Daniel Swartz

User Experience and Product Design

Based in the San Francisco Bay Area, I bring over 15 years of UX and product design expertise across cloud data, fintech, search, content management, and ad tech, largely in fast-paced startup environments. My work spans the full design lifecycle, from ideation to launch, collaborating closely with product, engineering, analytics, and marketing teams, as well as with customers and executives, to ensure products align with both customer needs and company goals.

Prior to my design career, I worked as a front-end developer in Silicon Valley and Europe, consulting on projects in travel, communications, and banking. This technical background gives me a unique, hands-on approach to designing impactful, user-centered products.

I would love to talk to you about your product and how I can help your company thrive and grow. I live in Redwood City, California (Silicon Valley).

Case Studies

  • OtterTune Application Redesign

    Redesign of OtterTune’s core application to deliver instant database health statuses and actionable recommendations, making it more intuitive for non-high-end DBAs while improving performance and usability.

    Video: Fleet Dashboard (production)

    Check It Out
  • Topix CMS

    Topix CMS

    Content management system I designed, generating multiple forms of content for monthly traffic of over 25 million unique readers and 1.5 billion page views.

    Role: Director of Product & User Experience Design

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  • Bluesky Data

    Bluesky: Warehouse Explorer

    Tool helping Snowflake users view data activity down to the minute and monitor for optimal performance and cost-efficiency.

    Role: Founding Designer, Principal UX Designer

    Video: Warehouse Explorer Figma Prototype

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  • Design Gallery

    A general overview of my various designs in recent years for both desktop, mobile web and smartphone apps.

    Check It Out

Recommendations

  • Senior Exec at Bluesky Data

    “… a remarkable ability to synthesize diverse viewpoints and preferences into universally embraced designs ... Daniel's commitment to user research, paired with his collaborative mindset, makes him an indispensable asset to any team.”

  • VP of Engineering, Topix

    “… an amazing and versatile Director of Product, working on everything from viral content layouts for website users to complicated internal tools used by our marketing managers. … able to synthesize complex requirements, work directly with the implementing engineers, and create … effective interfaces for our internal users. Highly recommended!”

  • Co-Founder, Ottertune

    “… a thoughtful and methodical UI/UX designer. … a circumspect attention to detail on highly technical concepts and comes up with simple solutions that both look great and are functional.”

  • UX/UI Designer, Topix

    “Design choices informed by analytics, and a keen sense of usability … a drive to explore, prototype and define new features, while ensuring all specs were clear and key metrics defined … remarkable ability to extract and analyze complex data, translate such insights into actionable product improvements … would patiently break it down step by step so I could learn.”

  • Co-Founder of Ottertune

    “… a versatile and creative designer and a true team player. … ability to create elegant designs for a complex technical product.”

  • Head of Product, Triple Point Liquidity

    “… more than just a designer, he is an artisan master of crafting the ideal user experience. … will strive to understand the full scope of a user's journey so that the design of the experience actually improves the user's overall journey.”

Frequently Asked Questions

  • Always anticipate and think ahead, keep moving in trying out new ideas. Take feedback and criticism as learning opportunities to improve the product and never take it personally. Always admit when you’re wrong and acknowledge other people’s ideas and contributions!

    I improve upon product design through iterative steps based on traffic data, customer requests, feedback and ideas from internal teams, company goals and ongoing A/B testing.

    At the same time, it’s important to carve out space to try out completely new ideas and not play it too safe if one can afford to take the risk.

  • Originally a front-end developer, I have focused on UX design for the past 15 years, working in fintech, cloud data, social media content and search. During that time, I have worked primarily in tech startups. Before that, I worked for larger corporations and consulting.

  • My primary tool these days is Figma, which I have been working with for 5 years. Prior to that, I worked with Sketch. But through it all, I have used Photoshop and Pixelmator as my graphic design tools for UI design. Even though I have used Figma to create working prototypes, I have also created prototypes with HTML, CSS and Javascript.

  • I live in Silicon Valley, more specifically, Redwood City. I am a US citizen. I do not require sponsorship for employment.

    For 5 years I worked in Munich, Germany, for a small German tech startup and after that an American consulting firm with an office in Munich.

  • I have always been a person of many interests. I played music professionally for a little while during and after college. I love photography, taking pictures mostly with my iPhone, but also with an older Canon EOS Rebel T2i for those times I want something large hanging around my neck. I am an avid reader, both of fiction and non-fiction, more recently focusing on Roman history, which one can’t help reading after having visited many important Roman sites over the years. And … one has to be outside as much as possible, hiking, exercising, playing with the kids and more. That’s me in a nutshell.