Product Design · Design Executive · Erie, Colorado

Taylor
Dollarhide

I've spent 25+ years building design functions from scratch inside organizations that couldn't afford to wait. Pre-funding startups. Post-acquisition platforms. Companies on the edge of collapse. I've done the work in every condition except a comfortable one.

I closed Series A funding through design. I compressed 90-day onboarding to 9. I've led without a design team more often than with one — which means I've learned to move organizations through engineers, PMs, and executives when no design infrastructure existed to back me up.

The org model the industry is collapsing toward — lean, fast, AI-augmented, cross-functional — is the one I've been operating in for 25 years. I push AI to its capability edges on complex system problems. I know where it helps, where it halts, and what still requires judgment to resolve.
Taylor Dollarhide
90%
Reduction in time-to-revenue · Orderful
$15M
Series A closed via design · CirrusMD
$10M+
ARR scaled from <$1M · Orderful
20+
Products unified · TrueCommerce

Career
2025–Present
Senior Director of Product Design
TrueCommerce
Stabilizing and scaling the design org for a ~$180M global supply chain platform — consolidating 20+ acquired products into a unified enterprise system while establishing design foundations that didn't exist.
2025
Head of Design
FINSYNC · 6-month engagement
Led 3 senior designers through a full onboarding and matching system redesign under significant organizational pressure. 39% lift in match rate, 37% expansion in match coverage, 23% improvement in post-paywall engagement.
2021–2025
Head of Product Design
Orderful
Built the design function from zero. Compressed onboarding from 90 days to 9. Launched WebEDI, opening a market traditional EDI had always locked out. Instrumental in scaling from <$1M to $10M+ ARR.
2020–2021
Lead Product Designer — Founding DAT iQ
DAT Freight & Analytics
Founding design team member for the freight industry's first intelligence platform. Built from zero. Secured $MM in executive budget through a multi-year design roadmap presentation to C-suite leadership.
2019–2020
Head of Design
AngelMD
Redesigned a multi-sided healthcare investment platform. Rearchitected the account model — from role-as-identity to Base Account + role layers — solving the hybrid physician-investor-founder user problem at the structural level.
2015–2019
Director of Product Design
CirrusMD
Joined pre-Series A when the company nearly ran out of money. Design-led work directly contributed to closing $15M in Series A funding — scaling ARR from $1M to $10M+. Designed Advanced Provider Support — 46% faster clinical encounters. Invented Color Math for enterprise white-labeling. Kaiser Permanente and Aetna at scale.
2014–2015
Principal Product Designer
Sling TV (via Acumen Digital)
Headhunted from STARZ by the CPO. Embedded in the innovation lab with unrestricted mandate. Led cross-vendor team of 4 designers across 6 streaming platforms. Designed the Channel Navigator — the industry's first à la carte live TV lineup builder.
2013–2014
Senior UX Designer
STARZ
Produced Chromecast documentation Google called the best they'd seen — better than HBO and Netflix. Managed 2 junior designers. Built apps across 7 platforms. Introduced flow state thinking to content discovery.
2001–2013
Independent Designer, Creative Director & Educator
Early career
Senior Designer at Gaiam — designed marketing collateral generating $80K+ in single-email sales, repeated four times. Creative Director at Hosting.com — full rebrand and digital tooling. Graphic & Web Designer at Freemotion Fitness. Graphic Designer at Xcel Energy across an 8-state energy market. Design faculty at Valor Christian High School. Game Arts & Design faculty at Westwood College — started 6 months after graduating with a BS in Visual Communication.
2025–Present
Co-Founder / Operator
Brass & Bunker Co.
Built a DTC brand with my brother — an active firefighter and military veteran — from zero. 300% YoY revenue growth. Owns all product strategy, brand, and go-to-market.

How I work now

The interview question used to be walk me through your portfolio. I think it's becoming talk me through your toolkit.

The position
Human judgment is the dominant skill in the AI era. Not prompting. Not knowing which tools exist. The ability to recognize a good output from a bad one — what some people call taste — is what separates a design leader from a design executor right now.
How I use it
I use AI as leverage, not replacement. It compresses the distance between idea and artifact. My job is to know exactly where that compression creates value and where it creates confident mistakes.
Portfolio vs. skills file
A portfolio shows what you shipped. A skills file shows how you think — the tooling, the process, the judgment calls that got you there. You can't fake a live walkthrough the way you can dress up a case study.
The edge
I've pushed AI to its capability edges on complex system problems. I know where it helps, where it halts, and what still requires judgment to resolve. That's not a feature. That's the standard now.

Why it matters now
Large design orgs running two-week sprints are getting gutted. AI is collapsing the execution layer. The companies that win won't rebuild the old model with AI bolted on — they'll restructure around a small number of high-leverage design leaders who can think, build, direct, and ship without ceremony. I've never had the luxury of design infrastructure. I've built with engineers, moved through executives, and shipped complex products lean. That wasn't a limitation. That was training.
How I lead
Create Clarity
Create Clarity
Reduce uncertainty so teams can move. Clearly outline goals, objectives, and roadmaps so team members feel connected to the vision — not just the deliverable.
Seek Transparency
Seek Transparency
Building the best means seeing the broader picture. Open, honest work lets everyone contribute to the solution — not just the people in the room.
Build Collaboratively
Build Collaboratively
Design is a team sport. Work together, practice together, deliver together. The best outcomes come from cross-functional teams that trust each other.
Facilitate Autonomy
Facilitate Autonomy
Let the team identify, discuss, and solve problems. Set expectations, unblock progress, get out of the way. The leader's job is to make the team more capable, not more dependent.
Embrace Failure
Embrace Failure
Failure isn't a bad word. Without it we can't learn and produce the big breakthrough. I've built inside enough chaos to know: the teams that can fail are the teams that can win.
Demonstrate Value
Demonstrate Value
My team's personal growth is as important as their professional growth. I roll up my sleeves when needed and make sure the people who shine get noticed for their work — not mine.

