Hi, I'm Makenna
I'm motivated by building products that lean into wicked cool moments via stunning (micro) animations, polished design, and deeply thought-through processes. I thrive in autonomous, proactive environments, and am stoked to dive deep into new tech/tools and concepts.
Find me elsewhere
Work Stuff I'm Interested In
My Experience
Design/Product Engineer @ Halite.app
founderSeptember 2023 - Present
Responsibilities
- I am the only designer and engineer on the team. I have designed, prototyped, tested and built both the app and marketing website.
- The app is built with Chakra UI, Saas UI, TypeScript, Next.js, and GraphQL, and the website with Framer
- This is a data and charts heavy product, so I dove deep into the dense display of data, by utilizing React table, Chart.js and Framer Motion where applicable
Design/Product Engineer @ Roopairs
contractNovember 2023 - January 2024
Responsibilities
- I was brought on to help with the design and implementation of the new version of the product. I led the development and advancement of their bespoke design system.
- I implemented the bespoke design system based on their existing repo and wants using CSS modules, Radix primitives and in React
- I implemented the many of the components in both Figma and in the codebase, working with the team's designer for the rest. I also worked with the team to refactor them in the product.
- A significant part of the project was in educating the team on design system principles. I created a documentation site for the design system using Storybook to help with this.
Open source contributor @ ChartGPT
Indefinite
Responsibilities
- I joined this project as the only designer, and frontend specific engineer.
- I implemented a redesigned interface and deep customization options for the user.
- I implemented Tremor.so charts and Chart.js for the chart types unsupported by Tremor.
Projects
Design/Product Engineer @ Whop
February 2023 - August 2023
Responsibilities
- Created a bespoke design system using Tailwind, Radix ui, and storybook. Created more than 65 components from idea to production package. The design system received incredibly positive reviews and adoption by the entire engineering team. The project expanded from an internal use to open sourcing, which opened a new opportunity for high growth of the product with a developer-app's platform launching on its back.
- Led the team to polished design and implementation across the product. Added micro-animations with accessible fallbacks
- Led documentation with Storybook and internal tooling and held demos of releases as well as open critiques for clear understanding of the design system.
- Mentored the designer and front-end teams on design systems
- I built custom Figma dev tooling for handoff in the design system component's API directly
Projects
Design/Product Engineer @ OwnCo
contractSeptember 2022 - March 2023
Responsibilities
- Led the redesign of the product, in both UI and code.
- The focus of the new version was on clean UI with intentional UX and tapped into strategy goals (Listening to customers) that was previously missing. Implemented a design-system approach to building, to ensure polished and fast shipping. This included things like graphql codegen + the design system and Formik to auto generate forms.
- Implemented a modern stack: Next.js + Vercel, Chakra UI, Saas UI, Clerk, PlanetScale + Pothos + Prisma; and mentored the engineers through the transition
Personal
- Grew up in the Midwest USA
- I lived with my wife, Špela, and cat, Einštein, in Slovenia for 8 years
- Earth-day Birth-day (I'm 27)
- I jump at any chance I get to travel
- Beverages make me tick! Ask me about Filter Coffee, Maté(!!!) or Croatian White Wine.
- I'm a massive fan of Women's Soccer, specifically you'll find me rooting for the USWNT in the upcoming summer Olympics in Paris.
- Friends would describe my hobbies with likeness to ”an old dude“ 😅. I dig Golf, Squash, Padel, Sailing, and Via Ferrata.