Justin Zalewski
Justin is a strategic, people-centered design leader who has spent the past 10+ years helping companies improve customer experiences.
He uses his expertise in product design, product strategy, and service design to evolve clients’ products and services to better meet customer needs—and ultimately succeed in the market.
As Director of Product Design and Strategy at Studio Science, Justin leads a team of talented product designers and works with clients to solve business problems through design. He and his team are experts in rapid prototyping and running experiments to more quickly learn from—and deliver value to—customers.
He has led projects with clients ranging from market-leading tech companies to Fortune 500 brands. Clients include: Angi, Genesys, Simon, Stack Overflow, and Cummins.
Justin has a passion for community and mentorship, and co-organizes the Indianapolis chapter of the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)—a global professional network dedicated to the practice of designing interactive digital products, environments, systems, and services.
Writing
Perspectives on Design
Deliver Better Services by Aligning CX and EX
A Service Design approach aligns customer and employee experience to produce results that one-sided methods cannot.
Read more on studioscience.com
Design Principles for Product Leaders
In today’s crowded and competitive landscape, companies are held to an increasingly high standard for new products.
Read more
Why You Should Start with Customer Insight
When organizations develop a deep understanding of customer needs, it gives them insight into how they fit into their customers’ lives, and an opportunity to nurture a powerful connection.
Read on the Mind the Product Blog
Scaling Your B2B Product? Be Sure to Consider These Areas First.
When your B2B product scales to meet new customer needs, it’s easy for your product to fall short in three key areas: roles and permissions, onboarding, and in-product communication.
Read on the OpenView Blog
Is Your Product Roadmap Still Meeting Customer Needs?
Because your customers’ needs, pain points, and experiences will change as time goes on, it’s critical to implement customer research and validation into your processes at a systemic level.
Read on InfoQ
When a Design Sprint Isn’t the Answer
In some cases, a design sprint just isn’t the right method. Here are 3 situations where that’s the case, and what to do about it.
Read on the InVision BlogDesigners: Earn Your Seat at the Table
If you treat design as art—and perhaps your stakeholders do—you’ll miss out on the true value of design. Design is a critical skillset for operating in the business world, but it’s up to you as the designer to show and tell this to your stakeholders.
Read on the InVision BlogSpeaking
Community & Events
Service Design for Product Designers
A talk to a local audience of product designers about how “product design” can benefit from a service design approach.
When a Design Sprint Isn’t the Answer
At the height of the GV Design Sprint’s popularity, a talk about when a Design Sprint isn’t the right fit for a problem.
Product Conversations Panel (Moderator)
Moderated a panel about product strategy with product leaders from Facebook, Salesforce, and Marathon Health.
Cognitive Bias in IA
A presentation about cognitive biases, and the implications for how we design experiences—specifically in information architectures.