AI-native product design leader

Velocity.
Systems.
Impact

Hello, I’m Yvonne Doll,

I’m a product design leader who leads by building. I set vision, align EPD and GTM, lead teams, and stay hands-on, turning complex AI product ideas into working prototypes and scalable systems. Deep experience in AI, B2B, CRM, SaaS, and remote leadership. I also make noise in a band and paint abstract messes.

hello@ydoll.me

See my work

★ AI-first design org Kustomer.com: Case study 1 ★

Leading by building

~hrs

Idea to Prototype

↑40%

Design capacity

100%

shared workflow

Read the full case study →

01GUIDE

design-rules.mdGUIDE 01

Codify Design Judgment

Answers: What is right?

Turn recurring design decisions into reusable instructions for humans and AI.

## Excerpt · rules 07, 19, 24, 31

R-07Destructive actions state the blast radius before confirming.

R-19Error copy states what happened, then what to do. Never “Something went wrong.”

R-24Tables over 50 rows ship with filter and column sort.

R-31AI suggestions stay visually distinct until the user accepts them.

## Output

Version-controlled guidance that gives designers, engineers, and AI a shared baseline.

This layer guides behavior. It does not guarantee compliance.

02CONSTRAIN

design-system/CONSTRAIN 02

Make the Right Thing Easier

Answers: How do we make right the default?

Move repeatable design decisions out of prompts and into the system itself.

## What we encode

Semantic design tokens · Typed component APIs · Approved variants · Accessibility defaults

## Output

A choice like primary, instead of raw CSS.

GOOD<Button variant="primary" size="medium" />

NOTbackground: #4263EB; padding: 12px 18px; border-radius: 6px

03VERIFY

flow-audit.mdVERIFY 03

Test Before Anyone Reviews

Answers: What slipped through?

AI audits every prototype against the rules before a human sees it.

## Audit output · /tools/edit · v1

Fail: R-07Destructive action lacks blast radius

Found“Are you sure?”

Fix“Update this tool? 5 procedures will be affected.”

Fail: R-19Generic error copy ×3

Found“Something went wrong”

Fix“Couldn’t save the tool. Check the required fields and try again.”

Pass: R-02Contrast ≥ 4.5:1 — 48 / 48 text nodes

Pass: R-31AI suggestion styled distinct — 12 / 12

## Output

A pass / fail list attached to the PR. Nothing merges with an open ✗.

04GOVERN

governance.mdGOVERN 04

Keep Judgment Human

Answers: What may AI decide?

Define where automation ends, exceptions are reviewed, and the system learns.

## Decision boundaries

Reversible / Low stakes → AI acts, system logs

Reversible / High stakes → AI proposes, human confirms

Irreversible → Human decides, AI assists

## Learning loop

Exception discovered → Review → Codify → Test → Reuse

Organizational Impact

WordPress/Jetpack | Kustomer

At Kustomer, I rebuilt design around AI-native workflows, cutting concept-to-validation from days to hours with prompts, evals, and design–engineering loops. At WordPress (Automattic), I led five AI launches for 27M+ users across 14 products (+58% productivity), built a lean research program adopted org-wide, and demo’d my design intake and triage model as a reference for teams across the company..

SEE Organizational Impact →

Craft

VARIOUS

Designed the complicated workflows behind AI agent setup, guardrails, procedures, monitoring, and human review, turning an open-ended configuration problem into a guided, trustworthy experience for both end users and administrators tasked with setting up the AI agents.

Explore the craft →

Range w/a point of view

I’m a hands-on product design leader who brings executive judgment, creativity, and systems thinking to complex work. Music and abstract painting shape how I think about timing, ambiguity, restraint, and clarity, whether I’m leading a team or running the whole design show myself.

Thought Currents

All blog posts →

Zero UI

A thought excercise UX teams

Rabbit/Sloth hybrid, a Slobbit if you will

AI: The death of the handoff

Breaking the grid with Kim.

The Museum of Abandoned AI Features

Welcome to the Museum of Abandoned AI Features, where every exhibit began with the sentence, ‘Could we put a copilot in it?’

Work

Impact

About

Thought Currents

Resume ↗

Contact me

Velocity.
Systems.
Impact.

