End-to-end digital product design lead based in Brooklyn.

Natalie Rose Taylor is a player-coach design leader with 12+ years’ experience shipping practical, delightful, and well-crafted design for startups and public companies alike. She specializes in native mobile design and taking products from 0-1.

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I was Product Design Lead at Saturn from 2022 (Series A) until acquisition by Snap in May 2025. During my tenure, app installs went up 68x, sharing behavior went up 13x, and K-factor went up 47%.

For my case study, I walk you through the evolution of the product that helped us become #1 in the App Store, land a deal with Nike, and launch our first AI product.

Saturn

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Founder. UpClose was an app that helped people make real life plans. While other social networks create anti-social behavior and drive us apart, UpClose strove to bring people together with innovative features that understood the nuances of social planning. This was my own startup – I outsourced the development, and I handled everything else from product strategy, design, project management, and marketing, until I retired the project to join Saturn.

UpClose

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Career Anecdotes

  • Saturn partners with Nike; gets acquired by Snap

    As lead product designer at Saturn from 2022 until the acquisition by Snap in 2025, I designed the work that awarded Saturn its first sponsored partnership, with Nike.

  • HonorEd raises 35MM Series A

    As the first design hire (contract), I designed the MVP for Honor Education’s pilot program and their initial product concepts – making remote education just as engaging and equitable as in-person learning. Congrats to the team!

  • TransForce lands partnership with Walmart

    As a contracted designer, I designed the mockups for the pitch deck that won truck driver recruitment startup Transforce a partnership with Walmart to post and fill CDL-A jobs. Congrats to the team!

  • I designed a credit card

    I had fun designing Trovy's HELOC Card. A subdued engraved design, in keeping with its substantial metal fabrication, has a repeating icon pattern evoking textiles from luxury brands – while the fun yellow color is made to stand out in your wallet and on the market.

  • Adventures in vibe-coding

    I Lit A Candle App is my first foray into shipping an app without an engineering partner. Like most "vibe-coded" projects, it solves a highly personal problem: forgetting about a candle you've lit in your home! Try it out.

  • Kyn Contacts MVP is live

    I designed the MVP for Pareto Holding’s supercharged contact book app, Kyn. It allows you to organize your contacts in intuitive and useful ways, and set reminders and recurring goals for making time to connect with those who matter to you.

  • UpClose hits the App Store

    I created, designed, PM’d, deployed, marketed my own app, UpClose. UpClose is the friendly way to make plans! The app was ultimately retired after this project caught the attention of Saturn, the social calendar company, where I became the design lead.

  • I interviewed for Y-Combinator

    In 2019, I got as far as the in-person interview stage for Y Combinator for my IRL dating app, Radar. Based on the advice from the panel, I pivoted the app into what I later renamed UpClose. Both apps shipped to the App Store and had their own organic user base.

  • I won a pitch night competition

    In 2017, I won 1st place at PitchForce in SF pitching my startup, Radar. PitchForce is a fast-paced startup pitch forum and competition hosted by Ecosystem Venture Group, connecting early-stage founders seeking seed funding with a panel of angel investors and venture capitalists.

  • We won the 2017 SoFi Hackathon

    4 engineers and I won the internal SoFi Hackathon with our idea for an app that helps rejected SoFi applicants improve their credit profile, and invite them to reapply when they are more likely to get approved.

  • You'll love my Figma files

    Meant for cross functional human eyes as well as AI MCP servers, my Figma files are well organized and beautiful. My components are componentized, my color and font styles are assigned, my layouts are Auto, and my decisions are documented.

Hello, I’m Natalie.

I’m a product design leader with 12 years’ experience at both startups and public companies. I’m also an artist, cellist, mom, wife, and a Seattle-raised Brooklyn transplant for the last 16 years. I love Prospect Park, karaoke, standup comedy, jazz music, and kayaking.

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View Work History

UI is only one part of what I do, but I am prolific at it. Here’s some screenshot repositories of my work across my career.

Screenshot Galleries

Saturn
Monstro
Trovy
Transforce
WhereI AI
Kyn Contacts
Honor Education
I Lit A Candle App
Monster
Adecco Direct
UpClose
BCG Digital Ventures

"The creative process is a process of surrender, not control." –Martha Graham

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"The creative process is a process of surrender, not control." –Martha Graham 〰️

Let’s work together.

I’m currently open to Product Design Leadership roles such as Head of Design, Staff/Principal Product Designer, or Director of Product Design. I’m eligible to work in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. I’m currently based in Brooklyn, NY and favor remote or hybrid working practices. For contracts and freelance opportunities, such as providing end-to-end product design for startup MVPs, contact me on LinkedIn for availability.