Ross Popoff-Walker

Co-Founder

New York City14 yrs 11 mos experience

Key Highlights

20 years of experience at top tech companies.
Expert in designing user-centric software solutions.
Passionate about improving early childhood education tools.

Stackforce AI infers this person is a Product Designer specializing in user experience and design systems for tech-driven industries.

Contact

Skills

Other Skills

Design SystemsProduct DesignDesign LeadershipData VisualizationUser ExperienceInteraction DesignUser Experience DesignWireframesMobile ApplicationsUser Interface DesignExperience DesignUsabilityUser-centered DesignInformation ArchitectureUsability Testing

About

I'm a product designer who's spent 20 years at Netflix, Google, and Waymo solving complex problems through thoughtful systems design. As a parent, I've seen how early childhood educators are buried in administrative work with tools that don't actually help. So on nights and weekends, I'm exploring ways to build simple, well-designed software for daycare directors and preschool administrators. If you work in early childhood education and deal with operational friction, I'd love to connect.

Experience

14 yrs 11 mos

Total Experience

1 yr 10 mos

Average Tenure

11 mos

Current Experience

Waabi

Product Design (First hire)

Jun 2025 – Present · 11 mos

Establishing the product design function as a force multiplier.

Netflix

Design Systems & Internal Apps

Apr 2022 – Mar 2025 · 2 yrs 11 mos

Created a scalable data viz design system adopted by a 500+ person Data & Insights org.
Redesigned key apps used by the C-suite, improving "time to insight" and decision-making speed.

Waymo

Design Lead, Autonomous Tools

Apr 2021 – Apr 2022 · 1 yr

Drove a user-centric tooling strategy for the Evaluation team (responsible for simulation and eval for Waymo's behavior & planning software).

Google

5 roles

Design Lead, Google Maps

Promoted

Sep 2019 – Apr 2021 · 1 yr 7 mos

Shipped new mobile-first layers during the COVID-19 pandemic and wildfire season (e.g. COVID case counts, air quality).

Co-creator & Author · Material Data Viz Design Spec

Aug 2017 – Jul 2018 · 11 mos

Initiated and led Google’s cross-org data visualization guidelines project.
Drove alignment across teams, published internal and public specs, and influenced Cloud UX resourcing and platform strategy.

Design Pod Lead, Cloud Data Analytics

Promoted

Oct 2016 – Aug 2019 · 2 yrs 10 mos

Managed UX for BigQuery, leading a full UI redesign of Google’s flagship cloud analytics product.
Aligned design, research, and PM across orgs through iterative visioning to ship a cohesive data analyst workspace.

Product Designer, Search

Aug 2014 – Oct 2016 · 2 yrs 2 mos

Lead designer on global improvements to Google Search for live events and image search results.

Product Designer, Creative Lab

Mar 2014 – Aug 2014 · 5 mos

Developed product concepts and vision work at Google's internal think tank agency.

School of visual arts

Adjunct Faculty

Jan 2015 – Jan 2016 · 1 yr · New York City Metropolitan Area

UX Design Teacher & Mentor. Planned a holistic UX design curriculum for undergrad instruction.

Buy with fetch

Founding Designer

Sep 2013 – Apr 2014 · 7 mos

Led team from pitch deck to public launch at TechCrunch Disrupt in under 8 months.

Rosspw ux design

Product Design Consultant

Nov 2012 – Present · 13 yrs 6 mos

Working on early-stage ventures. I help ambitious teams build momentum by designing clarity, not just screens.