Hi, I'm Melissa — a seasoned product design leader who thrives at the intersection of craft, strategy, and team leadership. Over the course of my career, I've built and managed design teams responsible for consumer-facing products at scale — from launching a new editorial platform at Viacom to shaping core conversation experiences at Twitter. Today at Thumbtack, I lead a team focused on 0–1, high-impact bets, helping the company explore new opportunities while building a strong, collaborative design culture.
At Thumbtack, I've honed my skills in developing 0–1, next generation products. Recently, I have been leading design for our AI-enabled hiring experience. Prior to that I led design for a new home maintenance product. As part of the design leadership team, I've led efforts to establish an operating model for a virtual first design org, updated career criteria and established strategies to up-level craft and quality.
Work samples provided upon request.
I led a product design team focused on Twitter's core experiences of starting and participating in conversations. We created a variety of engagement-driving solutions to help customers express themselves and foster healthy discourse in Tweets and DMs.
During my time at Viacom, I led product design for a startup within the company that reimagined MTV News for a millennial audience. We then went on to scale the editorial platform to the other Viacom brands. I also built the design team to support these efforts. I then went on to lead design for Viacom's event platform (supporting shows like the MTV VMAs) where we created a new and engaging voting experience.
I love to make things — whether it's taking photos, cooking or even doing my own nail art — I thrive when I get to be creative. I am a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design where I fell in love with computers and design. Brooklyn is my home, along with my husband and our dog Stella. Walking around New York City is endlessly inspiring to me.
I built this site with Claude Code and used Claude Design and Figma for exploration and details.