Katherine Root

Hi there! 👋 I’m an innovative and strategic design leader, currently leading design @ Manta Cares.

It’s nice to meet you

For over a decade, I’ve been championing product and UX design at Bay Area startups. I entered the world of product design early, receiving my bachelor’s degree in Human-Computer Interaction, and have devoted my entire career to shaping how people engage with technology 🤖

I’m the type of design leader who always stays connected to the work, and even though my title says Director, I prefer to call myself an experience designer ✨ My role goes far beyond crafting screens or managing people—it’s about orchestrating a journey for someone to take when they interact with my products. It’s about creating cohesion, meaning, and delight across the whole experience, and while I love the creativity of designing beautiful, functional interfaces in Figma (cue the “oohs” and “ahhs”), my favorite part of what I do is often behind the scenes 🫣

It’s in designing seamless workflows that often go unnoticed, building systems that empower product teams to communicate, fostering cultures where people thrive, and making products people want to use. It’s about bringing order to chaos, elegance to the everyday, and expression to what often goes unsaid.

And in the messy, complex, and intangible challenges of this field, I believe experience design has the power to make a true impact on the world 🌸

Check out my work

I am currently Head of Design at Manta Cares—a community of care partners and survivors creating tools to make navigating the cancer experience a little easier. Feel free to check out the product, especially if you or someone you know is dealing with the life altering experience of a cancer diagnosis.

And as any good designer knows, live software is never perfect, no matter how many meetings you have or bugs you squash. I’d love to know your thoughts on the experience, so drop me a note any time and let’s chat product 🤩

Dive into case studies

Before I joined Manta Cares, I spent 10 years building the design organization at Mighty Networks and creating communities made for people magic. You can find case studies here from some of my favorite projects.

First App Experience

For years the experience of downloading the Mighty Networks app was crusty and abandoned. It languished as a P2 project, forever deemed not worth our time to update. Here I explore the value of making a killer first impression.

Two phones, showing previews of the First App Experience designs.

Introducing AI

When it became clear in early 2023 that AI was changing the tech industry, we held a hackathon to ensure Mighty was using this awesome technology to our advantage, and ultimately released a powerful set of AI features.

Teaser image of the "Show Similarities" AI feature discussed in this case study.

Unlocking People Magic

Mobile display of a Mighty Networks member profile

As a B2B2C company, Mighty Networks has to balance catering not just to our Hosts, but to their members. In my experience, if you build for the members, the Hosts will follow, so how do we make that experience truly magical?

I’m always on the lookout for my next great adventure.

Please reach out any time if you want to learn more, or just want to chat design! These days I am super interested in innovative applications of AI, AR, climate tech, and electric/autonomous vehicles, but tell me—what are you up to? 🧐