I'm Tyler Kennedy. Chicago native, ten years in UX, eight in financial services. Currently leading UX design for Goldman Sachs Asset & Wealth Management, where I build systems: reusable frameworks, consolidated platforms, research-driven experiences tied to measurable outcomes.
I came up through visual design. It gave me a foundation that still drives the work today: rigor, taste, an instinct for simple and beautiful. I moved into UX because polish wasn't enough. In visual design, polish is the goal. In UX, it's the result of thinking. Projects succeed when they solve the right problem.
Most of what I know about UX, I learned on the job. Agency and in-house. A wide range of clients and complex stakeholder environments. A mentor told me early in my career that great design is the expression of great thinking. That's stuck.
Great design is the expression of great thinking.
A few principles show up across most of my work.
Systems first.
When I solve a specific problem, I look for the pattern it leaves behind. The hybrid search I designed for UAC was pulled in by leadership as the model for the public site's global search redesign, reaching 2M+ annual visitors. The microsite framework I built for one campaign became the organizational standard. Make the one thing reusable.
Most of the job is translation.
The work is more often translation than visual design. I translate marketing's wish list into platform reality, "not feasible" into a tradeoff conversation, design intent into engineering build specs. The visual decisions are the easy part.
Bold vision, measured execution.
I design the ideal first. Then I scope to MVP. Then I phase the rest. That sequencing has held on every strategic initiative I've led, including the platform consolidation shipping now.
Research as a default.
When the stakes are real, research is the gate, not decoration. The Active ETF campaign anchored a $10M media spend on user interviews, not assumptions. Decisions don't get researched after the fact.
As I've moved into bigger work, the craft has shifted again. Less time pushing pixels, more time framing tradeoffs, defending decisions, and selling the work to people who weren't in the room when it was made. Design is inherently subjective. Knowing how to make it land is the senior skill.
Hands-on enough to do the craft. Strategic enough to make sure it scales.
What I'm thinking about now:
How AI is changing senior design work. The real question isn't which tools to use. It's how briefs get written and decisions get pressure-tested when an AI sits in the room. More on that soon.
View My Work
01
Breaking in the Top 10
Modernizing Goldman Sachs Asset Management's digital platform, jumping 30 spots to #10 out of 100 in industry benchmark rankings.
In Production
design systems
brand recognition
02
Designing the Destination
Turning a $10M media investment into a research-driven digital experience that generates qualified leads for sales.
In Production
design systems
brand recognition