Stefan Kovalik

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Product Designer · web, mobile, e-commerce

People decide in milliseconds. I design for that.

San Francisco, CA · [email protected] · +1 805-708-9047

stefankovalik.com · linkedin.com/in/kovalik

Designs web, mobile and e-commerce products end to end, from the first screen to checkout, for how people decide. At Simply Smart Home, designed a PhotoShare app update that shipped after handoff to the development team in India.

Experience

Founder, Aurochs October 2025 to present

  • Can take a site from brief to full-site Figma comps within two days, and to a finished site in one to four weeks.

Simply Smart Home (Switchmate) 2019 to 2025

Lead Product Designer (2019 to 2022), then Design Director (2022 to 2025)

Led all design for a five-person cross-functional team without formal reports, owning every design project from brief to launch.

  • Refreshed the PhotoShare and ClicSmart apps, reskins of Tuya-based apps, with design systems, components and prototypes in Adobe XD and Figma.
  • As Lead Product Designer, designed and developed the e-commerce website, with a 22% increase in e-commerce sales. A/B tested checkout and Amazon listing copy.
  • Designed the next PhotoShare update, approved but not built, aimed at raising the average of 4.5 photos sent per user a week.
  • Replaced two agencies, creative and marketing, so design turnaround went from a week with outside vendors to two days.

Founder, Kovalik Design January 2019 to June 2021

  • Rebranded and redesigned VacuumSealersUnlimited.com and migrated its 2,000+ products to WooCommerce, quadrupling revenue to $5M+ annually.

The iO Theater March 2016 to January 2020

Website Designer, Developer, and Administrator

  • Led iO's side of the Ticketfly program with a team of four. The online share of ticket sales grew from 50% to 75%.

Tantum Technologies June 2010 to 2016

Co-Founder / Website Designer

  • Built and launched websites for 15+ startup ventures, most of them backed by Shark Tank's Barbara Corcoran.

Volunteer

QTBIPOC Design August 2020 to present

Technology Director / Brand Strategist, volunteer

  • Led a volunteer team of five designers, three through launch, for six months through the organization's first brand system.

Portfolio

Simply Smart Home cases at stefankovalik.com: product and app design; brand, packaging and retail; web and campaigns.

Skills

Figma, Adobe XD, HTML, CSS and JavaScript, WordPress and WooCommerce.

UX research, wireframing, prototyping and information architecture, design systems and components, A/B testing.

Education

University of California, Santa Barbara 2011

B.A. in Psychology (focus: cognitive psychology)