Tuba Ozkan

Product Designer @ Squarespace

Design used to end at the handoff. Now I build with AI and contribute to the code that ships.

I’ve been designing digital products for nearly a decade, and an architect before that.

I think in systems: I zoom in on the screen and out to the whole flow, and move between the two.

Last year, across four AI products, I look for what repeats and turn it into frameworks, components and interactions other designers can borrow.

I teach what I learn. I’ve taught design since 2013, first at Istanbul Technical University and then as adjunct faculty at Parsons. At Squarespace I mentor designers, and I coach designers one-on-one.

At work I teach smart products to listen. At home I’m teaching a toddler the same thing.

Designing for people, with people…

  • Megan O’Neill, Content Strategist: I was lucky to work with Megan at both Animoto and Codecademy. Small world! She’s the queen of words.
  • Danielle Vogl, Art Director: We redesigned Animoto’s icon library together and got inspired by how differently we think. Now she’s a good friend I can call whenever I need a creative push.
  • Majd Murad, Senior Software Engineer: Majd and I built Image Studio together. When the deadline got stressful, we were each other’s therapists :)
  • Vanasa Liu, Senior Product Designer: Vanasa sits next to me at Squarespace and is one of the most talented designers I know at motion and interaction. She shares feedback generously and makes me a better designer.
  • Peter Rodriguez, Senior Staff Product Designer: I was lucky to overlap with Pete at Squarespace. He’s an inspiring designer who pushed me to get better. Our toddlers get along too, and we keep scheduling playdates that flu season keeps canceling.
  • Ashley Struck, Senior Staff Product Designer: Ashley comes from art direction, and her work inspired me to raise the visual quality of my own.
  • Richie Wu, Principal Product Manager: My partner in crime at Codecademy. We built and launched many features for learners together on the engagement team.
  • Natalia Rodriguez, Associate Director of Product: She is a sunflower. She taught me to care about the people who will use the products we bring to the world.
  • Matt Singer, Principal Product Manager: Matt is an entrepreneur with big vision and my best thought partner on Websites at Squarespace for the last three years. We planted Image Studio together, and he always knows who to bring in and when.
  • Colleen Redmond, Senior Design Manager: Colleen has been my most recent manager at Squarespace. She has a great eye for design details!
  • Terry Slade, Staff Product Manager: We built internal tools and workflows together to help our 300+ person support team work more efficiently. One of the most strategic PMs and deepest thinkers I know.
  • Marin Abernethy, Software Engineering Manager: Marin isn’t your typical engineering manager. She’s a creative thought partner and a great listener. Throw a problem her way and she’ll work through it with you!
  • Blanca Abramek, Product Design Manager: We overlapped briefly while she led our chat product and I worked on Image Studio. Her superpower is unlocking projects: she asks the right people the right questions and knows when to push back. A true systems thinker and excellent communicator.
  • Lan Lam, Staff Product Designer: Lan was my first manager at Squarespace, in her first time managing. She’s the best design manager I’ve had. It’s rare to be both a great people manager and an excellent designer, and she makes it look easy.
  • Nicklesh Soni, Product Design Manager: Nicklesh is like a rock. When he was my manager at Squarespace, I knew I could bring him the craziest story and he would listen carefully and stay calm.
  • Tímea Hopp, Director of Product Design: We designed together at Codecademy and became friends for life. A kind soul and a rockstar designer.
  • Brian Rhee, Head of Design: Brian is the reason my time at Animoto taught me more than any other job. He trusted me with everything: building a design system from scratch while I was still learning them, and redesigning a whole product experience. We’d sit in a booth and sketch ideas together. Best memories of becoming a product designer.
  • Erika Templeton, Senior Staff Content Strategist: Erika will take the most complex content problem and have a spreadsheet ready the next morning. We think alike, in systems, and she was a great mind to work with when we built a content solution for AI-generated templates.
  • Cassie Kaye, Senior Content Designer: Cassie was the lead writer of the system prompt for Image Studio. Without her expertise in instructing AI models, we couldn’t have achieved high-quality, safe image results.
  • Andrej Radisic, Principal Product Designer: Andrej has been my mentor this past year. I feel lucky to have him on my side whenever I need to talk through a problem, a design or a process.
  • Eric Song, Product Design Director: When I wanted to switch teams at Squarespace and join Websites, Eric welcomed me in. He has been an advocate for me and my work ever since.
  • Mohamad (Moe) Aliwi, Engineering Manager: Moe never gives up! No matter what staffing or timeline problem you throw at him, he comes back with a solution. He used to manage dozens of people, and I still don’t know how he did it!
  • Jeff Aldrich, Product Director: We overlapped briefly on a project to generate AI site components. Jeff is a sharp thinker and helped steer the ship safely to shore.
  • Hasan Afzal, Engineering Manager: Hasan is so fun to brainstorm design ideas with! He’s not your typical engineer. He’s very talented, he understands user experience, and he’s never shy about sharing his perspective.
  • Katherine Robinson, Senior Product Design Director: Katherine hired me to Squarespace. She’s a design leader I look up to, with a high bar for quality and culture.
  • Nouf A, Senior Product Designer: We met at Havas when we were both Creative Technology interns, and we’ve stayed in touch ever since. I turn to her when I need a critical thinker.
  • Chao Hui Tu, Artist & Educator: We worked together at Teknikio building kits for kids, and later built an augmented reality app together. I really admire her growth mindset and creative flow.
  • Madeline Engle, Senior Product Designer: We started at Squarespace on the same day and got along right away. We grew as designers together!
  • Michael Ninness, VP of Product: Michael is a truly trustworthy leader, and I would follow him anywhere! He was always there to support designers and cared about each person’s growth. He’s the reason I was able to switch teams at Squarespace.

Ten years of sharing what I make