About
Elizabeth Rhodes
I'm a Senior Product Designer with 10+ years building complex fintech and SaaS products — B2B2C systems at Human Interest, enterprise retirement products at Paychex, consumer apps, and a co-founded startup I took from concept to $350K raised. I close the gap between design and engineering by working directly in AI-assisted code: generating and refining frontend code, opening PRs, and getting changes in front of engineers for review. I'm not a developer, but I'm closer to that line than most designers. I care about measurable outcomes, not just beautiful interfaces.
Currently at Human Interest in Portland, OR — designing retirement products that make financial security accessible to more people. The work I feel most alive in is where design can genuinely change someone's circumstances: health, equity, community, access. TRACE was that for me. I'd leap at more of it.
I do my best work in teams that care — about craft, about users, and each other. The environments where I've grown most are ones where design has a real seat at the table, mentorship flows both ways, and leadership champions the people doing the work. I'm drawn to organizations with a mission worth believing in and a culture that reflects it.
Values
What keeps me in this work isn't the craft itself — it's what the craft can do. The projects that stay with me are the ones where design reached someone, changed something, or made a system more human.
Create
connection
Connecting ideas to users, people to things that matter, needs to outcomes. When I can close that gap, I feel useful in a way that goes beyond the deliverable.
Empower
change
When design shifts how someone moves through the world and connects them to their own capacity to make things better — that's when I feel like the work truly did something worthwhile.
Serve
the community
Real people, real needs — especially underserved ones. When I can contribute to something that helps people who genuinely need it, I feel the most purposeful. TRACE was that. I'd do more of it in a heartbeat.
Skills
Experience
Human Interest
Sr. Product Designer
Jul 2022 – Present
- Led end-to-end design for Partner Connect — rated 9.3/10 by financial advisors
- Automated 100% of hardship distributions and loan disbursements
- Cut manual processing time by 90% through design-driven automation
- Shaped AI-first design workflows across the product org
ITX Corp (Paychex)
Sr. Product Designer
Apr 2021 – Jul 2022
- Led UX for Paychex 401(k) Retirement Services and Analytics & Reports
- Achieved 100% task completion in validation testing
- Ran co-design sessions using generative research methods
- Trained designers and created reusable components for task flow creation
TRACE
Co-Founder & Chief Design Officer
Jan 2019 – Oct 2024
- Co-founded and led all brand, UX, and product design from 0→1
- Launched MVP: 200 users in hours from a 2,300+ waitlist
- Raised $350K via Beloit gBETA accelerator
- Validated 100% user demand for the app solution through research
Broadside Digital
UX/UI Designer (Contract)
Jan 2015 – Apr 2021
- Grew Seattle Sounders app from 3.5 to 4.7 stars, <100 to 5,000+ reviewers
- Positioned the app as the #1 rated team app in MLS
- Launched engaging apps for the Dallas Mavericks and other major clients
Wacom
Sr. Product Designer
Apr 2016 – Apr 2021
- Redesigned Wacom ID to increase software adoption globally
- Created and maintained design systems for UI consistency across platforms
- Translated complex product features into intuitive global experiences
Education
Pacific Northwest College of Art
Bachelor's Degree, Communication Design · 2007–2010
Udacity
Nanodegree, User Experience UX · 2020
Working on something that matters?
If you're building something with real impact — or just have an interesting problem — I'd love to hear about it.
Get in touch →