Kat Miller
Designer, Optimist, Maker
Designer for the helpers and makers of the world
I’m a product designer, based in the Pacific Northwest, with over ten years of experience helping startups and Fortune-tier companies bring thoughtful products to life. I’m driven by the idea that small, unexpected details in design can make a huge impact on how people live, work, and connect with the world.
I love my family, volunteering, learning new ways to create joy—like experimenting with shaders and slip casting—and meeting new collaborators. Say hi!
Roles
Full experience available on read.cv
Lead Product Designer
Founding Designer
Design Director
Co-Founder, Head of Product
Highlights
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Matterport
Lead Product Designer
Building the Next Frontier of 3D Creativity
From 0-1 product design to strategic execution, I'm leading design for the creation Matterport's new Merge tool, now in private beta. Designed with a system-first approach, this new product surface serves as an R&D landscape to push the boundaries of our design language, product strategy, and technical capabilities.
GitStart
Founding Designer
Where Care, Courage, and Craft Meet Code
Created the brand, design system, and inaugural self-serve product for a YC-backed developer-centric startup, setting the foundation for a distinctive market presence and seamless user experience—recognized as Product of the Day on Product Hunt.
Kinetic
Founder, Designer and Product Manager
Everything Changes When Fingers Hit Glass
Kinetic, a pioneering prototyping platform backed by Techstars, enabled product teams to design and test mobile experiences in real time. As the lead designer and product manager, I drove everything from experience strategy to hands-on execution for the 10,400+ people who signed up for our beta.
Kind Words
Read more recommendations on LinkedIn
"Kat brings order to the chaos that characterizes all early project development when one must convert ideas into a plan of action."
Kat is a high-impact leader who moves effortlessly from strategy to implementation. She combines a product designer's sense of how aesthetics should serve function with a product owner's analytical rigor. She brings order to the chaos that characterizes all early project development when one must convert ideas into a plan of action. A common thread in all Kat's endeavors is iterative research -- she tests hypotheses with her suspected audiences, learns their needs, trims away anything not needed for the initial personae and then retests. But none of this compares to Kat's character and strength. She meets even the most enormous challenges with creativity and optimism. She sets an example not just for her teammates but for the people, like me, who have known her over the years. You build great teams around talent but you build great companies around character.
"...truly the most strategic and systems-focused designer I've ever worked with."
Kat is such an incredible human and such a great leader for any team. She is so versatile, collaborative, intuitive, strategic, and thoughtful. She approached each project in the same holistic way and ensured the right people were involved to get the best solution. She is detail oriented, solutions-focused, passionate, and always comes to the table with a positive attitude. She is truly the most strategic and systems-focused designer I've ever worked with.
"Kat is a joy to work with!"
Kat's visual design prowess and passion for implementing design as a practice really up-leveled the couple of projects that we worked on together. However, what stuck out to me most is her ability to listen, ask the right questions, and build a case for better design decisions with her stakeholders.
"Kat is a great designer, art director, and mentor."
Kat Miller is a great designer, art director, and mentor. I’ve worked with her for several years in both an agency setting and as a freelancer. One of Kat’s many strengths is being able to articulate a clear design vision while seamlessly working with individual contributors to bring that vision to life.
"Kat is a brilliant designer. She is smart, collaborate, articulate, and kind."
Kat is a brilliant designer. She is smart, collaborative, articulate, and kind. I have had the pleasure of working with Kat over the last 3 years on a variety of projects and she repeatedly exceeds expectations. She is incredibly skilled at synthesizing information and transforming ambiguity into a clear and structured story. Kat is brimming with creativity and I am excited to see what incredible things she will do in the future!
Notes
I love designing tools for makers—whether they’re designers, developers, or 3D creators. At Matterport, I help transform real-world spaces into immersive 3D digital twins. Before that, I was with Stand In, a Techstars startup, where we built a platform for creating device experiences.
I also care deeply about working with those who help others, which led me to startups in healthcare and life sciences. Through my design studio, Tiny Creative, I had the honor of supporting visionary founders and leadership teams, helping them bring life-changing ideas to the world. At 4G Clinical, we used technology to speed up the delivery of critical medicines by revolutionizing clinical trials.
After I first saw The Book of Shaders, I knew I wanted to learn how to create them. This site is a playground for my design experiments with shaders, animations, and storytelling. My current toolbox is Next.js, WebGL (Three.js and GLSL), notebooks filled with sketches, a copy of The Invisible Universe, and my GPT-4o coach. It's a work in progress and I'm glad you're here.