Zack White is a product designer who grew up in Winter Park, Florida and currently lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Zack and I both attended SCAD at the same time but didn’t meet until we were both living in Brooklyn in 2018 and I recently hired him to work on Whale.

He’s highly skilled at both strategic thinking and executing refined, high quality designs, and an all around great person to pick up the phone and talk to about design.

You can find Zack on LinkedIn and Instagram.

What was your journey getting into product design?
My journey into product design started with an affiliation for art and drawing. I was coasting through high school, spending most of my time painting. SCAD (Savannah College of Art & Design) visited one of our design classes, but I didn’t think much of it at the time. When it came time to choose a college, my dad encouraged me to pursue art, which led me to consider SCAD. I got a partial tennis scholarship and started studying photography, then moved into graphic design, which I loved. Eventually, I found my way into service design. I’d always been interested in building businesses, and service design gave me a practical foundation. After college, I focused on UX design, where I really developed my skills in creating digital experiences.

For better or worse, how do you think your parents, family, or friends influenced how you approach problem solving in your day to day work?
I don’t think my family influenced how I solve problems day to day, but they shaped what I see as a problem. My dad is very detail-oriented and likes things a certain way; he sees problems to fix. My mom is more free-spirited and accepting, often going with the flow. So I have this internal balance: sometimes I see imperfections as beautiful and not needing fixing, and other times I zoom in and want to improve everything.

Tell us a little bit about your career background?
Most of my roles at BCG Digital Ventures were zero to one; defining both the product and the experience from scratch. I was often the first designer on a project, putting pen to paper on ideas that didn’t exist yet.

I designed an AI skincare chatbot for L’Oréal, built the first small business banking platform for American Express, and created a returns logistics system for Cadillac Fairview. I also developed a heart surgery platform for Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, and more.

Each project was different; some had full design teams, others I handled solo, though we tried to avoid that. The landscape was always changing.

How would you describe your current role at Whale?
Whale the best security deposit you’ve ever had ever. We’re reinventing the security deposit; it’s a high-yield savings account that earns up to 3% interest for renters, while making deposit management completely hands-off for landlords.

My role is split 50/50 between strategic leadership and hands-on design. I focus on identifying what we should build to drive growth, both in sales and product adoption, especially by understanding the most urgent pain points for landlords and creating features that solve them.

And, for landlords, it takes everything off your plate. You just don’t have to do it and thing again, you know, to lift a pen or a paper or finger to manage security deposits.

What are the biggest challenges you are currently facing at work?
The biggest challenge is that landlords are slow to adopt new processes. The industry is set in its ways, so we have to clearly demonstrate the value of change; how it saves them time and money. While many praise the idea, we need more unit adoption to prove it at scale. We have to really demonstrate the value in order to make them perceive it or utilize it.

What are some ways that you leverage AI in your workflow?
I use AI as a thought partner. It helps me expand my thinking during the discovery and ideation phases, like extending the double diamond process. I’ll use it to generate a wide range of ideas or frameworks, then I narrow down what’s most valuable.

When designing features, AI helps me explore requirements, edge cases, and implications across the user experience. I also use it to understand landlord needs, especially when direct research is limited. For example, I might use AI to simulate initial insights, then verify those with real conversations.

What are parts of your job where you find using AI unnecessary or inefficient?
I find AI less useful in the execution phase. It often feels sterile and lacks originality. While it’s great for idea generation and broad thinking, it’s not yet effective at producing unique or high-quality design outputs. There’s still a lot of manual work needed to create truly distinctive designs.

What are the most important aspects of pitching your design work to stakeholders?
The most important part of pitching design work is connecting it back to business goals and user needs. I try to clearly explain my design reasoning. Why this solution, how it compares to alternatives, what edge cases were considered, and how it fits into our design system. I also factor in engineering constraints and aim for the simplest, most efficient path forward.

My approach is structured: I walk stakeholders through my thought process step by step from research and requirements to wireframes and final designs. I prefer showing work directly in Figma since it’s live and easier to update. Slides are useful for high-level overviews, especially with executives or clients, but for design reviews and internal discussions, I stick with Figma. It’s all about tailoring the format to the audience.

