Sara Shuman

AI-Powered Product & UX Design Leader

Experience

Sara Shuman brings a balance of technical and aesthetic experience to any interactive design project.

With 12 years of digital design experience and 5 years developing AI-enhanced SaaS platforms, she is a strong candidate for AI SaaS product and Conversational AI chat UI/UX lead positions. Sara has extensive B2B and B2C SaaS product design experience and has successfully led various digital creative teams. She works closely with developers, product managers, and other stakeholders to understand user needs and goals, as well as the capabilities and limitations of technology.

AI Product & Conversational UI/UX Leader

USC Libraries, Jan 2023 – Current (contract)

Led design and testing of the USC Interactive Interviews, a video-based AI chatbot that preserves and shares historically significant stories at USC Libraries. Created conversational flows that feel natural, intuitive, and engaging while integrating seamlessly with video responses. Applied human-centered design and behavioral psychology principles to improve clarity, tone, and responsiveness.

LINK: USC Digital Repository – Interactive Interviews   VIEW SaaS DESIGN WORK

AI Conversation UI/UX Designer

Amazon Alexa, June 2025 – current (contract)

Contributed to conversational AI development for Alexa Plus pre-release, creating frameworks and evaluation systems to enhance natural dialogue and personality expression. Developed training protocols to improve emotional intelligence, contextual adaptation, and user engagement. Established metrics and evaluation standards to measure conversation quality across multiple dimensions.

Senior AI SaaS Product Designer

Phoenix Labs AI, July 2024 – December 2024 (contract)

Designed and prototyped Firebird, an AI-powered SaaS platform for interactive podcasts and video chatbots. Created intuitive SaaS dashboards, subscription flows, analytics screens, and AI Avatar Agent build experiences. Applied AI-First design principles and a 50/50 strategy to balance user delight with business outcomes. Conducted usability testing and iterative design improvements to ensure scalable, engaging user experiences. VIEW DESIGN WORK

AI Conversational Designer

Amazon Alexa, April 2024 – July 2024 (contract)

Contributed to Amazon’s Metis LLM (powered by Olympus with RAG) to improve Alexa’s conversational intelligence. Developed specialized AI training protocols to make Alexa less verbose, improving clarity, pacing, and user satisfaction. Refactored conversational patterns to ensure interactions were on-brand, emotionally engaging, and user-friendly.

Head of AI Product Design

StoryFile, March 2020 – Dec 2022

Directed design and development of the Conversa SaaS platform, powering StoryFile’s video-based AI chatbots (“videos that talk back”). Designed and trained conversational flows, integrating natural language processing and AI training to mimic real conversations. Built and refined chat log frameworks to analyze interactions, improve AI accuracy, and enhance long-term user engagement. Conducted usability testing to validate conversational patterns, optimize video-based interactions, and improve overall user experience.  WATCH 60-MINUTES VIDEO: https://youtu.be/aWT4zueWAt8

Creative Director/PM

PerimeterX, July 2019 – May 2020 (contract)
Led a holistic redesign of perimeterx.com with the main goals to increase demand generation and implement a more modern rebrand. Helped develop a backend CMS system to enable the internal team to publish the site. Delivered a more product-focused user experience that helps potential customers find what they are looking for. Successfully increased demand generation by x6. I was asked to extend my engagement to help Project Manage implement Phase 2 website enhancements.

Before and After Dashboard Views

Digital Creative Director

Oracle, Jan 2010 – March 2019

Responsible for leading the interactive UX/UI/Demand Generation/Production team of 25+ who created, designed, and measured usability success for all of Oracle’s web marketing properties–including demand generation, emails, landing pages, and mobile touch applications. Developed and implemented fresh new ways to present products and services for Oracle.