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.

Work Stuff I'm Interested In

My Experience

Cirrus 9 Candy logo

Co-founder & tech @ Cirrus 9 Candy

founder

October 2025 - present

Responsibilities

  • Building an e-commerce brand for Organic Cotton Candy using local fruit, maple syrup and other innovative ingredients. Non of the junk, more of the flavor.
Navattic logo

Design Engineer @ Navattic

June 2024 - Present

Responsibilities

  • Hired as design engineer #1 to invest more in quality UX and bridge the voice of the customer into engineering.
  • I lead the small design team through sprints of product and design system work as well as code for signature UI elements and interactions.
  • I created and polished our design system, compass-ui built off of primitives and with our brand's interactive flair.
Halite.app logo

Design/Product Engineer @ Halite.app

founder

September 2023 - June 2024

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
Roopairs logo

Design/Product Engineer @ Roopairs

contract

November 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.
ChartGPT logo

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

Personal

Spela and EiniMakenna on Via FerrataLjubljana airport
  • Grew up in the Midwest USA, lived in Slovenia for 8 years
  • Now in Westchester, NY with my wife, Špela, and cat, Einštein
  • Co-founding Cirrus 9 Candy — organic cotton candy with real ingredients
  • Earth-day Birth-day (I'm 29)
  • 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 Liberty WNBA team to make a repeat this year.
  • Friends would describe my hobbies with likeness to ”an old dude“ 😅. I dig Golf, Squash, Padel, Sailing, and Via Ferrata.
Sailboats in the Adriatic SeaMakenna Sailing in Croatia