon Mobil
Everlane
FedEx
Ford
Kaplan
Mondelēz
Nestlé
Nike
Nordstrom
Peloton
Starbucks
Suntory
Tesla
Toyota
Uber
Unilever
UPS
INDUSTRIES
eCommerce
Education
Fintech
Publishing
Telecommunications
Supply chain & logistics
EXPERIENCE
Founded fintech and logistics startup, backed by Y Combinator (W24).
- Designed AI native marketplace and order-to-cash platform
- Long on global trade
Design-led strategy tripled B2B company's valuation from $1B to $3B and unlocked shift to value based pricing
- Unified six acquisitions into a new platform, Movement, with an award winning UX
- Movement led the Gartner's Magic Quadrant's in the first year
- Used design vision to close first 7-figure deals with Fortune 100 brands
- Acted as keynote speaker at launch events around the world
- Scaled the design team from zero to 25+ across North America, Latin America, and Europe
- Launched first design system, Manifest
Found product-market-fit and scaled IoT platform from zero to $20M ARR
- Redesigned and repositioned cellular IoT platform for mid-market customers, scaling company valuation from $30M to $650M
- Leveraged design to attain SaaS margins on commodity telecom services (5x market average)
- Designed patent-pending platform for IoT device management
- Led narrative development for Series A and B fundraising efforts
- Scaled design and brand teams from zero to 10+
- Launched first design system
Designed first decentralized cellular network
- Built the first web3 super-network that enabled internet services across WiFi, 4G LTE, and 5G for consumer cellular service
Wrote user research field guide used by tens of thousands of designers
- Created the de-facto handbook to conduct empirically sound user research in a fraction of the time
Reduced operational costs by 8-figures for global shipping platform
- Researched & designed delivery platform that empowered company to scale 40% MoM
- Designed first operations platform to be securely deployed within Mainland China
- Built compliance tools to attain "best practice" designation from Dept. of Homeland Security
- Led user research practice globally – across North America, Europe, and Asia
Designed mobile & web apps used by 50% of US students daily
- Launched new classroom platform which returned a 7-figure revenue increase in it's first quarter
- Created a new design system to unify visual design across all platforms
- Designed internationalization support for all platform touchpoints
- Designed trust & safety experiences to manage intensive & adverse user behaviors
Designed collaborative platform for digital publishing
- Designed cloud collaboration tools for Fortune 500 L&D departments to author training content & distribute it to employees
- Designed developer tools to enable enterprise customers to scale platform usage
- Designed just-in-time education training and search experiences on iOS, Android, and mobile web
Product designer
PAYTANGO
fintech
Pivoted company from biometrics to fintech
- Ran research and design process to help YC startup find product-market-fit with a new customer persona