Where do you get your design inspiration from?
I get design inspiration from a variety of places. I follow design influencers and art directors who regularly share fresh ideas and resources. I use tools like Pinterest, Dribbble, Muzli, and the Cosmos app, which a friend of a friend built, to stay exposed to new visuals. For UX, I often turn to Pageflows and Mobbin since they make it easy to see real product flows. I also like to reference my favorite products as mental models when thinking through specific design challenges; it helps ground inspiration in something proven and practical.

When you look back on your career, what mistakes do you think you made?
That’s tough. Lots of them. But I see them more as learning moments than regrets. One area I’ve reflected on is positioning, being in roles that didn’t always align with my goals or working styles. For example, I stayed too long at a large corporate company that no longer suited me, which taught me the importance of recognizing when it’s time to pivot.

A more specific moment was when I redesigned a full design system for a banking product at Amex. My tiny brain thought they’d adopt it as-is. It actually led to a $16 million build, so it wasn’t a total loss, but it was a good lesson in aligning bold ideas with practical execution and stakeholder realities.

Do you work on any side projects outside of work?
I run a small business called JuiceBox; a creative community in Brooklyn that hosts art and design workshops and does brand activations. It started with friends and collaborators teaching skills like figure drawing, pottery, watercolor, and photography. We have done figure drawing, pottery, textile, and watercolor workshops. We usually have between 20 to 60 people show up.

Over time, it’s evolved into larger experiential activations with brands, like a recent multi-city sold-out series with Marc Jacobs. The goal is to create real, human-centered experiences, something tactile and meaningful in contrast to the increasingly digital world.

What traits do you think the best leaders have?
I think the best leaders have empathy, conviction, and vision. Empathy helps create a strong team culture, while conviction and vision are what really drive things forward.

For example, Jamie, the CEO of Whale has great conviction and is incredibly empathetic; he feels like someone I work with, not for. That kind of relatability builds trust, though I don’t think leaders have to be relatable to be effective. Vision and decisiveness often matter more in the long run.

What do you think makes a great designer?
Curiosity. And being willing to throw everything away to find a better solution. It takes humility and a lack of attachment to your work because design is about intention. If it doesn’t solve the problem effectively, it needs to evolve.

Good design comes from constantly questioning, refining, and staying focused on impact. I also think collaborating with people from different backgrounds also brings fresh perspectives. I had an intern from India who helped me think through international payments in a way I couldn’t have on my own. That kind of partnership is incredibly valuable.

What skills do you find relevant to product design that are not taught in school?
One key skill that isn’t taught enough in design school is business acumen. Almost every design decision ties back to a business goal eventually. Understanding things like product viability, market fit, and how businesses operate is essential, especially since many designers go on to build their own products. I wish I’d taken more business classes early on to better connect design decisions with real world impact.

What are the most common aspects in designer portfolios that bother you?
I just think they all look the same. Same templates, same structure, often built on platforms like Squarespace. It makes it hard to see what sets someone apart.

The whole process, including interviews, can feel generic and not truly reflective of someone’s thinking or abilities. What I really want to see in a portfolio is how a designer thinks, what makes their approach unique, and not just polished visuals.

Do you have any tips for designers trying to break into the product design world?
Just build and ship something: anything. Play around with the tools available and get a project across the finish line. That alone can set you apart.

Also, try to learn in a real-world setting as soon as possible. Whether it’s freelance, internships, or side projects, real experience teaches you faster than anything else.

Someone once told me to take the first job offer; and while that is not the right advice, I think it bears some level of weight. Just start to learn as quickly as possible in a real life setting.

How do you see the product designer role evolving in the next few years?
I think product and design roles will become more generalist. Strategic designers, PMs, and product designers will need broader toolkits, able to create assets, conduct research, answer complex questions, and communicate effectively with stakeholders.

I don’t think AI will replace these roles, but rather enhance them. It will push us to think at a higher level and focus more on strategy, problem-solving, and decision-making.

Any last words of advice?
Travel as much as you can. It’s one of the best ways to see the world through someone else’s perspective and that shift in viewpoint is invaluable for any designer.