What people say
I had the chance to work closely with Taylor Dollarhide for 3 years when he was at Orderful. We collaborated day-to-day on product features, and I really valued having him as a counterpart. Taylor often challenged my perspective positively — he approached problems differently, which pushed us toward more creative and effective solutions. He cared deeply about user experience, which showed in the way he turned complex product challenges into simple, intuitive designs. He had a great balance between providing the design vision while also offering practical iterations that kept the team moving forward fast. As the only designer on the team, Taylor took on a leadership role in building our entire design system. His work streamlined cross-collaboration between product, engineering, and other internal stakeholders. It also set a strong foundation for the designers who would come after him. Taylor was simply great to work with — collaborative, open-minded, and a genuinely cool teammate. I'd love to have the opportunity to collaborate with him again.
Amelie Roux
Director of Onboarding (Product Team) · Orderful
I had the pleasure of working closely with Taylor during our time at Orderful, where he was our Head of Product Design while I handled product marketing. When we went through a major rebrand, Taylor jumped in to help with marketing resources and honestly became one of our most valuable players throughout the entire process. What I loved about working with Taylor was how naturally he could think strategically about problems outside his usual scope — he didn't just provide design support, he really understood the bigger picture and helped us figure out how to keep our brand consistent across marketing materials and the actual product experience. Taylor's work ethic is impressive. He created dozens of sales decks, one-pagers, event booth designs, web pages, and all sorts of marketing materials while still keeping up with his regular product design work. What really stood out to me was how Taylor approached everything with the team's long-term success in mind — he built resources that actually taught the rest of us how to keep building on what he started. Taylor brings together strategic thinking, creative talent, and genuine teamwork in a way that's pretty rare. Any team would be lucky to have him.
Gem Nwannem, MBA
Product Marketing · Orderful
Working with Taylor for two years at Orderful was really great. As the head of Product Design, Taylor demonstrated exceptional vision and a profound understanding of our users' needs. He led constructive product design sessions, where he invested time in carefully explaining design decisions and their reasoning. His impact was not just felt on our product offerings, but also is reflected in our team and certainly left an impression on me.
Sreeram I.
Engineering · Orderful
Taylor is the most complete designer with whom I have ever had the pleasure of collaborating and building a product suite. A talented designer is not only the primary voice of the user, but an individual who can generate a vision for a product suite while ensuring the needs of the business, management of technical and business risk, and engineering wherewithal to make their vision a reality. Taylor can handle all of these requirements with aplomb. What he has done is nothing short of exceptional, and he is poised to take on any challenge that is put in front of him.
Chris Losocco
Product · Sling TV & AngelMD
I'm fairly sure that Taylor is magic. His approach to UX yields the perfect blend of form and function, taking into account business goals, aesthetics, utility, and usability. His experience and his hunger for constant improvement has given him a perspective and a decision-making framework that is the best I've ever seen in action. He's a pleasure to work with and his work ethic is unparalleled. I would jump at the chance to be on his team every time.
John Cox
Principal Engineer · Sling TV & AngelMD
Taylor is the best of the best. Certainly the most talented Visual Designer I have ever worked with and managed. I've enjoyed watching Taylor tinker in his flow-state making magic happen. I managed Taylor at STARZ and recruited him to Acumen (Sling TV) where he advanced the UX and design systems.
Jared Harbaugh
UX + Engineering · STARZ → Acumen Digital / Sling TV
Taylor was the first design hire at CirrusMD where he quickly and positively inserted himself as the leader of our product design process, brand direction, online presence, universal design language, and company culture — always leading by reiterating the importance of design in any initiative. His academic, thoughtful approach to building rad things was a great addition to our product engineering team. I would gladly hire or work with Taylor again.
Aaron Duke
VP of Product · CirrusMD
As the leader of the design team, Taylor is organized, supportive, and generous with his time and attention. He guides his direct reports from inception to the finish line with encouragement and levity. Taylor is also a talented product strategist, which directly impacts the company's strategy and roadmap. I experienced firsthand Taylor's ability to innovate and accurately predict trends while guiding our team's future thinking. I especially appreciate his focus on process and communication — he implemented steps and procedures to guarantee we were producing validated, high-quality deliverables in the right cadence with product and engineering.
Kris Lunstrum
UX Designer · CirrusMD
Taylor's patience, willingness to educate, openness to diverse perspectives, and consistent, always-steady manner made me and my team better marketers. His partnership helped both our teams bring incredible value to our overall organization — evident in our digital design, brand identity, and thoughtful marketing influence on product launches. Taylor's thoughtfulness, empathy, and commitment to design thinking ensure that anything he touches will resonate powerfully with the intended end-user. If you are looking to build a human-centered team or product, Taylor is an essential ingredient to your equation.
Elizabeth Moore
Director of Marketing · CirrusMD

Let's talk about
what we can build.

If you're hiring a VP of Design, scaling a product through an inflection point, or need a design executive who operates at the edge — I'd like to connect. 25 years of turning chaos into outcomes, across every industry that matters.