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AI/UX · Design Leadership · Impact

Shira
Kates

I work cross-functionally to align vision and create epic, impactful 0‑1 products. I’m a high-performance team-builder and a catalyst for innovation who understands market trends, business needs, and the user’s world well enough to give them something they’ll actually love to use — especially when they have no choice.

See My Work About Me

About

I care about
getting it right

I’m a design executive and AI/UX strategist with 20 years leading products from 0 to 1 across enterprise, consumer, and AI-powered experiences. I’ve been a CDO, a UX manager, a researcher, a content designer, a product manager, and a founder. The through-line is always the same: I find the hard problem and figure out what it actually needs.

At Google AppSheet I inherited a struggling team, rebuilt it, and built a product vision that influenced roadmaps at the VP level across Google Cloud AI. Before that I won a $25M federal contract as design lead at CivicActions. Before that I led a UX team through a $640M acquisition at BrightRoll. Before that I ran my own design consultancy for a decade.

I want to work on AI products that make people’s lives genuinely better, with teams that bring real craft and genuine curiosity to the table.

View Résumé ↓
AI & Product
Generative AI · Agentic UX · Human-AI Interaction · LLM Product Design · Hypothesis-Driven 0-1 Development
UX Practice
Enterprise UX · UX Research · Conversational Design · UX Writing · Design Systems · Accessibility
Leadership
Cross-functional Alignment · Executive Storytelling · OKR Planning · Design Sprints · Team Development
Experience
Google · CivicActions · Yahoo/BrightRoll · Accenture · AT&T Interactive · Entrepreneur · Coach
Recognition

Awards & Community

Case Studies

Work

Google AppSheet

  • Vision & Strategy
  • Team Leadership
  • Enterprise UX
  • AI Product

Building a Vision Inside the Ambiguity

AppSheet was mid-transition from a technically-oriented platform to one built for business users, operating without a long-term UX direction to guide the work. I built a high-performing team, initiated a research-backed vision process, and ran a participatory design approach that aligned cross-functional stakeholders around a compelling strategic direction. We stress-tested the concepts with real enterprise customers at Google Cloud NEXT before roadmap planning.

AI Verbs usage increase
200%
License deal unlocked
27K
EQ Week projects to roadmap
7
Users monetized
1M+
Request full case study →
AI-generated personalized views in AppSheet showing Gemini-powered generative UI that adapts to each user's needs and context
Generative UI: AppSheet + Gemini generate personalized views tailored to each user's role and context
Seamless collaboration between AppSheet and Google Workspace showing blurred boundaries between the two ecosystems
Blurred boundaries: AppSheet solutions and Workspace products seamlessly interconnected through data
Single pane of glass admin console for AppSheet Enterprise showing centralized governance and monitoring
Single pane of glass: Centralized admin console for governance, licensing, and usage across the org

Google Cloud AI

  • Agentic UX
  • AI Vision
  • Frontline Workers
  • Original Research

The Future of Agentic Democratization in the Enterprise

As AI agents began reshaping enterprise software, the entire industry was designing for knowledge workers and ignoring a billion-person global frontline workforce. I asked the question nobody else was asking, built the research case, and developed a framework for how agentic experiences need to evolve: from channel-specific chat to adaptive UI, from static to personalized, and the idea that was purely mine: from a clear creator/user boundary to democratized authoring, where workers shape their own tools through interaction rather than waiting for someone else to build for them.

Global frontline workers
1B+
Industry-shifting frameworks
3
Strategy level influence
VP
Request full case study →
Evolution of Agents executive summary showing three fundamental shifts: channel-specific to adaptive UI, static to personalized, creator-user boundary to democratized authoring
Evolution of Agents: Three fundamental shifts redefining how enterprise agentic experiences need to evolve
Adaptive UI showing agent interactions seamlessly adapting across mobile device, conversational interface while driving, and AR glasses in the field
Adaptive UI in action: Agent interactions that meet users across mobile, voice, and AR — wherever work happens
Frontline worker opportunity showing 70% of global workforce are frontline workers, with Gen Z adoption data and UXR study findings
The frontline opportunity: 1B+ workers, underserved by enterprise AI — and already reaching for workarounds

Course Hero + Google AppSheet

  • Conversational Design
  • AI Voice & Tone
  • Brand Strategy
  • GenAI Product

Voice as Strategy: Delightful AI Interactions for Trust and Adoption

Most companies treat conversational AI as a technology and protocol problem. Get the rules right, keep humans in the loop, handle the edge cases. All of that matters. But adoption lives or dies on something simpler too: is this agent worth talking to? In 2021 I was pushing back on hiding AI from users when that was the industry default. At Google I was arguing that the prompt is not how humans naturally think. They start from problems, questions, documents. The companies that win on AI adoption will be the ones that treated the voice and personality of their agents as a strategic asset, not an afterthought.

Ahead of industry on AI transparency
2021
GenAI feature out of Google Cloud
1st
Request full case study →
Duet AI in AppSheet showing conversational app creation where users describe their idea and the AI generates an app structure
Duet AI in AppSheet: Natural language app creation — describe your idea, get a working app structure
Animated demo of Gemini-powered AI interaction in Google Chat showing the in-platform conversational experience
Gemini in Google Chat: The first GenAI feature shipped out of Google Cloud — showing the platform-native experience
Side-by-side comparison of conversational UI versus GUI showing how chat-only interfaces lack efficiency and helpful at-a-glance visuals
Conversational UI vs GUI: Why chat-only agents fail at complex tasks — and what hybrid interaction solves
Current Obsessions

Nerdy

AI Agents

Agents I’ve Built

I build agents to feel what it’s like on the other side of the UX decisions I make. Cheddar explores delightful, habit-forming conversational design. Karen is a real-time co-pilot for retail store associates — built on a frontline worker agent playbook I developed at Google.

