AI/UX · Design Leadership · Where Impact Gets Made

Shira
Kates

I build high-performing, happy teams that achieve real impact. I work cross-functionally to align vision and create epic 0-1 products. I’m a catalyst for innovation who understands the big picture and the user’s world well enough to give them something they’ll actually love to use, even when they have no choice but to use it.

Platform & UX Leadership AI & Conversational Design
Shira Kates
20+
Years Leading
40%+
YoY Growth
7
Hackathon Projects to Roadmap
2x
Cloud Impact Awards

Two ways to work with me

As a leader and as a
hands-on builder

↗
01

Platform, UX & Leadership

For organizations that need someone to build the vision, lead the team, and make sure design has a seat at the table where impact gets made.

Design Executive Head of UX VP Design Product Strategy Team Leadership
↗
02

AI & Conversational Design

For organizations building or using AI platforms where adoption could be better. Let’s talk about what makes agents habit-forming.

Agentic UX Conversational Design AI Strategy Human-AI Interaction LLM Product Design
Selected work

Case Studies

01
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.

200%
AI Verbs usage increase
27K
License deal unlocked
7
EQ Week projects to roadmap
1M+
Users monetized
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AppSheet UX Vision: Strategic framework

AppSheet 3-Year UX Vision: Strategic framework defining how we might democratize app creation for every user type

02
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.

1B+
Global frontline workers
3
Industry-shifting frameworks
VP
Strategy level influence
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Evolution of Agents framework

Evolution of Agents: Three fundamental shifts in how agentic enterprise experiences need to evolve

Cymbal Superstore scenario

Hero scenario: Cymbal Superstore, showing how evolved agents serve both knowledge workers and frontline workers

03
Course Hero + Google AppSheet
Conversational Design AI Voice & Tone Brand Strategy GenAI Product

Voice as Strategy: Delightful AI Interactions Cement 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.

2021
Ahead of industry on AI transparency
1st
GenAI feature out of Google Cloud
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Personalized agent guidance

Personalized agent guidance: evolved agents adapt instructions to each user’s experience level and context

Highly personalized views generated by AI

AI-generated personalized views: Generative UI that adapts to user needs and context in real time

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.

Get in touch
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

2023
Cloud Tech Impact Award x2
Google Cloud
2025
Hudson Executive Coaching Certification
Hudson Institute
2026
Speaker: AI Talks
One Club for Creativity
2015
US Patent: Mobile Ad Campaign Management
US 077693-8019
2014-16
Professional Mentor, TechWomen Program
US State Department
2011
Design Award: Social Impact
Core77

Let’s talk

Always open to
new challenges.

What’s on your plate?

Email me LinkedIn Download Resume