Tate

Aaron Tate

Director, User Experience Design & Research

Salt Lake City, Utah · aarontate@me.com · linkedin.com/in/aarontatertot · tateux.com

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UX executive with 20+ years building design and research organizations that shape product strategy and business outcomes. Joined CHG Healthcare as the first UX hire and scaled the function to 21 people on a $3.25M budget, advancing maturity from Level 1 to Level 5 (NN/g). Architected an enterprise design system projected to deliver $19M in annual velocity value. Currently authoring an AI-forward squad model and Experience Architect role rolling out across the digital marketing organization.

Core Competencies

Leadership & Strategy

  • UX Organization Design & Scaling
  • Executive Stakeholder Management
  • Budget & P&L Management
  • Talent Development & Mentorship
  • DesignOps
  • Research Ops
  • Organizational Change Management
  • OKR & KPI Alignment
  • Cross-functional Leadership
  • Strategic Foresight

UX Practice & Process

  • Design Systems Architecture
  • Design System Governance
  • Service Design
  • AI-Integrated Product Development
  • GenAI Product Strategy
  • LLM-Integrated UX
  • Conversational & Agentic UX
  • Behavior Specification
  • Mixed-Methods Research
  • Continuous Discovery
  • Generative & Evaluative Research
  • Research Strategy & Roadmapping
  • Research Repository Strategy
  • UX Maturity Development
  • Product Triad Operating Model
  • Workshop Facilitation
  • Voice of Customer (VoC)
  • Figma & FigJam

Experience

Director, User Experience and Research

CHG Healthcare — Salt Lake City, UT

Jan 2022 – Present

  • Authored the Experience Architect role and AISquad operating model: one Experience Architect, one product manager, one to two engineers. Piloted in fall 2025, currently rolling out across the digital marketing organization.
  • Designed and led a year-long internal AI curriculum for 20 designers and researchers covering AI fluency, designing for AI, and ongoing foresight practice.
  • Built and led a 21-person user experience design and research organization on a $3.25M annual budget, spanning seven major product initiatives across a healthcare staffing platform.
  • Architected an enterprise design system projected to deliver $19M in annual velocity value, reducing engineering front-end build time from 30% to 4–6% of capacity. Currently at 40% portfolio adoption, on track to 100% by 2027.
  • Advanced CHG's UX maturity from Level 1 to Level 5 on the Nielsen Norman Group scale through structured discovery, a product triad operating model, and research-informed roadmap planning.
  • Championed a shift to native mobile applications for the provider audience after user research exposed critical behavior gaps. Mobile now exceeds web on engagement, contributing 3–5% to days booked at NPS 88.
  • Reunified design and research under a single leadership structure to support AI-integrated product work, with new behavior-specification capability built into the operating model.
  • Established UX as a strategic partner at the C-suite level, presenting directly to the CDO, Chief Growth Officer, and VP of Product.
  • Primary cross-functional facilitator running design thinking workshops and roadmap validation sessions that align product, engineering, and executive stakeholders around user-centered outcomes.
  • Owned full departmental P&L: headcount, tooling, talent development, and annual planning with finance leadership.

Senior Manager / User Experience Manager, UX & Research

CHG Healthcare — Salt Lake City, UT

Dec 2017 – Jan 2022

  • Joined as CHG's first UX hire, transitioning the first digital product from agency to in-house and building the UX function from scratch.
  • Grew the team from 1 to 8 designers, built the case for UX Research as a distinct practice, and expanded to a combined team of 8 designers and 4 researchers.
  • Co-created a UX discovery playbook standardizing research methodology across all product teams; established shared design standards that became the foundation of the enterprise design system.

Lead Product Designer

EdSurge — Burlingame, CA

Dec 2015 – Mar 2017

  • Led UX strategy, rebranding, and full platform redesign for a venture-backed edtech startup; developed brand identity systems for subsidiary products.

Lead User Experience Designer

YouNoodle — San Francisco, CA

Sep 2011 – Oct 2015

  • Led platform rebranding and UX strategy across the product suite; translated user needs into organizational product strategy.

Co-Founder & Lead Designer

FindFred — San Francisco, CA

Jan 2009 – Sep 2011

  • Co-founded a social matching startup; led UX design, brand identity, social media strategy, and national marketing campaigns across print and digital channels.

Education

West Virginia University

Bachelor of Science, Graphic Design

Aug 1999 – May 2003

Thought Leadership

After the Interface — essay series on system governance, trust design, and the evolution of UX practice in the AI era. Published at tateux.com.

Read the writing