Gunthar.com work

I’m a technology and media professional working at the intersection of research, design, and development, building new products, services, and platforms.

Throughout my career I've worked with innovative organizations spanning industries such as reality capture, nature tech, drones and robotics, online video, social media, home entertainment, fintech, health and wellness, and more.

I endeavor to be a collaborative, energetic, and inclusive leader and colleague, invested in my team’s and organization’s success. I bring with me a growth mindset aimed at finding how my skills and experience can augment the expertise and needs of those organizations I am working with.
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Experience

With over two decades of experience, I bring a wide range of capabilities to bear. I am particularly attuned to the needs of organizations that are building their technical understanding and product development team and practice.

‍Product Leadership and Innovation

‍Define and execute innovative product vision and strategy in conjunction with leadership and aligning with organizational objectives.
Proven track record of dozens of successful launches for organizations from Fortune 500 to early-stage startups.
Focus on leading edge technologies, leading to multiple patents.

User and Product Research

Establish and run high-impact qualitative User Research processes for product discovery and feature validation.
Implement quantitative analytics systems to provide metrics measuring impacts and outcomes.

Product Design

Lead and implement human-centric design, ensuring powerful technology is accessible and intuitive, and delivers against product and business objectives.
Spearhead the creation of design systems to improve development speed and UI quality.

Organizational Scaling and Team Building

Building and scaling growth-oriented product organizations and practices from the ground up.
Guiding, leading collaborative, energetic, and inclusive cross-functional teams to deliver on ambitious objectives.

Process Definition & Project Management

Developing effective cross-functional and cross-team processes and practices.
Direct management of projects from concept to completion.

Technology for Conservation

Technology Consulting and Field Operations

2021-2026

Over the last few years, I have had the opportunity to work with a number of organizations focussed on conservation and restoration of forests, particularly in the Choco-Andino of Western Ecuador.

I've provided consulting on technology and process, as well as leveraged my experience in reality capture and field operations to gather data and provide capacity-building training.

In addition, I've been involved with a number of nature technology related industry groups, at which I have done numerous presentations and event facilitations.
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Image Processing at Scale

Head of Product, Special Projects Consultant

2022-2025

Imgix is a pioneer in the management, optimization and delivery of media via its global CDN and advanced internal technology. Its capabilities are a core component of the technology stack of a businesses across a side range of industries - media, e-commerce, real estate, and more.

Working closely with the CEO, engineering leadership, and other stakeholders, I developed and rolled out comprehensive product strategy that built on the platforms core strengths and positioned it to leverage emerging AI technologies at scale.

Healthy Eating Made Simple

Director of Design & User Experience

2017-2018

Zipongo (now Foodsmart) provides software tools and services with the working premise that "food is medicine."

While there I lead a major redesign of the mobile product, architected UX and service design for new business initiatives targeting health systems, provided creative direction for growth & engagement content initiatives, photoshoots, and video production, and built the design team and practices.

Empowering Entrepreneurs

Director of User Experience

2013-2016

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‍Circleup's mission was to provide capital and resources to promising companies working across the CPG space, a sector which doesn't have the same pathways or needs as technology. A particular focus of the organization was to create more neutral, software based mechanisms that provide access and foster inclusivity to services and resources critical to entrepreneurs. 250+ entrepreneurs raised over $300M with CircleUp’s help.

As the first product hire, I partnered with the founders and engineering leads to develope product strategy, lead design across all software product initiates, built the design team and practices, ran research projects, and sat on the senior team.

A Platform for Play

Franchise User Experience Director

2011-2013

In the early 2010's, Zynga was the leader in social gaming, its games played by millions each day. Zynga's go-to hub and optimized game play experience for its dedicated players.

• Design of a standalone gaming portal, new account system, engaging interactive features, third party game development.
• 1 Million DAU within first 6 months.
• Increased NPS and player retention.

Broadcast Yourself

Staff User Experience Designer

2007-2011

UX Lead on multiple product areas during YouTube’s high-growth early years.
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Design for home page, video upload & management, user channels & profiles, site navigation & information architecture, television applications, and more.
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Worked in conjunction with product and engineering teams to create systems and practices for social networking and sharing, personalized content discovery, video quality, content syndication and APIs.

Patents: US8069414, US8468201. US9553947B2. Multiple Filings.

Howdy!