Tate

Aaron Tate

Director of User Experience Design

Salt Lake City, UT · linkedin.com/in/aarontatertot · tateux.com

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UX executive with 20+ years building design and research organizations from the ground up. Joined CHG Healthcare as the first UX hire and grew a 21-person team, advancing UX maturity from Level 1 to Level 4 on the Nielsen Norman Group scale. Architected an enterprise design system projected to deliver $19M in annual engineering and design velocity value. Expertise spans UX strategy, design systems, research operations, AI-integrated product development, and executive leadership.

Core Competencies

Leadership & Strategy

  • UX Organization Design & Scaling
  • Executive Stakeholder Management
  • Budget & P&L Management
  • Talent Development & Mentorship
  • DesignOps & Organizational Change Management
  • OKR & KPI Alignment

UX Practice & Process

  • Design Systems Architecture
  • Service Design & Research Operations
  • AI-Integrated Product Development
  • Behavior Specification
  • Workshop Facilitation
  • Product Triad Operating Model

Experience

Director, User Experience and Research

CHG Healthcare — Salt Lake City, UT

Jan 2022 – Present

  • Built and led a 21-person UX design and research organization spanning seven major product initiatives across a healthcare staffing platform serving 60,000+ clinicians and 50,000+ client contacts annually.
  • Architected an enterprise design system projected to deliver $19M in annual velocity value, reducing front-end component build time from 30% to 4–6% of engineering capacity.
  • Advanced CHG's UX maturity from Level 1 to Level 4 on the Nielsen Norman Group scale through structured discovery methodology, the 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 adoption now exceeds web portal usage.
  • 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.
  • Managed full departmental P&L including headcount, tooling, and talent development; led quarterly budget audits and annual planning with finance leadership.
  • Evolving UX into the governing function for AI-integrated product development, reunifying design and research under single leadership and recruiting for behavior-specification capabilities.

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, made the organizational 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 serving educators and institutional buyers.
  • Developed digital content strategy and built 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 in partnership with product and engineering.

Co-Founder & Lead Designer

FindFred — San Francisco, CA

Jan 2009 – Sep 2011

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

Education

West Virginia University

Bachelor of Science, Graphic Design

Morgantown, WV · 2003

Thought Leadership

Active author at tateux.com — writing on AI's impact on UX practice, system governance, trust design, and the future of design leadership.

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