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Justin Kirkey

I design digital products for healthcare, high-stakes, and AI-first teams — and build them with agentic AI.

15+ years leading product design across healthcare and other high-stakes, regulated industries. Open to Principal / Staff or Design Director roles for meaningful work on AI-first teams.

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Process

Design strategy as a spectrum of tactics.

Fifteen-plus years across strategy, research, definition, UI, and build — with AI now the newest layer, woven through every stage rather than bolted onto one.

  1. Strategy

    Framing the right problem before designing a solution

    0→1 product strategyService blueprintingRoadmapping & scoping

  2. Discovery

    Getting to real users, even in an operating room

    Ethnographic field researchUser interviewsWorkflow mapping

  3. Definition

    Turning ambiguity into a system

    Design-system architectureReport-framing auditsRequirements & scoping docs

  4. UX / UI

    Designing the interface — and the parts kit behind it

    High-fidelity prototypingVoice-UI designVirtual workshop design

  5. Build & launch

    Shipping it — increasingly, myself

    Human-AI build workflowFDA formative/summative testingDesign-to-dev handoff

In their words

From the people who managed me, reported to me, and shipped beside me.

  • Ramzi Rahbani

    2023

    Chief Product Officer · FortNine & Defender Marine

    Managed Justin

    “Justin was my right hand. Whether operating at 10,000 ft or executing in sprints, Justin always delivered with the highest quality of work. He is versatile, quick thinking and kind. A unique blend for a leader.”

  • Kirsten Anwender

    2026

    VP of Marketing · Future Fertility

    Senior to Justin

    “Justin quickly got up to speed and took the lead on redesigning our flagship products — egg quality reports used by both clinical staff and fertility patients. His design process was very thoughtful and thorough, gaining both cross-functional and external clinical/patient feedback to shape the new designs.”

  • David Haapalehto

    2024

    Building today's systems and tomorrow's foundations · ExperiencePoint

    Peer, same team

    “Justin is an incredible leader, manager and top-tier designer. He's uniquely capable of operating at any level of an opportunity, from business model to user experience… I would work with Justin again in a heartbeat.”

  • Andrew Webster

    2024

    Organizational Change & Innovation Capability · ExperiencePoint

    Senior to Justin

    “If you need someone to lead a team and tackle complex or ambiguous problems, Justin is a great option — and he's also a great option if that team needs to roll up their sleeves and design an architecture or front-end experience.”

  • Donna Hidalgo

    2021

    Experienced Product Professional

    Hired & managed Justin

    “It's rare that you come across a talent like Justin… Justin earns my highest recommendation. Any organization would be very lucky to have him.”

  • Christine Yang

    2019

    Product Designer · Jobber

    Reported to Justin

    “I was very fortunate to have worked with Justin on multiple projects, witnessing what strong design leadership truly looks like. He brings a careful balance to his management style, giving his team the confidence to solve problems independently while supporting along the way.”

  • Debbie Y

    2019

    Service & Interaction Designer

    Reported to Justin

    “Justin led with accountability, transparency, humility, and expertise — but best of all, he made it his priority to ensure that each team member's individual personal growth objectives were being met.”

  • Johnathan Hok

    2013

    Staff Software Architect · CS Disco

    Peer, same team

    “Justin has the ability to break down complex problems into something regular people can understand — and he can do it without even breaking a sweat.”

  • Elina Lawrie

    2016

    Managing Director · Accenture Song

    Peer, same team

    “Justin's leadership style promotes great teamwork amongst colleagues and clients. During a co-creation workshop for Prostate Cancer Canada and the Movember Foundation, he tactfully brought clients, patients and caregivers into the design process, ensuring they felt heard, involved, and at ease the whole way through.”

Selected clients & employers
  • Future Fertility
  • Synaptive Medical
  • Healthcare Human Factors
  • ExperiencePoint
  • Accenture
  • Metrolinx
  • Ford
  • Medtronic
  • TD
  • Movember
  • UHN
  • Chrysler
  • Jeep
  • Publicis Sapient
  • CMC Electronics
  • CNH Industrial
Recognition
  • ADPList Mentor
  • Service Design Network — speaker
  • Certified — AI in the UX Design Process
At work

Design leadership with my hands on the tools — directing agentic AI like a team, and owning the judgment myself.

I came up through engineering, fell for the craft, and never stopped building. I ask a lot of questions to get at the real problem, then move fast in working code — so the thing we’re deciding on is the thing we’ll ship.

  • Two threads, human in the loop

    A strategy thread for the thinking; an implementation thread — Claude Code — for the build. I decide, the AI executes, I evaluate.

  • Model-selection discipline

    Lighter models for resolved, execution-heavy work; heavier reasoning models for judgment under ambiguity and visual A/Bs.

  • The prototype is the handoff

    Design intent lives in working, production-grade code — a source of truth for engineering, not throwaway mockups.

Justin collaborating with his team
Experience
  • 2024 — 2026
    Future Fertility team

    Future Fertility

    Product Design Lead

    Leading product design & UX research for an AI-powered fertility platform. Redesigned the flagship oocyte-evaluation reports (VIOLET™ & MAGENTA™) into five languages for a global clinical audience.

  • 2020 — 2023
    ExperiencePoint team

    ExperiencePoint

    Director, Product → Product Design Lead

    Directed strategy for a 10+ product portfolio serving 25,000+ users a year. Led the 0→1 build of Impact, a virtual design sprint now used across 8 countries; clients included half the Fortune 100.

  • 2019
    Fjord · Accenture team

    Fjord · Accenture

    Service & Interaction Design Lead

    Led a design team for TD Bank's international money-transfer product (millions of users) and co-led the Metrolinx / PRESTO service design now used by 50M+ monthly transit riders across Ontario.

  • 2017 — 2018
    Synaptive Medical team

    Synaptive Medical

    Manager, Product Design → UX Lead

    Led the software (UX) and hardware (ID) design team for a neurosurgical suite. Redesigned the UI for Modus V, a $1M+ surgical robotic microscope, plus a surgeon voice-control UI — under FDA submission protocol.

  • 2013 — 2017
    Healthcare Human Factors · UHN team

    Healthcare Human Factors · UHN

    Associate Director, Experience Design

    Helped lead the largest healthcare-dedicated human-factors & UX team internationally (23 designers and specialists) across 20+ medical-device and digital-health projects for public and private clients.

  • 2011 — 2013
    Publicis Sapient team

    Publicis Sapient

    Information Architect, Experience Design

    UX for large-scale cross-channel platforms — Jeep Badge of Honor (100k+ downloads), Chrysler International's 60+ market sites, plus work for Intel and Unilever.

Education
  • University of Toronto graduation

    University of Toronto

    BASc, Industrial Engineering · P.Eng.

  • Product School graduation

    Product School

    Product Management Certificate

Off the clock

Vinyl on the turntable, two opinionated cats, and an unreasonable love of crunchy autumn leaves.

  • Justin speaking at a design talk
  • Candid
  • Justin sketching a product flow at the whiteboard
  • Justin and his wife Danica at a Blue Jays game