Dave Navarro McDonald
Senior Product DesignerIt started at the Genius Bar in San Francisco, where I learned fast that most people didn't have a hardware problem. They had a design problem. That realization stuck around, and so did I.Since then I've worked across consumer, enterprise, and B2B SaaS products as a support manager and then a designer. I care deeply about research, accessibility, and the genuinely interesting tension that happens when two very different users need the same product to work for them. I also think AI belongs in the design process, not just in the products we ship.
Outside of Work
I was born in Los Angeles, CA. I now live in Portland, Oregon, where I collect vinyl, chase live music, and will absolutely dance at a concert or festival whether or not the people around me are doing the same. My record collection is carefully organized, which surprises no one who's worked with me.I'm also serious about fitness in a way that probably comes up too often in conversation, and I love hosting: dinners, hangouts, whatever the occasion. Creating space where people feel comfortable and genuinely welcome is something I care about a lot, and honestly, it's not that different from what I try to do at work.My mom says I've never met a stranger in my life. She's probably right.
Work Experience
Act-On Software
2025 - Present- Designed Act-On's first customer-facing generative AI feature, the AI Subject Line Optimizer, in four weeks. Drove a curiosity-based messaging framework over outcome-promise framing, and set a minimum data threshold guardrail of ten qualifying sends to prevent low-confidence outputs.
- Led AI design for the InSite multi-agent LLM system: state models, LLM interaction patterns, authentication UI for pages behind login walls, and reporting with a Sankey flow visualization of the engagement funnel.
- Led research initiatives presented to executive leadership that directly influenced product roadmap and go-to-market strategy.
- Established design standards for AI-specific components and LLM interaction workflows that became the team's reference patterns for later AI work.
Sparta Science
2022 - 2024- Designed analytics platform interfaces for more than 20,000 users across a force plate system and a kiosk app. Field research with end users turned usability friction into a cohort analysis feature that surfaced individual performance alongside group-level trends.
- Built a Figma design system spanning three products (web dashboard, iPad kiosk app, data visualization components), establishing consistency and reducing design-to-engineering handoff time.
- Designed and shipped an iPad kiosk app for real-time athlete movement assessment, plus a dashboard for coaches and sports organizations to review performance data.
- Facilitated UX workshops with product, engineering, and research to align on user goals across a growing platform.
TripIt (SAP Concur)
Mar 2022 - Oct 2022- Led end-to-end design across iOS, Android, web, and Apple Watch for more than 14 million users, establishing consistency patterns across four platforms.
- Led and audited the effort to make TripIt's apps fully accessible, raising accessibility compliance by 40 percent.
- Partnered with engineering to ensure the accessibility improvements shipped intact across every platform.
TripIt (SAP Concur)
2013 - 2022- Designed and optimized mobile user flows for travel notifications and itineraries for more than 14 million users globally.
- Ran A/B and usability testing to validate design decisions and increase engagement.
- Created and maintained visual style guides for web and mobile across three platforms.
- Synthesized monthly support cases into insights that fed design decisions.
Apple
2008 - 2013Education
San Francisco State University
BA PsychologySkills
Good design doesn't happen in a vacuum, and I don't work that way either. I bring engineers, PMs, and stakeholders into the process early and often, not for sign-off, but because the best outcomes happen when everyone feels some ownership over the result.Research
User interviews, moderated usability testing, synthesis, survey design, iterative discovery and validationDesign
Interaction design, information architecture, prototyping (lo-fi to hi-fi), accessibility and universal design, AI-native product thinkingDesign Systems
Component architecture, token-based design, documentation, cross-functional contribution and adoptionCollaboration
Cross-functional facilitation, stakeholder alignment, design critique, mentorshipTools
Figma, Maze, Claude, ChatGPTWorking With Me
“Dave solicits and responds to feedback, and offers comments and ideas just as generously. He's self-driven and collaborative, which makes him both an astonishingly fast learner but also a wonderful teacher, mentor, and partner to engineering and product. He is more attuned than many to the needs and desires of the end user, and advocates loudly for universal design in all interactions. But he's not pedantic: He also understands product development, and knows when to iterate and when to stand firm.”Head of UX, TripIt
“David is a deeply empathetic designer, a consistent advocate for user needs, and a champion of accessible and inclusive design. He's driven by a strong work ethic and a deep-seated desire to create high-quality work he and his team can take pride in.”Design Director, Sparta Science
“Every PM at TripIt raves about how much they love working with Dave. My favorite part about working with Dave is how he collaborates with others. He can really bring a room of tough stakeholders together and get them to align with his easygoing yet persuasive attitude. He is great at taking feedback from multiple stakeholders and synthesizing it into a better design. One thing that makes Dave unique is his ability to work closely with engineers and deeply understand technical constraints to inform his design. Overall, Dave makes work fun! He always brings a positive and fun energy to the meeting that uplifts everyone.”Product Manager, TripIt