Derek Bender

About

You moved fast at 0 to 1. Now the product doesn't reflect what you've built, design debt is slowing engineering, and the next design move isn't obvious.Most teams reach for more execution. The harder problem is product judgment: knowing what to solve and what to build.I'm a product designer with nearly 20 years in product, working as a design partner to early-stage founders and teams across B2B and AI. I embed like a team member, not a contractor. Sometimes that's 0 to 1. More often it's taking a product that works and pushing it further. I go deep on the real problem, unblock engineering, and set up the systems the team grows on.Before this: Uber, Instacart, Flexport, Deel. At Uber I led a B2B platform redesign projecting 50% time savings. At Instacart I lifted shopper activations 15%. At Flexport I designed a feature that unlocked enterprise business. At Deel I led the Fintech vertical and grew the team from 2 to 5.In B2B, styling was never the moat. Figuring out the problem was.Building something early and hard? DM me. I'll tell you straight.Open to the right lead or principal product design role. Remote or Netherlands.

Experience

Education