jmsaavedra/josph-site

SAAVEDRA_CV - 2026 H2

By Joe Saavedra · Published July 23, 2026 · Updated September 8, 2026

JOSEPH SAAVEDRA

Product & Interaction Designer | AI, Video & Creative Tools

Brooklyn, NY | 646.334.5377 | saavedra@jos.ph | jos.ph | linkedin.com/in/jmsaavedra

PROFILE

Product and interaction designer with 15+ years turning ambiguous, technically complex ideas into intuitive products across video, AI, creative tools, and physical-digital systems. Founded and led Infinite Objects, creating the patented no-interface Video Print category and owning product and engineering direction from concept to 200K+ units and $14M+ in revenue. Combines user-centered design, functional prototyping, technical fluency, and close partnership with product and engineering leaders to turn emerging capabilities into cohesive, trustworthy experiences.

EXPERIENCE

Founder & CEO | Infinite Objects, Inc.

New York, NY | 2018-2026

Defined and launched a new product category, "Video Prints," using a no-interface interaction model - one video, one display, no app, setup, controls, or connectivity - to make video feel permanent and object-like.
Scaled the business from founding to $14M+ in revenue, 200K+ units shipped across 90+ countries and achieved a Net Promoter Score of 87 by prioritizing clarity and emotional resonance over feature complexity; led the company into an acquisition agreement and handoff.
Designed and tested the first-use interaction around a Hall effect sensor and packaging magnet: the buttonless display stays off in-box and turns on instantly in the customer's hands, creating a zero-instruction reveal that became a widely shared part of the experience.
Designed the automated cloud rendering, order-ingestion, and fulfillment platform that transformed uploaded video into production-ready renditions at scale; launched a third-party API so external content platforms could create products directly.
Led a data-driven personalization and production system for Doodle for Google 2024, connecting partner data, motion templates, QA, manufacturing, and fulfillment to programmatically generate and ship 55 one-of-one Video Print awards within weeks.
Built and mentored product design, graphic design, and engineering teams within a 35-person cross-functional organization spanning five states and three continents.
Secured three utility and design patents and built a 100+ partner ecosystem spanning Google, NBA, YouTube, TikTok, Beeple, Mattel, Sotheby's, and leading creators; raised $11M+ in venture funding.

Independent Product, UX & Hardware Developer

Brooklyn, NY | 2010-Present

MOMNT | 2026-Present | Co-creator, Product & Interaction Designer, Development Lead
- Co-created MOMNT's concept and interaction model, then led end-to-end product design and AI-assisted development from functional prototype through live-event testing to a self-serve creator platform.
- Designed the guest-to-gallery journey and a provider-neutral generative video workflow using Google Veo and Runway, turning non-deterministic output into verified branded loops; production data from hundreds of capture sessions and thousands successful outputs across numerous activations at numerous public venues and events, guided improvements to latency, recovery, and operator controls.
RenderMark.app | 2025-Present | Founder and sole contributor
- Designed and shipped an agent-first publishing platform with a 17-tool MCP server, open-standard agent skill, and remote endpoint enabling AI agents to render, export, publish, and share documents autonomously.
- Used functional prototypes to define intent-to-tool decisions, contextual defaults, self-orientation, and explicit confirmation for destructive actions; shipped the full product surface solo across web, VS Code, CLI, and agent marketplaces.
Stealth AI hardware startup | 2026-Present | Zero-to-one fractional product engineer
- Designed and built a working ambient voice-AI appliance that layers spoken LLM conversations over a live nature soundscape through an offline keyword recognition -> Whisper -> Claude/GPT -> TTS pipeline.
- Designed the physical interaction and trust model: a three-button interface, hardware-level microphone mute with visible status, deliberate device-vs.-cloud processing tradeoffs, and a WebRTC voice link to a remote device or browser twin.
Forkast.me | 2025-Present | Founding CTO & Product/UX Lead
- Lead hands-on product, UX, and technical direction for an AI-powered customer intelligence platform adopted by 100+ businesses, supporting 6,500+ tracked in-person interactions and 3,500+ completed customer journeys since January 2026.
- Defined the end-to-end mobile journey from in-venue QR/NFC scan through progressive, consent-aware data capture to Google Review, Instagram, or WhatsApp actions, achieving a 58% scan/tap-to-completion conversion rate.
- Created a configurable cross-channel experience platform with reusable templates, branching logic, dynamic variables, and place-aware previews; built a bilingual conversational analytics UX with entity references, multi-turn context, and inline charts.
Google's Talking Shoe | 2013 | Technical Lead with Zach Lieberman & YesYesNo
- Led custom hardware and co-designed an ambient interaction model that translated real-time movement into character-driven audio feedback and shareable GIF badges; produced 80+ devices through rapid iterations for SXSW and Cannes Lions and received a Webby Award.
Air Quality Egg | 2011-2013 | Co-founder, Conceptual & Technical Lead
- Co-founded an open-source IoT environmental sensing platform; led hardware, firmware, wireless integration, manufacturing, and sales; raised $144K on Kickstarter and earned Best of Kickstarter 2012.

Partner, Product & Engineering | Planeta

New York, NY | 2015-2018

Led multidisciplinary product and engineering work for consumer-facing creative tools, translating ambiguous partner goals into shipped hardware and software experiences.
Managed development of GIPHY Cam for Android, aligning design and engineering around interaction quality, delivery, and technical execution.
Developed full-stack experiences including MTV Bumps Canvas and directed rapid prototyping across mobile, web, and connected-device concepts.

Assistant Professor, Media Design | Parsons School of Design

New York, NY | 2011-2015

Taught graduate-level courses in Internet of Things, creative computation, physical computing, and interactive prototyping; mentored emerging designers and engineers building experimental hardware-software systems.

EDUCATION

MFA, Design and Technology | Parsons School of Design | 2010

BA, Technocultural Studies | University of California, Davis | 2008

BA, Music Composition | University of California, Davis | 2008

SELECTED RECOGNITION

Selected speaking: SXSW Interactive | TEDx | United Nations Development Programme | World Maker Faire | Citizen Cyberscience Summit

TECHNICAL & DESIGN DEPTH

Product strategy, interaction design, UX systems, information architecture, user research integration, usability testing, functional prototyping, design systems, generative AI and LLM APIs, conversational UX, video processing workflows, JavaScript/TypeScript, React/Next.js, Node.js, PostgreSQL, APIs, cloud infrastructure, MCP, C++/openFrameworks, Python, Android, embedded Linux, ARM/AVR, PCB design, BLE/Wi-Fi/RF, sensors, manufacturing, and technical documentation.