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
Jinsoo has created software and services for world's top organizations such as Google, Sony, Nike, NFL, and LG intended for a wide range of form factors—including smartphones, tablets, IoT devices, wearables, smart TVs, game consoles, connected vehicles, POS, and personal wellness products.
With this diversified knowledge, he develops and designs individual products as well as orchestrating how they work together as a system.
Systematic thinker rooted in human-centered design
With product, UX and research methodologies at his core, he has led a team of big and small in revamping, diversifying and scaling products and services in over 20 industries.
By blending iterative design with systems thinking and entrepreneurial mindset, he has successfully delivered intelligent solutions and guided teams through mission critical projects that impact hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue.
Multidisciplinary approach to steer world-class products and teams
Having learned a programming language when he was 6 years old, his early and continuous exposure to engineering has had a big impact on how he develops and designs products. He is quite effective in handling technical aspects of functional specs and PRD just as well as defining design principles and leading product discussions on Trello.
Problem solver who is strategic, hands-on, & impact-driven
He helps teams solve problems in different modes—making them more nimble and agile. Whether a project requires a "pixel-perfect" design system in Figma, a functional prototype to test new features, or unbiased 10-point scale satisfaction survey, he is able to juggle between diverse tasks and deliver results.
This relentless craftsmanship has helped NFL grow its mobile engagement as much as 500% for its 100M+ users and improve its app rating from 2 to 4.8 stars.
Recognized expert in innovation practice & design process
By championing a selection of proven product development methods and design frameworks, he has supported teams with diverse backgrounds and experiences to overcome tough road blocks.
He frequently facilitates co-creation workshops and exercises to help untangle complexity and improve cross collaborations.
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
Years of Experience
Completed Projects
Fortune 500 Companies
Talks Given Worldwide
Industries
Honors & Awards
Notable Clients
A
- Activision Blizzard
- Albertsons
- Amazon
- Anthem
- Audi
B
- Blackberry
- Bosch
- British American Tobacco
C
- California Milk Advisory Board
- California State of California
- Cannes Film Festival
- British American Tobacco
- CENTRO College for Design, Media and Film
- The Clorox Company
- Coca Cola
D
- Diamond Foods
- DIRECTV
- Disney
E
- Eastman Kodak Company
- Esurance
F
- Ford
- Foster Farms
G
H
- Hyundai Motor
- HTC
- HP
I
- Impossible Foods
- Infiniti
- Instacart
K
- Keurig Dr Pepper
- Konami
L
- LG Electronics
- Lucasfilm
M
- Microsoft
- Murad Skincare
N
- NFL
- Nike
- Nintendo
- Nissan
P
- Pizza Hut
S
- Sony
- Spin Master
- Sprint
- Subaru
T
- T-Mobile
- Taco Bell
- Target
V
- VCA Animal Hospital
- Verizon Wireless
- ViacomCBS
- Vivint Smart Home
- Volkswagen
Z
- Zillow
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
"I recently had the pleasure of working with Jinsoo on a high-profile client project for one of our most trusted clients. Jinsoo has brought a wealth of subject matter expertise to our team while also taking on a huge chunk of the work. Jinsoo was helpful and highly collaborative through various phases from planning, strategy, UX, design, and development. He worked closely with our team of designers, strategists, engineers, and producers to deliver effective solutions for very specific client problems. During Jinsoo's time with us, he helped craft thoughtful and industry-leading UX and worked closely with designers and engineers as that work took shape. He was also instrumental in documenting the work in an incredibly comprehensive set of UI guidelines that clocks in at 297 pages."
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
"Jinsoo is a patient and dedicated teacher who understands the fundamentals of design and can bring them to life to students. He is able to expertly navigate between nuances of practical design and higher level principles to ensure students can anchor their design decisions in a deeper level of understanding—not just an eye candy in Figma."
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
- Product Owner, Supply Chain Management
Food Lab Accelerator at Google (FLAG), 2019-2020 - Local Group Organizer of Los Angeles
Interaction Design Association (IxDA), 2011-2012 - Member, System Dynamic Society
- Member, EPIC
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.
Favorite Reads
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.