Rachel Robbins

Design Strategy Leader | Amazon Alum | Adjunct Faculty @ Parsons & Princeton | Startup Advisor & Museum Board Member

New York, New York, United States

About

I’ve spent 15+ years owning end-to-end product design areas across fintech, data, streaming media, and platform environments, often in highly ambiguous spaces where problems aren’t fully defined. My strength is bringing structure and clarity to ambiguity: shaping interaction models, defining flows, and carrying work from early exploration through polished execution. I’m comfortable working with a high degree of autonomy and accountability, and I enjoy being deeply responsible for both outcomes and quality. At BlackRock, I introduced a Jobs to be Done model through deep listening and building trust within the organization. With that effort, I was able to build and scale a strategy and design research team, define KPIs across an ecosystem with $XXXB+ AURM, and help launch what became Aladdin Studio, driving $XXM in new annual revenue. At Bloomberg, I led design R&D for Fixed Income Sell Side workflows and delivered a redesign that improved RFQ Time-to-Action by 20% in a single release cycle.  I also had the pleasure of thinking not just about the practice of economic empowerment, but the purpose. In 2019, I was invited to teach as an Adjunct Professor of Design Thinking at Princeton University in the Keller Center for Innovation in Engineering in their Entrepreneurship Track. This allowed me to mentor young and emerging entrepreneurs while teaching the theory and skills of human-centered practices and nurturing the next generation of innovators. Purpose and social impact remain important drivers of my work. In 2024, I co-founded a funded civic experiment questioning the impact of technology on society. This led to a partnership with Harvard’s Kennedy School, and the Shaker Museum, where I now serve on the Board of Directors and continue to support the role of Embodied Cognition in a world of Artificial Intelligence.  FOCUS AREAS Design Transformation · AI-Native UX · Product Discovery · Systems Design · Responsible AI · Research-Driven Design CORE PRODUCT & DESIGN SKILLS Product Design Leadership · AI-Native Product Design · Systems & Platform Design Human-Centered AI · UX Research & Synthesis · Product Discovery & Experimentation · Cross-Functional Execution · Design for Trust, Safety & Transparency · Design Systems · Metrics-Driven Design · Executive Product Partnership

Experience

  • Emergence (United States · Remote)
    • Principal Design Strategist - Business Development
      Sep 2023 - Jul 2024 · 11 mos

      Gen AI startup in growth phase - Advised during cross-vertical expansion from EdTech to b2b strategy. Partnered with leadership, investors, and R&D teams to inform the raising of a $XX.XM series C.

    • Principal Design Lead
      Dec 2021 - Sep 2023 · 1 yr 10 mos

      Led design for help & support; customer onboarding; growth; and product discovery experiences in partnership with GTM, Product, and Engineering orgs for US teachers, districts, and schools, bringing Gen AI into K-12 classrooms.

  • Adjunct Professor at Princeton University
    2019 - Jan 2020 · 1 yr 1 mo

    Keller Center for Innovation in Engineering Course taught: ENT 200 - Creativity, Innovation, & Design

  • BlackRock (Greater New York City Area)
    • VP Design Strategy & User Research
      Jan 2019 - Aug 2019 · 8 mos

      Hired and trained multi-disciplinary team, defined multi-program strategy, set product scoring KPIs across ecosystem of $XXXB+ in AURM, established cross-org segmentations to unify overall client experience and drive revenue growth—defined UXR-DS strategy and integrated across product development lifecycle.

    • VP Experience Design Strategy
      May 2018 - Jan 2019 · 9 mos

      Led multi-disciplinary team designing the Data Tools ecosystem for what would become Aladdin Studio - combining Smart APIs, Data Warehouse, and risk model engines with BI connectivity - Accelerating revenue and growth for the entire Aladdin Ecosystem, achieving $XXM in annual incremental run rate revenue.

  • Senior UX Design Lead, IMDb at Amazon
    Aug 2017 - Apr 2018 · 9 mos

    Lead cross-platform experience design for voice design, search, and account/ identity-based experiences.

  • Tigerspike (2 yrs 7 mos)
    • Experience Design Manager
      Aug 2016 - Jun 2017 · 11 mos

      Lead Strategy, Design, & Delivery at the Program Level; Partner with clients as a Lead SME; Present to clients at all levels including Executive Presentations and Pitch Work; Work with Senior Management on Project Estimations and Approach; Manage and mentor by developing, guiding, inspiring and growing a team of talented UX/UI Designers.

    • Experience Design Lead
      Dec 2014 - Jul 2016 · 1 yr 8 mos

      Humanizing Technology for client partners such as NFL Sunday Ticket, Discovery Communications, DIRECTV, American Express, Estee Lauder Companies, Aveda, Lazard Asset Management, IHS Engineering 360, and Major League Soccer.