Kinedu
ClientKinedu
RoleUX Product Lead
Years2018 — 2022
PlatformiOS · Android · Web

Kinedu

As the first product designer at Kinedu, I didn't just design features — I built the team, the system, and the process that let a product used by over 1 million parents scale across iOS, Android, and Web without losing consistency or velocity.

EducationMobileDesign LeadDesign System
Kinedu app overview

Overview

From first designer to design lead — in a product used by millions

Kinedu is a baby development app guiding parents through age-appropriate activities, milestones, and expert content for children 0–4. When I joined, there was no design team, no design system, and no shared process. I was the first dedicated product designer.

Over 4 years I grew into the UX Lead role — hiring and managing a team of 3 designers, building Kinedu's first cross-platform design system from scratch, and leading design across iOS, Android, and Web as the product expanded into new markets and enterprise.

This wasn't just about making screens. It was about building the design infrastructure — the team, the system, the process — that let a growing company design and ship at scale.

Kinedu design team
Team leadership
Hired and managed a team of 3 designers. Ran weekly design critiques, established review processes, defined documentation standards, and mentored junior designers through structured feedback cycles.
Design system ownership
Built Kinedu's first shared component library — 80+ components in Figma — and drove adoption across iOS, Android, and Web engineering teams. Owned governance, versioning, and contribution guidelines.
Product strategy
Partnered with PMs and the CEO on roadmap and discovery — translating business goals into design strategy, challenging feature requests with user data, and defending prioritization decisions to leadership when needed.
Cross-platform consistency
Established standards for how components and patterns translate between iOS, Android, and Web — maintaining a coherent experience while respecting each platform's native conventions.

Leadership story

Building a team that could design without me in the room

The biggest challenge at Kinedu wasn't designing features — it was building the infrastructure so the team could design consistently, independently, and at pace. As the company grew and added an enterprise product and a web platform, design became a bottleneck. My job was to remove that bottleneck.

2018
Joined as first product designer
No design system, no process, no documentation. Ran user research with parents across Mexico and Latin America while designing core features — activity feed, milestone tracker, onboarding.
2019
Built the first design system
Identified inconsistency as the root cause of slow delivery. Proposed and led a 3-month initiative to establish design tokens, build 80+ shared components in Figma, and create contribution guidelines. This became the foundation all future product work was built on.
2020
Hired first junior designer — defined how we work
Wrote our first design process documentation. Introduced weekly critique sessions, design review checkpoints, and a Figma-to-engineering handoff protocol. Established the habits that scaled as the team grew.
2021
Grew to 3 designers — expanded to Web and Enterprise
Hired a second designer as Kinedu launched a web product and enterprise offering. Coordinated design across three platforms simultaneously. Ran design system governance — handling conflicting requests from iOS, Android, and Web engineers with a shared decision framework.
2022
Left a team and system that outlasted me
When I left, the design system was fully adopted across all platforms. The team ran weekly critiques and design reviews independently. The Figma-to-engineering handoff process I created continued operating without me. The measure of leadership isn't what you build — it's what keeps running after you leave.

Cross-platform system

One design system, three platforms

As design lead I built Kinedu’s first shared design system — 80+ components in Figma — and rolled it out across iOS, Android and Web, keeping the experience consistent while respecting each platform’s native conventions.

Kinedu cross-platform design system

Process

4 years of iterative product design

01 — Research
Understanding parents
Conducted ongoing user research with parents across Mexico, USA, and Latin America. Ran usability tests, in-depth interviews, and analyzed behavioral analytics from 1M+ users.
02 — System
Building the design system
Defined color, typography, spacing tokens. Built 80+ components in Figma. Documented usage guidelines, dos/don'ts, and created a handoff workflow with engineering.
03 — Ship
Feature design & delivery
Led design of key features including activity feed, milestone tracker, expert content hub, and subscription flows — all validated through usability testing and A/B experiments.

Results

4 years of impact across product and team

During my 4 years, Kinedu expanded into new markets, launched a Web product, and entered the Enterprise space — all without adding proportional design headcount, because the system and process I built made the team more than 3× as effective. The design infrastructure I created directly enabled faster platform expansion with consistent quality.

3×
design team growth — hired, onboarded, and managed a team of 3 from a single IC role
80+
shared components that enabled Kinedu's Web and Enterprise expansion in under 6 months
1M+
monthly active users across iOS, Android, and Web — served by a 3-person design team
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