Try Cheddar → Try Karen →
Language Learning

Duolingo

Keeping the streak alive. There’s something about a gamified daily habit that appeals to the UX person in me almost as much as the language nerd.

Be my friend →
1011 day streak on Duolingo
Reading

Currently Listening

Books on repeat: design, psychology, business, the occasional sweeping biography. Always on walks, always on Audible.

See all on Goodreads →
Zero to One by Peter Thiel A World Appears by Michael Pollan Inner Engineering by Sadhguru The Surrender Experiment by Michael A. Singer Heretical Fishing by Haylock Jobson The Land and Its People by David Sedaris
Craft

Floral Design

Flowers are my analog antidote to screens. I design and arrange bouquets for the pleasure of working with something that doesn’t have a backlog.

A bouquet of peach carnations, lavender roses, alstroemeria and greenery in a white ribbed vase
Experience

Résumé

Download

Shira Kates

AI-Forward UX Leadership  ·  Product Strategy  ·  Enterprise & Agentic UX

shiradee@gmail.com
linkedin.com/in/shirakates
shirakates.com
San Diego, CA
Senior UX and AI strategy leader with 20+ years shaping products from 0 to 1 across enterprise, platform, and AI-powered experiences. Most recently at Google, where I built and led AppSheet's multidisciplinary UX team through a period of 4x MAU growth, establishing UX as a trusted strategic partner at the intersection of product vision, engineering, and generative AI. Deep craft in human-AI interaction design, vision definition, cross-functional alignment, and team development, with a strong point of view on making AI genuinely useful for real users.

Experience

Staff Platform UX Lead 2022 – 2026

Google, AppSheet & Cloud AI, San Diego CA

4x MAU growth 40%+ YoY growth 80M Vertex AI tokens 400% usage increase Jul–Oct 2025 2,000+ AI-built apps 1,500 Gemini tasks/day 95% customer satisfaction
  • Led AppSheet's multidisciplinary UX team (design, research, writing) across creator, app-user, admin, and database surfaces; MAU nearly quadrupled with 40%+ sustained YoY growth since joining.
  • Directed UX for Gemini-assisted app creation and Visual First Editor Phase 2, contributing to +8.8% app creator success, +12% uplift in paid Workspace users, and +1.5% 14-day retention in enterprise; drove 2,000+ active apps built with AI and 80M Vertex AI tokens consumed in a single month.
  • Achieved 400% increase in AI feature usage (Jul–Oct 2025) across 300+ unique apps and 1,500 Gemini AI tasks per day, reflecting user trust in AI-augmented workflows.
  • Led UX for Chat Apps integration with Workspace, reducing setup from 15 steps/30 minutes to 1 minute; 1,800+ monthly deployments, 1,100+ customer domains in the first month, 10,800 annual developer hours saved. 2023 H2 Cloud Tech Impact Award.
  • Led UX for AppSheet Database, contributing to +38% 28-day MAU and +39% editor MAU YoY. Cloud Tech Impact Award.
  • Orchestrated UX for the Admin Console and license management experience; onboarded 1,000+ new enterprise admins, helped unlock the Vertiv 27K-license deal, and enabled monetization for 1M+ users.
  • Initiated and led a research-backed 3-year UX/product vision, aligning VP-level leadership on product pillars and seeding generative AI programs including AI Verbs (200% usage increase, 2M+ AI tokens across 70+ apps) and Gemini App Creation.
  • Presented long-term AI/UX strategy to Thomas Kurian (Google Cloud CEO); work seeded the first generative AI experiences shipped from Google Cloud.
  • Defined the Evolved Agents / Frontline Worker Agent vision, a novel approach combining apps and agents for dynamic, adaptive, hands-free enterprise UX; now influencing Cloud AI VP-level strategy, PM roadmaps, and PRDs.
  • Founded EQ Week, a bi-yearly hackathon mobilizing 35+ participants across 18 projects; 7 advanced to roadmap, AI Verbs debuted at Cloud NEXT, 6 features shipped to date.
  • Established the CUJ baseline program for measuring critical user journeys; created XFN alignment on UX health metrics now referenced in planning cycles.
  • Explored AppSheet x Agentspace integration (apps as tools inside agents); concepts implemented and referenced in product documentation and PRDs.
  • Managed and developed a high-performing team; strategic hires including Staff Designer and conversational design specialist; one direct promoted to L6, multiple gained speaking roles at Cloud NEXT and I/O. 2025 manager survey: Deliver Results 4.58, Develop People 4.77, Build Community 4.93 out of 5.
UX Consultant, Assistive AI Aug 2021 – May 2022

Course Hero · Freelance

Established conversational AI design practice and standards for an AI-powered homework help product. Created UX writing guidelines, conversational AI interaction patterns, and design system components for human-AI interaction.

Chief Design Officer 2019 – 2022

CivicActions

Hired as Content Designer; promoted to CDO within a year. Led UX, content strategy, and design systems for government digital transformation and public sector service design. Won a $25M federal contract as design lead.

Director, Ad Platform Programmatic Intelligence UX 2014 – 2017

Yahoo / BrightRoll

Led UX for ad platform and programmatic intelligence products through BrightRoll's $640M acquisition by Yahoo. Built the UX practice from the ground up across data, analytics, and platform surfaces.

Senior Content Designer, Knowledge UX 2013 – 2014

Google (Maps, Search, Identity)

Content design for launched feature experiments including Explore Around You. Led the content audit of the entire Google Maps experience, improving UX for billions of users.

Content Systems Expert 2012 – 2013

Accenture Interactive

Content systems and UX strategy for enterprise clients including Meta, HP, and Microsoft.

Let’s talk.

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