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Jean Kaluza

@jeankaluza

Applied AI Strategist, Logic Architect, and veteran hospitality product leader with a track record of engineering functional 0-to-1 prototypes

United States

Message

What I'm looking for

I am looking for opportunities that allow me to leverage my research skills to create user-centered designs and drive product strategy. Since building my own app within VS, I’m looking for companies that want a "strategic advisor and rapid prototyper, auditing workflows with enterprise stakeholders, identifying high-impact AI opportunities, and independently building Proof of Concepts.

While many product leaders approach Generative AI R&D from a theoretical or purely business-led lens, I approach it as an Applied AI Strategist & Logic Architect who writes code, tests APIs, and deploys functional software. My technical foundation did not begin with template-based design, but with compiling code in C, managing state engines in ActionScript, and hand-coding low-level HTML/CSS. Today, I leverage that technical background alongside modern AI tools—using VS Code, Cursor, Docker, and terminal-level architectures—to construct "Functional Test-Mules" (0-to-1 prototypes) designed specifically for frictionless enterprise handoff.

Having designed core digital guest experiences for Walt Disney Parks & Resorts Technology, I understand how to translate high-stakes physical guest environments into highly available digital systems. At Disney, I led high-velocity redesign efforts for international guest services, managing cross-functional stakeholder alignments that proved technical feasibility before scaling to millions of daily users. I understand the operational nuances, guest expectations, and scale parameters that define world-class hospitality.

I built and launched my own product, User Mirror. Here, I engineered a GenAI-native qualitative intelligence platform from the ground up, utilizing LLM-Assisted Feature Deployment, Prompt Engineering, and RAG architectures. This was not a visual Figma concept; it was a fully functional, live platform designed, containerized, and deployed to production. I specialized in taking highly unstructured datasets, transforming them through domain-trained AI models, and outputting actionable user insights. This direct experience with emerging GenAI capabilities is exactly what Marriott requires to convert rapid R&D experiments into scalable, high-value enterprise features.

My methodology centers on "Clean Prototype Handoff." I believe R&D should not produce throwaway mockups; it should deliver functional test-mules built with developer-fluent architectures that data science and core engineering teams can deploy immediately. My background in rapid experimentation, combined with structured ethical AI guardrails, ensures that innovation on your team will move quickly while remaining aligned with enterprise security, privacy, and regulatory standards.

I look forward to discussing how my blend of expertise, technical product leadership, and practical GenAI prototyping capabilities can accelerate your team’s pipeline.

Warmly,

Jean Kaluza (she/her)

Applied AI Strategist, Veteran UX Researcher

Experience

Work history, roles, and key accomplishments

Current

UX Researcher, Product Manager, Founder

Current

The Product Shift

Sep 2018 - Present (7 years 9 months)

Founder and UX Researcher specializing in empathy-based qualitative methodologies. Delivered high-impact solutions for large enterprises and start-ups across various locations. Collaborated with remote teams and stakeholders to inform critical product decisions through rigorous research.
Built partnerships with stakeholder clients to conduct qualitative and quantitative studies.

User Testing Journey Maps Qualitative Sessions Storyboarding Quantitative Methods User Experience User Research Customer Empathy Wireframing Prototyping Open Ended Discovery Workshops Growth Strategies Design Thinking Design Strategy Growth Hacking

UX Designer

Walt Disney Parks & Resorts

Dec 2017 - Mar 2018 (3 months)

Worked as a Technology Innovation & Experience Designer, leading research studies for various projects. Collaborated with Imagineers and other teams to deliver innovative solutions within a six-month contract.

User Experience Design Research Collaboration Project Management Innovation

Lead UX Researcher

Code School

Jun 2015 - Jul 2016 (1 year 1 month)

Led all product features through the design process, including a year-long ethnographic study that resulted in impactful product personas. Developed structured product processes and research methodologies.

Ethnographic Studies Product Management Design Thinking Personas Research Methodologies Product Development Stakeholder Engagement

Innovation & Experience UX Designer

Walt Disney Parks & Resorts Technology

Led high-velocity redesign and technical prototyping for global guest service platforms, impacting operations for millions of international resort guests. Built adaptive enterprise UI frameworks, produced empirical research to inform executive capacity planning, and established design-to-engineering handoff standards that reduced alignment cycles and deployment errors.

UX Design Technical Prototyping Design Systems Enterprise UI Frameworks Agile R&D Stakeholder Management User Research Journey Mapping Design to Engineering Handoff Technical Feasibility

UX Research & Product Strategy

UX Cabin

Advised enterprise clients on product discovery and technology strategy, executing multi-method research to de-risk major product releases. Mapped complex user journeys across healthcare, finance, and logistics, translating qualitative interview insights into prioritized requirements and high-fidelity prototypes to accelerate user validation.

Product Discovery User Research Journey Mapping Qualitative Data Synthesis Requirements Definition Stakeholder Workshop Facilitation UX Prototyping Survey Modeling Telemetry Analysis Usability Analytics

Lead Product Manager & UX Researcher

Code School & Pluralsight

Owned 0-to-1 product strategy and technical execution for Pluralsight Projects, an interactive portfolio assessment engine used by millions of technology learners. Architected user segmentation and interactive visualizations, partnered with engineering to build web-based coding environments with real-time browser compilation, and drove product-led growth supported by rigorous, data-driven research.

Product Management 0 to 1 Strategy UX Research & Testing User Segmentation Modeling Data Visualization Learning Analytics Web Development Real time Browser Compilation Interactive Assessments Product Led Growth

UX Research Consultant

UX Cabin

Advised enterprise clients on product discovery and technology strategy using multi-method research to de-risk major releases across complex healthcare, finance, and logistics ecosystems. Synthesized dozens of live user interviews into engineering-ready requirements, facilitated stakeholder workshops, and used survey models and telemetry analysis to validate usability improvements and client ROI post-launch.

Product Discovery UX Research Qualitative Interviews User Journey Mapping Requirements Synthesis Prototyping Stakeholder Workshops Survey Design Telemetry Analysis Usability Validation

Founder & Product Architect

FreeBrain

Engineered a GenAI-native qualitative intelligence platform (User Mirror) from 0-to-1 using RAG and LLM-assisted feature deployment, translating unstructured customer data into structured JSON outputs. Implemented Clean Prototype Handoff workflows and ethical AI guardrails, reducing production deployment times by 40% and scaling platform capability without compounding technical debt.