About Marc Sasinski

I help build products people love ❤️.

In partnership with talented teams, I've created award-winning consumer products and games.

My approach emphasizes design excellence with a focus on user-centric outcomes, cross-functional collaboration, and continual improvement. All at scale.

User Goals Meet Business Objectives

If you get that ☝️ right and add innovative technology, great things begin to happen.

It all starts with establishing a deep understanding of the customer and their problems, creating a user-centered design strategy, and co-authoring a milestone-based roadmap 🗺️ to enable execution.

I work with executives and function leaders (e.g., Product, Engineering, Marketing) to ensure that research and design are durably integrated into the product development process, helping to create ongoing user and business value. It’s all about achieving the right outcomes by maintaining a focus on the vision, while remaining adaptable to changes.

I also build effective and diverse teams.

I thrive on leading and scaling the capabilities and culture of an impactful UX discipline — across research, design, and content strategy — and have demonstrated success at fast-growing companies.

I essentially spend my time focused on:

  • Strategy — The idea for the product and vision for the experience need product-market fit, followed by continual iteration and evaluation against new information.

  • People — It all begins with the right team, establishing shared values, and a deep understanding of the why. This alignment is especially critical for cross-functional teams contributing to a holistic product experience.

  • Execution — Once you have a sound strategy and the right individuals in place, it’s easier to empower teams to deliver on their objectives and key results. However, details also matter; along with the continual communication and alignment necessary to get products to market.

In other words: idea, product, people, and execution. In that order.

Leadership Roles

The common thread throughout my career has been bringing people together through shared experiences enabled by technology 👩‍💻.

This journey has encompassed online meeting and collaboration products, multi-player games, and connected fitness within social, virtual worlds.

Zwift

At Zwift, the focus was on making serious training enjoyable to achieve real-world results. The product was a blend of training app, game, and a destination for elite competition by some of the world’s best endurance athletes. Most importantly, it was all about being social.

(See this piece on Forbes — Do You Even Zwift? — that breaks down the company’s mission and core value propositions quite nicely).

I had the privilege of building and leading a talented Product Design organization consisting of designers, user researchers, and a UX writer.

Riot Games

Prior to that, I worked with some incredible teams at Riot Games — where we aspired to be the most player-focused company in the world. It was a rocket ship! 🚀

We were humbled to have a monthly audience of 100 million+ thanks to our relentless focus on audience experience. This success stemmed from our unwavering commitment to our players, a genuine passion for our products, and a continuous drive to explore what’s creatively and technically possible. In other words, design was a competitive and strategic advantage for the company.

My responsibilities and portfolio included general management of design across our platform's business unit, UX discipline direction and team health, as well as company-wide senior leadership team (SLT) duties.

This essentially meant creating an environment where designers can do the best work of their careers. I’m also incredibly proud of my former team’s contributions on Medium to the broader design community.

Citrix

After working with two incredible founders at a User Research and Design consultancy called Centralis, this is where I began working hands-on with development teams on in-house products end-to-end. This is also where I started honing my skills as a people leader.

Citrix was a pioneer in online meeting, collaboration, and remote access SaaS — all of which helped bring people together through technology.

Thought Leadership

Past Articles

I’ve written a few pieces over the years. Here are a few that were well-received by the design community (originally published in Johnny Holland, Interaction Design Magazine):

Experience Design Models: Minding the Gap Between Ideas and Interfaces (PDF)

Hey, UX Designers: Please Meet Agile Development (PDF)

Engaging the User: What Interaction Designers Can Learn from Video Games (PDF)

(Pro)Social Media

I’m not especially active on social media these days. I recently deleted a few of my accounts.

There are several reasons for that, but it comes down to being disaffected and concerned about the role these platforms play in society.

I like a lot of what Bluesky Social is doing. Mastodon, as well. Decentralization seems promising, so I’ll experiment — and continue to champion the work of the Center for Humane Technology.

Some Personal Deets

When I'm not spending time with my wonderful wife, amazing daughter, or our wacky Portuguese Water Dog, Louie Buoy 🐶, I’m usually cycling.

Recent adventures have included riding Tour de France route stages and mountain bike racing in Chile, British Columbia, and South Africa.

In addition, I play a little tennis 🎾, dabble in photography, and enjoy indie video games. I’m also a big fan of the LA Kings, Formula 1, and Porsches.

Since you now know a little about me, why not check out some of my blog posts.