Peter Bartsch — Staff Product Designer

PETER BARTSCH

I make complex systems usable — and get them adopted — at scale.

I solve the adoption problems that stall organizations: mandated adoption nobody wants to force, platform fragmentation, trust in uncertain data.

And I don't stop at the spec — I build it. I prototype in code, build production-grade design systems, and use AI as part of my daily workflow.

Email me → See the Work

Portfolio: download the PDF ↓ · click through it in Figma ↗

Peter Bartsch, Staff Product Designer — black and white portrait

34% → 87%Profile completion (Deere)

$3.8BConnected-services business gated (Deere)

500K+Users reached

1→10Design org built (FourKites)

DESIGN RESEARCH FRONT-END PROTOTYPING HARDWARE / CAD SYSTEMS

// HOW I THINK

Most organizations think they have a UX problem when they actually have a trust problem, an incentives problem, or an alignment problem. Adoption is where those collide — you can ship a beautiful flow and still watch people route around it. I look for the leverage point where product, business, and user needs intersect, and design from there. AI just means one operator can now build all the way to that point, not just spec it.

Read the full approach — how I solve complex enterprise problems →

// WHAT I DO

Five patterns, one job: I make complex systems trustworthy enough to adopt — at scale.

01Making uncertainty understandableFourKites
02Driving adoption without coercionDeere
03Unifying fragmented platformsDeere
04Finding value inside constraintsGogo
05Building systems that stay alignedThios

These patterns repeat across agriculture, aviation, logistics, mobility, healthcare & open hardware.

Enterprise Design Systems Design Org Leadership (1→10) Adoption & Retention 0→1 in Complex Domains AI-Native Workflow

// CASE STUDIES

Not a highlight reel — the calls, the tradeoffs, and what I'd do differently.

ENTERPRISE · ADOPTION AT SCALE

DEERE: FORCED ADOPTION, WITHOUT THE FORCE

Inherited a forced-adoption mandate — and made completion something users chose, at 500K-user scale, without breaking trust.

Challenge: Most of 500K users weren't completing profiles — the flow that gates Deere's $3.8B connected-services business.

Approach: Led design of a multi-channel adoption flow across 8 product lines — reframing a forced-adoption mandate as progressive value exchange.

Result: 34%→87% profile completion · setup support tickets −16%

VIEW CASE STUDY →

DATA TRUST

FOURKITES: DESIGNING FOR UNCERTAINTY

Built dashboards people staked million-dollar calls on — retention up 38% YoY.

Challenge: Enterprise customers were making high-stakes decisions on dashboards they didn't trust — because we hid uncertainty instead of explaining it.

Approach: Led redesign introducing confidence levels that showed uncertainty instead of hiding it.

Result: Customer retention up 38% YoY · repeated account expansion

VIEW CASE STUDY →

FOUNDER · 6-SURFACE SYSTEM

THIOS: ONE SOURCE OF TRUTH, SIX SURFACES

Built and shipped a product line solo — six surfaces, one source of truth, agents as the team.

Challenge: 6 sub-brands across 4 production sites plus an Onshape CAD source. Drift is the default, not a possibility.

Approach: Six canonical surfaces (DESIGN.md ↔ tokens.json ↔ main.css ↔ design-system.html ↔ Onshape ↔ Figma) kept aligned by agent-driven audits.

Result: 6 surfaces in sync · 1 designer

VIEW CASE STUDY →

// MORE CASE STUDIES

From $3M startups to $50B+ enterprises

Technical Depth

STRATEGY TO CODE — THREE.JS, VANILLA JS, AR

Built a real-time 3D product configurator with AR preview as Thios's customer-facing revenue surface. Staff designers who can prototype in code close the gap between vision and shipping.

Try the Configurator

// PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
2024–Pres	Founder · Product Design & Engineering	Thios + Co
	Problem: Founded a product company solo — brand, web, configurator, design system, hardware Result: Brand + 4 production sites + 6 sphere variants + first revenue Approach: AI as the build mechanism (design, code, CAD); proof of end-to-end technical range View Case Study →
2020–2024	Senior Lead UX — Digital Customer Experience	John Deere
	Problem: 500K+ users weren't completing profiles on the platform gating Deere's connected-services business Result: Unified nav across 8 product lines; enterprise design system adopted by 40+ teams Approach: Led design of the multi-channel adoption program — reframing the forced-adoption mandate as progressive value exchange; helped establish the enterprise design system 40+ teams now build on; 45% faster handoffs on shipped components View Case Study →
2017–2020	Lead UX / Manager	FourKites
	Problem: Customers didn't trust dashboards built on incomplete data — during $3M→$100M ARR hypergrowth Result: Retention up 38% YoY · repeated account expansion · design org 1→10 Approach: Led UX redesign showing confidence levels openly; built predictive analytics ahead of traditional ETAs View Case Study →
2014–2017	Senior UX + Agile Lead	Maven Wave Partners
2012–2014	Product Marketing Manager	Nokia / HERE Maps
2008–2012	Product Manager — Signature Services	Gogo Inflight Internet
2004–2024	Board Director	How Weird Street Faire
2001–2008	Co-Founder	Cognistar

OTHER PIXELS

// side projects & experiments

Complex systems don't fail because they're technically impossible. They fail because people won't adopt them. That's the problem I've spent my career solving.

click this

LET'S TALK

Let's build something that gets adopted.

Available now for Staff or Principal roles — Chicago-based, open to remote or relocation. I reply within 1 business day.

Prefer email? pete@petebartsch.com · LinkedIn