# Ardavan Arfaei

> Ardavan Arfaei is an AI-native designer and strategist — lead experience designer at Studio Rodrigo and co-founder and head of design at Profitable.ai.

AI-native designer and strategist, with an itch to solve complex problems.

## Roles

- Lead experience designer, [Rodrigo](https://www.studiorodrigo.com/)
- Co-founder and head of design, [Profitable.ai](https://www.profitable.ai)

## Disciplines

Brand, Product, Strategy, AI, Safety, Tooling, Workflows, Sales, Data, SQL, Visualization, Streaming, Systems, DESIGN SYSTEM, Storytelling, Research

## Contact

- Email: arfaei@gmail.com
- Website: https://ardavan.design
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/arfaei

## Selected work

### [Google](https://www.google.com)
Lead Experience Designer · 2025–2026

Helped the privacy team at google, re-imagine one of their most used consumer tools.

- Faster end to end flow, lifting conversion and acquisition

Disciplines: Brand, Product, Strategy

### [Airbnb](https://airbnb.com)
Lead Experience Designer · 2026–present

Leading design for Airbnb's trust tooling and spearheading the introduction of AI into its workflows

- Reduced average handle time (AHT) across customer support and safety queues
- Part of the small product and engineering team that worked on one of Airbnb's first AI-native design / engineering / product workflows.

Disciplines: AI, Safety, Tooling, Workflows

### [DoorDash](https://www.doordash.com)
Lead Experience Designer and Strategist · 2025–2026

Led the effort to bring a large third-party sales tool in-house and rebuild it as AI-native.

- Potentially millions in savings
- Faster acquisition and sales
- Reduced human errors

Disciplines: AI, Sales, Tooling

### [Peacock](https://www.peacock.com)
Lead Experience Designer · 2023–2024

Built an operational data platform from scratch

- Millions in savings
- Custom-tailored features and dynamic user cohorts
- All delivered very swiftly

Disciplines: Data, SQL, Visualization, Streaming, Systems

### [MOAB](https://www.moab.com)
Senior Experience Designer · 2024

Worked with MOAB in their early days, shaping their rental operations platform as first customers started putting real demands on it, and designed a new website builder for the product

- Helped MOAB win new customers and keep existing ones happy
- Extended their platform around real customer needs
- Designed their storefront builder

Disciplines: Product, Systems, TOOLING, DESIGN SYSTEM

### [Human Rights Watch](https://www.hrw.org/feature/russia-ukraine-war-mariupol)
Project Designer · 2022–2023

Designed a scrollable story documenting the siege of Mariupol, led by survivors' accounts and backed by supporting pages on the damage, the dead, and who's responsible.

Disciplines: Brand, Storytelling, Research

### [WeWork](https://www.wework.com)
Experience Designer · 2021–2022

Worked across WeWork's internal product teams to streamline Spacestation, the tool community teams use to run each location, and Mission Control, the platform behind every building in the portfolio.

Disciplines: Product, Systems, Tooling

### [Variational](https://www.variational.io/en)
Lead Experience Designer · 2023–2026

Designed Variational's product, brand, and design system from the ground up, a decentralized, non-custodial RFQ platform for trading and clearing bilateral derivatives. Through a period of fast growth

- Over $200B in trading volume across 50,000+ accounts
- Peak days topping $1.5B
- Variational has since raised over $60M, including a $50M Series A led by Dragonfly

Disciplines: Brand, Product, Strategy