Domain depth
Nursing background meets defense and consumer product experience. I don't just observe user pain — I've lived adjacent to it, and that shapes every research conversation.
Hi, I'm Denise — an RN-turned-product-designer.
I design for clarity in complex, high-stakes systems — from U.S. Air Force mission planning to healthtech startups trying to make insurance feel human. Three and a half years in, I'm still powered by the same instinct I had as a nurse: get it right, because people are depending on you.
I grew up as a first-generation Chinese-Vietnamese American, raised by a single mother in the Bay Area. College wasn't guaranteed — tuition was tight and the path wasn't obvious — but I pushed through and earned a BSN in nursing. I spent years as a registered nurse for San Francisco public schools, showing up every day in a role where the stakes were real and the margin for error was small.
The design chapter started quietly, on the side. I launched Paper & Milk, a stationery brand I built from scratch — designing every product, running the Etsy shop, photographing the packaging, managing the Instagram. It grew to 10,000+ sales and an 8.2% Instagram engagement rate. More importantly, it taught me that design is a skill you can build with your hands, and that understanding your customer is the whole game.
Designer and engineer friends encouraged me to take the leap. I taught myself the tools — Figma, prototyping, research methods — and went full-time into product design. I've since spent 3.5+ years working across healthtech (Truffle Health, making medical bills easier for patients to understand and pay), defense/enterprise (Kessel Run / U.S. Air Force, designing mission-planning software for tanker operators), and consumer (Regibee, an end-to-end 0→1 registry app).
I care about this work because I've seen how good UX opens doors. A well-designed small-business app let me start Paper & Milk. A clear insurance interface could mean a patient actually understands their care. A legible mission-planning dashboard could save a life. I want to build solutions that uplift individual voices and create healthier lives — and I want to bring designer's empathy, a founder's grit, and a nurse's precision to every project.
When I'm not designing: creative journaling, planning, and crafting — the analog kind.
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What I bring
Clarity in complexity
Dense, high-stakes systems are where I thrive. Whether it's tanker mission data or health insurance flows, I find the thread that makes the complicated legible.
Maker's eye
I founded and ran a real product brand. End-to-end ownership — brand, product, packaging, e-commerce — means I think about the full system, not just the screen.
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Timeline
Now
Product Designer
Healthtech, defense/enterprise, and consumer. Open to new opportunities in 2026.
Ongoing
Founder — Paper & Milk
Independent stationery brand. 10,000+ sales, 8.2% IG engagement. Where I taught myself design.
Kessel Run
Product Designer — U.S. Air Force
Jigsaw (tanker mission planning) and Route Calculator. Designing clarity into dense, high-stakes operational data.
Earlier
Registered Nurse — San Francisco Schools
Clinical care in SF public schools. Precision, empathy, and high-stakes decision-making under pressure.
Education
BSN — Bachelor of Science in Nursing
The foundation that still shapes how I think about users, systems, and what it means to get something right.
I'm open to new product design roles in 2026 — especially healthtech and high-stakes / agentic products. Let's talk.