About

Jinsoo An

As a Product Design Leader, Jinsoo develops digital products by piecing together consumers' changing behaviors, emerging cultures and converging technologies.

Why Work with Him

Established leader in developing & designing products of all shapes & sizes

Systematic thinker rooted in human-centered design

Multidisciplinary approach to steer world-class products and teams

Problem solver who is strategic, hands-on, & impact-driven

Recognized expert in innovation practice & design process

Resume & CV

Areas of Expertise

Product & Innovation

Product Vision & Concept Development
Product Management & Leadership
Product Design
UX & Interaction Design

Insight & Analysis

Consumer Insights
User Testing & Usability
Ethnographic Research
Risk Assessment

Planning & Strategy

Growth Strategy
Platform Integration
Foresight
Glocalization

Profiled On

Experience at a Glance

15
Years of Experience       
280
Completed Projects       
40+
Fortune 500 Companies
42
Talks Given Worldwide   
20
Industries             
10
Honors & Awards         

Notable Clients

What Clients Say

"Jinsoo has brought a wealth of subject matter expertise to our team while also taking on a huge chunk of the work."

Marcus White

Creative Director
Grow - 2020 Ad Age Small Agency of the Year, Southeast
January, 2022

What Mentees Say

"Jinsoo is a patient and dedicated teacher who understands the fundamentals of design and can bring them to life to students."

Sasha Podolsky

Former Associate Product Manager
Instacart
June, 2022

Selected Honors & Awards

1st Place Winner & Team Lead

Hololens Hackathon, Microsoft, Los Angeles, 2016

1st Place Winner & Team Lead

Extreme Wearables Designathon, Intel & ArtCenter College of Design, Pasadena, 2014

Best Brand Experience, Volkswagen VW.com

UX Awards, 2014

Mobile of the Day, Volkswagen SmileDrive App

FWA, 2013

Nominee, Pop Secret Poptopia & Pop Dongle

The Webby Awards, 2014

Professional Involvements

Bio

Prior to immigrating to California, Jinsoo was raised on a small family-owned farm in South Korea, just a few miles away from the DMZ.

He grew up tending fields and tinkering with home-brew games and gadget teardowns. There, he dreamed that one day he will use design and science to make the world a happier place.

Decades later, his passion gradually expanded into crafting experiences and services across 20 industries such as wellness, food, gaming, sports, consumer electronics, automotive and finance—reaching hundreds of millions of people worldwide.

After having received a myriad of global support and recognitions for Project Nourished and other undertakings, he continues to design innovative solutions for the global crisis.

Values

Curiosity

Let persistent curiosity and genuine passion drive work

Mastery

Don't settle for the status quo and strive for excellence and continual growth

Openness

Be open to understanding and acknowledging different perspectives

Special Interests & Passion

He is interested in finding effective means of facilitating human interaction and emotion that offer purpose, meaning and sustainability. By continuously building this knowledge, he hopes to enhance human relations with a net-positive impact on society.

During his spare time, he loves inspiring people of all ages by speaking to them and educating them about the human condition of today and tomorrow. Some of reoccuring themes include food design, commensality, play, fandom, social isolation, aging, community reintegration and behavioral economics.

Periodically, he engages with local and global communities to strengthen public–private partnership to improve the role of technology in people’s lives.

He enjoys playing indie games and doing yoga. Sometimes he likes to dabble with antique gadgets to reminisce about the past.

Design Methods

One of the most critical aspects of design is being able to reframe overlooked details about users, tools and environments.

To ensure that the most relevant insights are translated into success of your team and product, Jinsoo leverages methods practiced by IDEO, Google and McKinsey as well as foundations developed by practitioners such as Ann Pendleton-Jullian, David Rose, Anthony Dunne, and Steve Swink.

By strategically combining these design perspectives and tool kits for each project, teams gain significant leverage through insights, clarity and positioning. Best of all, this approach can be applied to virtually any consumer-oriented use cases regardless of demographics, medium, industry or application.