Velocity
SystemsImpact

CHICAGO, IL · OPEN TO TRAVEL OR RELOCATE

HELLO@YDOLL.ME

★ AI-first design org Kustomer.com: Case study 1 ★

AI-native design: Leading
by building

I moved Kustomer’s design team from Figma-first handoffs to an AI-native practice, working alongside product and engineering to shape and build the experience together.

I stay close to the work: untangling UX problems, building prototypes, and refining the details. That hands-on practice informs how I coach designers, raise the quality bar, and help the team move faster..

Read the full case study →

~hrs

Idea to Prototype

↑40%

design capcity

100%

CrossFunctional
Shared Workflow

FIG. 01 · THE ELEPHANT IN THE VIBE CODE

01GUIDE

design-rules.mdGUIDE 01

Codify Design Judgment

Answers: What is right?

Turn recurring design decisions into reusable instructions for humans and AI.

## Excerpt · rules 07, 19, 24, 31

R-07Destructive actions state the blast radius before confirming.

R-19Error copy states what happened, then what to do. Never “Something went wrong.”

R-24Tables over 50 rows ship with filter and column sort.

R-31AI suggestions stay visually distinct until the user accepts them.

## Output

Version-controlled guidance that gives designers, engineers, and AI a shared baseline.

This layer guides behavior. It does not guarantee compliance.

02CONSTRAIN

design-system/CONSTRAIN 02

Make the Right Thing Easier

Answers: How do we make right the default?

Move repeatable design decisions out of prompts and into the system itself.

## What we encode

Semantic design tokens · Typed component APIs · Approved variants · Accessibility defaults

## Output

A choice like primary, instead of raw CSS.

GOOD<Button variant="primary" size="medium" />

NOTbackground: #4263EB; padding: 12px 18px; border-radius: 6px

03VERIFY

flow-audit.mdVERIFY 03

Test Before Anyone Reviews

Answers: What slipped through?

AI audits every prototype against the rules before a human sees it.

## Audit output · /tools/edit · v1

Fail: R-07Destructive action lacks blast radius

Found“Are you sure?”

Fix“Update this tool? 5 procedures will be affected.”

Fail: R-19Generic error copy ×3

Found“Something went wrong”

Fix“Couldn’t save the tool. Check the required fields and try again.”

Pass: R-02Contrast ≥ 4.5:1 — 48 / 48 text nodes

Pass: R-31AI suggestion styled distinct — 12 / 12

## Output

A pass / fail list attached to the PR. Nothing merges with an open ✗.

04GOVERN

governance.mdGOVERN 04

Keep Judgment Human

Answers: What may AI decide?

Define where automation ends, exceptions are reviewed, and the system learns.

## Decision boundaries

Reversible / Low stakes → AI acts, system logs

Reversible / High stakes → AI proposes, human confirms

Irreversible → Human decides, AI assists

## Learning loop

Exception discovered → Review → Codify → Test → Reuse

01GUIDE

design-rules.mdGUIDE 01

Codify Design Judgment

Answers: What is right?

Turn recurring design decisions into reusable instructions for humans and AI.

## Excerpt · rules 07, 19, 24, 31

R-07Destructive actions state the blast radius before confirming.

R-19Error copy states what happened, then what to do. Never “Something went wrong.”

R-24Tables over 50 rows ship with filter and column sort.

R-31AI suggestions stay visually distinct until the user accepts them.

## Output

Version-controlled guidance that gives designers, engineers, and AI a shared baseline.

This layer guides behavior. It does not guarantee compliance.

02CONSTRAIN

design-system/CONSTRAIN 02

Make the Right Thing Easier

Answers: How do we make right the default?

Move repeatable design decisions out of prompts and into the system itself.

## What we encode

Semantic design tokens · Typed component APIs · Approved variants · Accessibility defaults

## Output

A choice like primary, instead of raw CSS.

GOOD<Button variant="primary" size="medium" />

NOTbackground: #4263EB; padding: 12px 18px; border-radius: 6px

03VERIFY

flow-audit.mdVERIFY 03

Test Before Anyone Reviews

Answers: What slipped through?

AI audits every prototype against the rules before a human sees it.

## Audit output · /tools/edit · v1

Fail: R-07Destructive action lacks blast radius

Found“Are you sure?”

Fix“Update this tool? 5 procedures will be affected.”

