Jason Sonderman · Product design and design leadership · 15 years leading B2B SaaS UX
The hardest product problems rarely belong to design alone. They cross product strategy, research, technology, systems, teams, and the way an organization builds software.
I get into the work myself, from understanding the problem to making ideas testable. Then I help turn what we learn into product direction, systems, and better ways of building.
I built the testable Command Center prototype, Mark 2. These public reconstructions show Mark 1 and Mark 2 with fictional data; senior designers developed the near-final Mark 3 shown in the study.
I led the research, sprints, and usability work behind the risk inbox’s list and inline actions. Another senior designer designed the charts. Parts reached beta; a backend caching issue held up the full release before the project was shelved.
I built a working prototype, then revised it when linemen and foremen showed that the crew lead enters everyone’s time. These prototype screens show the change, with fictional names, before production code was written.
The same part page before and after the redesign. Senior designers and I each designed portions of the page. Innovatis is where Uplift became one component system across eShop, Shop, and Bepco.
I built Harmony so designers, engineers, and AI coding agents read the same intent. Chip guidance says what a color means; the theme resolves the same work order statuses in light and dark.
Complex product · Arcos Control Tower
Testable prototype · created by me
View larger (opens the full image)Near-final design · senior designers
Field research showed that updating legacy interfaces would miss the sequence of storm restoration work. That shifted the direction for Arcos Control Tower and Arcos Field toward a product model built around the work itself.
In production: designs for Mobilize destinations and Convoys, plus sign-in, in the first MVP release, August 2025. User profile management and rosters followed in July 2026. In beta: Command Center with desktop timecards, September 2026.
Reusable system
I built Harmony to carry design intent through tokens, component guidance, and implementation context. The aim was to make recurring decisions usable by designers, engineers, and AI coding agents as the products were built.
Explore Harmony
View larger (opens the full image)Way of building
A hypothesis becomes more useful when people can try it. The first Timecards prototype I coded for Arcos Field had each person entering their own time. On the floor of the Linemen’s Rodeo, linemen and foremen showed us that in a storm, the crew lead enters time for the whole crew. The prototype changed to match, and utility leaders tested the revision. Caught on a convention floor, that was a prototype revision. Caught in build, it would have been a schema change.
See what the Rodeo changedOn the Rodeo floor · one person
View larger (opens the full image)Revised · one entry for the crew
View larger (opens the full image)A question worth asking
More often it’s the workflow, the decisions behind it, what we’re learning from customers, or what gets lost between design and code.
I’d start by finding out, and let the evidence decide what changes.
The artifact isn’t always the end of the work. What I learn can change the product, the system behind it, or the team’s ability to solve the next problem.
When I say shipped, I mean live in a customer release. When I mean delivered to engineering, I say handed off.
Research into shipped mobile work
I led the field research and design delivery that shaped Arcos Field around the sequence of storm restoration work. The first MVP shipped in August 2025 after two scope reductions, giving field crews a first step into the new platform.
In production: convoy creation, the event picker, profile manager, and sign-in in the MVP, August 2025. Timecards and the AI Expense Agent followed in September 2026.
Read the Arcos Field storyDesign sprints and a reusable system
I led research, design sprints, and prototyping to help IT teams act on security risks. Each sprint focused on a new problem and ended with user testing that week. Fulcrum supplied the shared components behind the screens, so the system supported the work as the product took shape.
Handed off, partly in beta, never in full production. The secure file grid with inline actions, bulk actions, grouped file-category tabs, and first file-count insights reached beta. A backend caching issue, keeping data current with customers’ systems, held up the full release before the project was shelved. The Secure home with deeper insights was handed off but never built.
View larger (opens the full image)Organizational capability
At TVH, I made the case to move design system engineers under UX, then co-designed governance with an engineering advocate. Uplift grew from one team using it unguided to four brand tech teams.
In production use: four brand tech teams, 15 front-end developers building on the system.
Read the Uplift storyLooking for a specific path?
Beyond these projects
I’ve spent much of my career building with teams and helping designers grow. There’s more about my experience and what matters to me on the pages below.
This site works the same way. Each case study has a machine-readable twin generated from the same source as the page. How it’s built
