Career
Experience
The Weather Company / 2025–Present
Head of Product Design, Senior Director
Head of product design across full suite of cross-platform consumer weather products, leading design and research teams
Defined strategy, roadmaps, and resourcing, collaborating with Business, Product, Engineering, and Weather Science to ensure priorities map to tangible business goals.
Elevated design team through hiring, coaching, realigning talent, building a critique culture, and fostering use of AI tools to increase productivity while maintaining quality through expert judgment.
Maintained rigorous launch cycles and continual metrics-based decisionmaking.
Google, Inc / 2013–2025
Head of UX, Google Maps Consumer
Led global UX team (senior managers + their teams in APAC, EMEA, US) across Google Maps consumer experiences
2017–2025 · Google Maps Consumer Journeys: Directed all UI in Google Maps, including: search, place content, directions, urban mobility, personal content / saving / sharing, product growth, internationalization.
Led Google Maps’ largest ever redesign: overhaul of the interaction model framework and visual design.
Coauthored and delivered against Google Maps’ durable 3–5yr strategy; identified and defined Geo’s priority user segments.
Founded NBU/NIU Labs program, leading Design, Research, and Engineering for rapid testing and prototyping to uncover untapped product market fit for novice internet users; created and staffed a new cross-functional international team to further develop concepts in-market.
2025 · Geo Merchant: Led product strategy, learning plan, and design for experimental merchant-facing experiences, including premium/subscription offerings and third-party integrations.
2017–2019 · Geo Discovery: Led UX for Geo’s 2018 top priority initiative, shifting perception of Google Maps app from driving-navigation-only to local search & discovery, successfully driving up Google Maps topline usage metrics through this additional use-case.
2014–2017 · Local Search: Led Local Search UX team, covering all design for the largest Google Search vertical (by volume) on Search surfaces, and all search features within Maps surfaces—including categorical search and place content. During this time, Local Search growth outpaced overall Google Search growth.
2013–2018 · Zagat: Joined Google to lead product design for recently-acquired consumer rating & review business. Leveraged the first-party relationship to use Zagat as a pilot for third-party and UGC content in Google Search and Maps experiences.
Dom & Tom, Inc / 2012–2013
Head of UX, Director
Built/hired NYC Creative/UX department for previously dev-only agency
Directed UX & design work for Fortune 500 companies and next-generation startups
Collaborated with CEO & VP of Sales on business development
Wanderfly, Inc / 2010–2012
Head of Product Design, UX Director
Led product design through initial launch and strategic pivots, on an up-funnel trip recommendation engine enabling personalized travel discovery and booking
Acquired by TripAdvisor (2012)
Funny Garbage, Inc / 2007–2010
Art Director
Led UX/design on large-scale interactive projects for clients in media, retail, entertainment, and cultural affairs
Collaborated with COO on business development
Dot & Smudge LLC
Founder & Design Director / 2002–2014
Founded and operated full-service interactive design & engineering consultancy
Previous
Inc Design · Art Director / Sep 2004 – Mar 2007
GK Design · Designer / Jan 2002 – May 2004
Education
The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science & Art
New York, NY
BFA: Design, Fine Arts
Fachhochschüle Beider Basel, HGK: Basel School of Design
Basel, Switzerland
Graphic Design, Semiotics, Information Design
Additional focus areas at Google
Product inclusion
Founding member of Search & Maps’ Local Equity Review, to review all projects related to gender, sexual orientation, race, and ethnicity. The process creates guardrails for sensitive launches, involves policy, and prevents unintended harm.
COVID response
Led Geo & Local Search’s COVID response to push the flexibility of our frameworks to adapt to the rapidly changing world during COVID and display necessary information and warnings to keep users safe in the real world.
UX University
Led Google’s annual global UX conference from 2014–2019, from the beginning when it was necessary to advocate across orgs for budget each year, through later years when Google formed a UX Community org and UXU became its flagship event.
Feedback: From direct reports
Manager feedback: Consistently 92–96% positive over 10+ years
“Thea is an impressive manager, able to juggle extensive responsibilities and demands, while remaining meticulous in her approach to planning and efforts to drive improvement. I see her as a strong, passionate advocate for the UX discipline in Geo. And I can tell she cares deeply about her team and the work we do.”
“Thea supported me and advised me as I transitioned to managing a team. She carved out ample scope for me to grow and continue to develop my career, and trusts me to make decisions.”
“Thea is a role model not just for her reports, but for her cross functional partners as well. She demonstrates this by fostering cultural inclusion, always ensuring a healthy work environment, and regularly asking for input from all roles and levels. Her ability to build a strong UX team has had significant impact on our OKRs.”
Feedback: From peers
“Thea’s team have dug deep into the strategy behind what we’re doing and been true partners with Eng and PM.”
“Thea has set up the UX team as a high functioning group with substantial output that was key to our success in driving usage growth - huge impact driven by her management of the team.”
“Thea truly acts like an owner, thinks deep and broad about the implications of a given feature, initiates action and alignment, has extremely strong communication skills, and is a true partner.”
“Thea consistently leads teams to deliver high quality work, and takes substantial responsibility for delivering outcomes:
• Has a high bias towards action and is able to navigate complexity and difficult political dynamics to make things happen.
• Developed strong cross-functional partnerships and has used these to remove friction and bottlenecks. She is a role model for her team in establishing strong working relationships with cross-functional partners.”