I'm a strategic design leader focused on building the next generation of AI-native products and cognitive systems. By day, I'm Executive Director of Strategic Design at frog design. By night, I teach Design Strategies as an adjunct at NYU and build cognitive systems like this one.
For 11 years at frog I've led multi-disciplinary teams through high-stakes product innovation challenges for Fortune 500 companies across a wide range of industries. Over the past year, my role has shifted to working almost exclusively on AI product design, with a focus on cognitive and agentic systems. That's required me to step back into a player-coach mode: leading creative exploration with the new mediums while still fulfilling senior management duties.
My core thesis is that cognitive systems (i.e. the systems of structured knowledge, data, and reasoning frameworks that enable high quality agentic experiences) will drive the next wave of growth and product innovation. This RAG Resume is itself a cognitive system, designed to demonstrate that thesis firsthand.
What I'm looking for next
I am looking for a role where I can design AI systems that amplify human agency and improve the human experience.
I believe all leaders need to be hands on with the new AI mediums and tools in order to effectively drive teams and create value. I am aiming to find a player-coach role where I can get hands on as a full-stack AI product builder while still leveraging 12+ years of strategic leadership experience to lead teams when necessary.
I'm seeking both principal and director roles, as long as they empower building alongside leadership.
Portfolio
Download PDFA visual selection of recent work. Click any page to flip through full-size, or download the full PDF.
Scroll horizontally · click any page to expand
Resume
Download PDFCraig Cisero
Executive Director of Strategic Design · frog design · Brooklyn, NY
Strategic design leader with 12 years of experience designing products and growth strategies. I'm currently focused on designing the next generation of AI-native products and cognitive systems. I think in systems, I build things, and I'm most energized when I'm converting abstract complexity into something actionable.
Professional Experience
frog design
PresentMar 2015 – Present
Executive Director of Strategic Design
New York, NY / Milan, Italy
- Lead multidisciplinary teams through high-stakes growth strategy and product design for F500 clients.
- Ship 0-to-1 products: structure ambiguity, find the breakthrough insight, and carry strategy through to market.
- Head of Strategy for frog North America, growing a team of 25 strategists and evolving our op model.
- Full-stack AI builder, shipping production-quality product with modern AI pipelines.
- Launched 20+ new products, built 4 net-new businesses, and contributed to over $100M in value creation.
NYU
Jan 2021 – Present
Adjunct Professor — Design Strategies
New York, NY
- Teach engineering and design students how to integrate design vision into high-impact business strategy.
Amazon
Jun – Dec 2014
Vendor Manager (MBA Internship)
Milan, Italy
- Designed strategy to accelerate growth of new retail category, driving 2x revenue and a 500-point margin increase.
Key Projects
Digital Growth & Product Strategy
| U.S. Healthcare System- Defined a digital growth strategy that unlocked a multi-year investment commitment from the board.
- Launched 3 new digital health products including a postpartum telehealth subscription and a healthspan platform.
- Hoag Nona (postpartum product) has driven 60% adoption among new mothers and ~$10M LTV uplift.
Platform Growth Strategy
| Deliveroo- Increased rider retention and market share through a rider kit redesign.
- Rolled out across 180k riders globally; supported revenue growth from £700M to £2.2B between 2019–2023.
- Led multi-method research and product vision, including a custom experiment to quantify growth projections.
Full-Stack AI Product Builds
| Multiple Clients & Personal Projects- Walmart Hybrid Personas: “live” agentic personas that react to market signals every day to identify new opportunities.
- Living Research Model: cognitive system that converts insights into a live knowledge layer for strategy decisions.
- Keystone (personal): structured AI context engine for personal finance management.
Education
SDA Bocconi
MBA — Strategy & Innovation focus
Milan, Italy
2013 – 2014
University of Maryland
B.A. International Economics
College Park, MD
2005 – 2009
Additional Skills
Core
AI
Get in touch
Interested in working together, or just want to talk shop? I'd love to hear from you.