Pej Vosooghi
Principal Product Designer · Independent Builder
I design systems for the moment ambition meets the real world. I’ve done it at some remarkable places—shaping everyday experiences at Roku, working at global scale at Google, navigating Amazon’s relentless complexity, and helping build the future of mobility at Hyundai’s 42dot. Now I’m bringing those worlds together in an independent lab of my own.
About
I care about what happens after the design file closes—when a system enters the real world and people begin to rely on it. Does it make sense without explanation? Does it earn trust? Does it hold up under pressure? Those questions have driven fifteen years of work across design systems, multimodal interfaces, and AI behavior.
Much of that work has happened inside large organizations, where nothing begins with a blank canvas. There is history in the architecture, politics in the process, and a reason—even if no one remembers it—for why things work the way they do. I’ve learned to read that terrain, find the move that matters, and build change that can survive beyond the person who started it.
I didn’t take a straight path into systems work. I co-founded a retail company and helped turn an online store into an established brand, leading its creative direction as it grew. Later, I founded EcoJump, a water-restoration venture that put me before government commissions around the world with a dissolved-oxygen meter in my hand. Then came Roku, Google, Amazon Lab126, and Hyundai’s 42dot—four very different environments spanning everyday entertainment, global-scale platforms, new categories of hardware, and the future of mobility. Together, they taught me how to build for complexity without passing that complexity on to the people using the product.
Today, I run an independent lab built around a deceptively difficult question: when should a system act, when should it ask, and when should it stay out of the way? I explore that question through real products—a legal tool an attorney can trust, a component platform, an honest atlas of history, and a lineup app for youth coaches. Different domains, same standard: understand the stakes, make the right call, and keep working when conditions get messy.
The lab keeps me close to the work—building, testing, and following ideas far enough to learn what they are actually made of. I’m continuing that practice while looking for the right principal role: a place where judgment matters, complexity is real, and the work has consequences beyond the screen.
Over time, I’ve stopped measuring the job by what ships alone. I pay attention to how a team makes decisions, what its systems reward, and whether the people around me become more capable of leading without me. Mentorship is part of that, but rarely as a formal program. More often, it means making room to sit with a hard problem until the path through it becomes clear.
The artifacts will change. The tools certainly will. What lasts is the judgment behind the work—and the people who carry it forward.
CONTACT
If something here resonates, you’re welcome to reach out. Including context helps. I read everything, though I’m selective about what I take on. If it’s a fit, we’ll find a thoughtful way to continue the conversation.