Fail: R-19Generic error copy ×3

Found“Something went wrong”

Fix“Couldn’t save the tool. Check the required fields and try again.”

Pass: R-02Contrast ≥ 4.5:1 — 48 / 48 text nodes

Pass: R-31AI suggestion styled distinct — 12 / 12

## Output

A pass / fail list attached to the PR. Nothing merges with an open ✗.

04GOVERN

governance.mdGOVERN 04

Keep Judgment Human

Answers: What may AI decide?

Define where automation ends, exceptions are reviewed, and the system learns.

## Decision boundaries

Reversible / Low stakes → AI acts, system logs

Reversible / High stakes → AI proposes, human confirms

Irreversible → Human decides, AI assists

## Learning loop

Exception discovered → Review → Codify → Test → Reuse

Shaping product direction

WordPress/Jetpack | Kustomer

I lead design teams, shape product strategy, and stay hands-on with the work. Partnering with Product and Engineering to turn customer insight into roadmap decisions, guide complex products from concept to validation, designing practices and systems that make great design repeatable across the org.

See organizational impact →

Craft

VARIOUS

Explore the craft →

Kind words from excellent humans

Company culture is everything. I'm proud of the strong relationships I've built with my colleagues. I help build supportive, innovative, and action-oriented teams that uplift one another and collaborate to create exceptional work. A rising tide lifts all boats.

★ Featured ★

Arkady Sokolov

AI Product Leader | ClickUp

“Yvonne is a cheetah-mounted hot pink laserbeam”

At Kustomer she killed the handoff. Not metaphorically. She moved the entire design org out of static specs and into AI-native co-creation with engineering: prototyping directly in IDEs, testing outputs against real data, shipping in hours instead of days. She codified the whole thing into reusable markdown-based skills (prompt structures, fidelity…

Jeffrey Zeldman

Executive Creative Director | Automattic

“Yvonne Doll is a one-in-a-million, multi-talented designer, artist, musician, and, above all, design leader”

It was my pleasure and privilege to watch Yvonne mentor, encourage, inspire, and support the Jetpack design team. Beyond being a model colleague, she’s also tremendous fun, supremely cool, and somehow, despite being fun and cool, a grownup and mensch. I would hire her myself if I were in a position to do so, and consider myself fortunate indeed if she…

Range | Depth

I also make noise in a band and paint abstract messes.

04:06

Thought Currents

All blog posts →

04 ·

9/2026

CrossFade 02: The Click and the Grid

Structure holds, feeling moves, systems improvise

Read →

03 ·

9/2026

CrossFade 01: The Abstract Painter's Product Mind

Painting taught me that commitment matters. But attachment is dangerous. You have to know the difference...

Read →

02 ·

8/2026

The Museum of Abandoned AI Features

Welcome to the Museum of Abandoned AI Features, where every exhibit began with the sentence, ‘Could we put a copilot in it?’

Read →

01 ·

8/2026

Bad UI Now Has a Meter Running

Your help agent is hiding the cost of your bad UX.

Read →

Thought Currents

All blog posts →

Velocity.Systems.Impact

Leading by building

Codify Design Judgment

Make the Right Thing Easier

Test Before Anyone Reviews

Keep Judgment Human

Organizational Impact

Craft

Range w/a point of view

Thought Currents

Zero UI

AI: The death of the handoff

The Museum of Abandoned AI Features

AI-native design: Leading by building

Codify Design Judgment

Make the Right Thing Easier

Test Before Anyone Reviews

Keep Judgment Human

Codify Design Judgment

Make the Right Thing Easier

Test Before Anyone Reviews

Keep Judgment Human

Shaping product direction

Craft

Kind words from excellent humans

“Yvonne is a cheetah-mounted hot pink laserbeam”

“Yvonne Doll is a one-in-a-million, multi-talented designer, artist, musician, and, above all, design leader”

Range | Depth

Thought Currents

CrossFade 02: The Click and the Grid

CrossFade 01: The Abstract Painter's Product Mind

The Museum of Abandoned AI Features

Bad UI Now Has a Meter Running

Thought Currents

AI Meets ENFJ

CrossFade 01: The Abstract Painter's Product Mind

The Museum of Abandoned AI Features

Velocity.
Systems.
Impact

AI-native design: Leading
by building