Director of Design

I’ve spent nineteen years building products and the teams behind them.

PayPal, Booking.com, Concentrix Catalyst, and the studio I founded in 2019.

A generalist by training and by choice. Nineteen years leading teams and building products.

PayPal, Booking.com, Microsoft (via Concentrix), and Stinger Studios, the agency I founded in 2019. I came up through design and engineering before I moved into management, so I still know what it costs the team to ship.

Most of the job is unglamorous. I clear blockers, I say no when something isn’t ready, and I keep design, product, and engineering arguing about the same problem instead of three different ones. Some days that’s a product strategy. Some days it’s writing CSS.

I started Stinger Studios in 2019 to do brand and product work for clients outside the big tech world. International restaurant chains. Outdoor adventure brands. DTC retail. Things you can touch.

Meredith Ragsdale, Director of Design

Core Competencies

Design leadership at 35-report scale Design systems (React-integrated) Conversion and A/B testing User research and usability Hiring at hyper-growth Agentic AI product design Player-coach (still in Figma) Multi-product portfolio management

Experience & Education.

My six years at Booking.com were the most formative of my career. I started as a UX Designer and was quickly promoted to team lead of a multidisciplinary team focused on integrating payment user flows into the ecosystem. I grew into managing 35 direct reports across 8 teams, interviewed and hired over 250 people, and created a “Design for Frontend” course that trained 200+ designers across the organization. Running A/B experiments at a platform processing over 2 million bookings a day taught me that data humbles even the best instincts. One experiment delivered a 100% increase in conversion. Curious what I did? Let’s chat.

That foundation prepared me to found Stinger Studios, where I applied everything I’d learned about research-driven design and performance marketing to help small and mid-size businesses grow, delivering 290% traffic increases and consistent 3:1 return on ad spend. When Concentrix Catalyst came calling, I returned to enterprise scale: first leading a research consulting team embedded with Microsoft. Then, when Concentrix decided to build agentic AI products for its customer-service clients, I moved from the consulting side to lead design for the new internal Product group, owning design for both of the products it shipped, iX Hero and iX Hello, with 11 direct reports across 4 product suites, a unified design system, and a ReactJS-integrated component library.

The Master’s in Advertising is the part people don’t expect. It means I can sit in a marketing review and an engineering standup on the same day and be useful in both. At Booking.com that was most of the job: I spent a year getting a skeptical Marketing Science team to adopt a tool my design and engineering team had built, across fifty-plus stakeholders.

What I want next is a design org to build and a product enough people use that the decisions matter. Industry matters less to me than the problem, though I have a soft spot for work that does some good. If that sounds like yours, I’d love to connect.

Experience

Founder & Senior Design Director
Stinger Studios
Apr 2019 – Present · Mebane, NC
Digital design agency for e-commerce and service brands: UX strategy, web development, and paid campaigns. Built a multi-brand equestrian storefront that runs $3.7M in gross sales today, grew another client’s organic traffic 290% in six months, and hold a consistent 3:1 return on ad spend across accounts.
Sr. Group Manager, Experience Design
Concentrix Catalyst
Sep 2022 – Sep 2025 · Remote
Spent the first 18 months leading a research consulting team embedded with Microsoft, then moved internally to lead design for a new agentic AI product group, owning design for iX Hero and iX Hello: 11 direct reports across 4 product suites and a ReactJS-integrated design system built from scratch.
Director of Product Design
Booking.com
May 2017 – Apr 2019 · Amsterdam, NL
Booking.com used flat internal titles. Roles are described by scope.
Led the design and engineering of the Dynamic Creative Tool, taking campaign delivery from one every six weeks to twenty per week (20x velocity). Bridged Marketing Communications and Tech across fifty-plus stakeholders.
Senior Manager, Design and Development
Booking.com
Dec 2015 – May 2017 · Amsterdam, NL
Led 35 direct reports across 8 teams of designers, researchers, frontend and backend engineers. Scaled the org 120% through global recruiting and hired 250+ during hyper-growth.
UX Design Lead
Booking.com
Mar 2013 – Dec 2015 · Amsterdam, NL
Led the design and build of global payment integrations directly into the Booking.com checkout, including Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Alipay. Created the ‘Design for Frontend’ course for 200+ designers and ran usability testing, persona development, and A/B tests across the funnel.
Earlier Roles
UX Design Lead at Duda (Palo Alto) · UX Designer at PayPal (Baltimore) · 2007–2013

Education

Master of Arts, Advertising
University of Texas
2010 – 2012 · Austin, TX
Master Certificate, Digital Multimedia & Web Design
The Johns Hopkins University
2006 – 2007 · Baltimore, MD
Bachelor of Science, Advertising
Appalachian State University
1999 – 2003 · Boone, NC

Working with Meredith.

I’ve managed designers, researchers, and engineers for most of the last fifteen years. Here is what four of them say about it.

Meredith is a unique product and digital design leader. She brings empathy, optimism, deep expertise and a lot of grit to the role. At Concentrix she built high-functioning teams, distinguishing herself as a great leader and mentor for designers, developers and basically anyone who crossed her path. She tackles complexity with creativity, rigor and enthusiasm, keeping a high bar for quality and open mind.
Colin O'Neill
CX/DX Strategy & Design Leader
Colin managed Meredith at Concentrix
Meredith is an inspirational leader, a motivational whirlwind, who's knowledge and strength in conviction is rivalled only by her kindness. As a manager you couldn't ask for better, as a design leader you're unlikely to find someone with the same creative energy or passion. Meredith is highly technical when needed and can tell a story to translate complex problems into actionable solutions.
David Bullock
Product Design Lead at Pixaera
David reported to Meredith at Booking.com
Her leadership style is both strategic and supportive. She consistently made sure the team had the clarity, resources, and structure needed to deliver high-quality work. I especially appreciated how she created space for thoughtful discovery, encouraged cross-functional collaboration, and maintained a strong focus on client impact. Meredith brings a rare balance of operational excellence and people-first leadership.
Jesus Guillermo de León Pérez
UX Design and Research Lead
Meredith was senior to Jesus Guillermo at Concentrix
Working with Meredith always feels true and inspiring. She is cheerful and forward looking. When working with Concentrix we had the opportunity to build an impactful optimisation solution and showcase best in class delivery. Meredith was all the time essential to the team building that turned out easy and effective. I truly recommend Meredith as she is a great leader and communicator.
Jacek Ziemski
Senior Designer
Jacek reported to Meredith at Concentrix
Companies I've Worked With

Let's build something together.

I'm open to design leadership roles at Director, Senior Director, Head of Design, and VP level. Remote, or hybrid around the NC Triangle.

Or connect with me on LinkedIn.