About
Work
Margaret Shear
Currently offering fractional design leadership to early stage startups and growing teams
2021–26
VP of Design
Zero-to-one product design for AI-powered platform streamlining the life insurance sales journey for brokerages, their clients, and underwriters. Founded in 2021, Modern Life has raised $35M in VC funding led by Thrive Capital, NYLife Ventures, Northwestern Mutual and other strategic partners.
2020–21
Head of Design
Design foundations for a multi-sided marketplace connecting rising musicians with strategic investors to raise funding without giving up ownership. Founded in 2015, Indify is backed by RSE Ventures and Reddit's Alexis Ohanian. Artists funded through the service have passed 10B streams.
2020
Advisor
MVP design, brand, and naming for an environmental risk assessment platform.
UX strategy for a long-awaited iOS app, helping the curious discover the world's hidden and offbeat places on the go.
Creative Director — Doberman
Experience strategy envisioning the pharmacy of the future for the largest US retailer, unifying the customer experience across its core pillars.
2019
MVP product definition and launch for startup simplifying the process of buying life insurance.
Creative Director — frog design
Customer insights for a leading Mexican consumer retail and banking group.
2019 & 2020
Visiting Faculty
Co-facilitation of Service Design curriculum for Summer School and master's programme participants in leading global design school and innovation lab.
2018
User insights for a Series A media startup with a fresh approach to political news.
2016–18
Design Director
Digital transformation and laying the roots of the cross-brand design system that powers Vogue, GQ, The New Yorker.
2017
Design and launch of paywalls in support of a shift to consumer-driven revenue.
2016
Experience strategy informing an expansion into events for "the most trusted voice in music."
Redesign of Goings On About Town; 2017 Webby Awards finalist for Best UX.
2015–16
Associate Creative Director — frog design
Detailed design for fleet management system serving leaseholders, support teams, and back office.
2015
Foundational user research that helped an early stage expert-network startup focus its key use cases around sales intelligence.
User research and design strategy for the launch of the Calm Tracking feature of the UP wearable.
2014–15
Principal Designer — frog design
Digital presence rework for retirement provider for universities and nonprofits.
2014
Design Lead — Smart Design
Product strategy for reaching more female customers, without building a phone "for women."
2013
Design Lead — Hot Studio
Design system built to scale across a sprawling suite of enterprise IT software.
User research and design for an early mobile payment solution.
2011–12
UX Director
Part of the studio leadership team that helped establish SF-based design firm in NYC before its 2013 acquisition by Facebook.
2012
Creative Lead — Hot Studio
Public website redesign for the R&D organization behind the government's most critical tech work.
Experience Design Director — R/GA
UX strategy for a reworked NIKEiD customization flow to boost conversion.
2011
Experience Designer — Adaptive Path
Experience strategy to deliver the magic of the stores to e-commerce.
UX Lead — Hot Studio
Unified content strategy across editorial vertical properties.
Experience strategy for Korean telecom envisioning access to any content on any device.
2010
Rollout of redesign designed to protect conversion rates.
UX Designer — Hot Studio
UX strategy and design for native e-reader for the HP TouchPad at launch.
2009
UX strategy and design for the launch of a personalized run-training app.
Redesign and content strategy for major business publisher website.
2008
Social web content strategy and design for revamped IAC-owned listings property.
UX design of rights management platform for amateur photographers.
2007
Mobile web design and development for personal information management suite.
2004–7
Web Designer
Front-end development and design to launch seven peer-reviewed journals for open-access publishing pioneer. Founding designer & design team of one.