John McGinn

John McGinn — Resume

Designer + Founder

Charleston, SC · j@mcginn.co · (206) 406-3284

I design and scale AI-powered systems that act on behalf of people. My approach is clarity, trust, and intent-led design — creating agentic platforms that transform enterprise work.

Currently leading design and architecture for Slack and Salesforce’s Self-Service and Growth experiences — the surfaces where AI agents do work in the user’s flow. Founder of Fountain, an ambient AI hardware concept.

Twenty years of bringing visual craft, design systems thinking, and team leadership to inflection moments. I think the best AI experiences will feel as quiet and obvious as the best of any other kind of design — and we’re very early in figuring out what that means.

Experience

2021 — Present

Salesforce + Slack

San Francisco, CA

Lead design + architecture across Salesforce and Slack. Joined Salesforce as Principal Product Designer in Feb 2021; grew through Director and Senior Director into broader leadership across Suite and Slack.

Lead design for Agentic experience — making AI feel like part of the work, not a separate tool. Shape conversation-driven, trustworthy agentic systems that unify Salesforce and Slack at enterprise scale. Recent and current work spans the integration of Salesforce CRM into Slack, the Salesforce / OpenAI MCP integration, the Salesforce / Google Workspace integration, Salesforce Suite, and applying the new SLDS2 design system.

Selected outcomes

  • Architected platforms across Salesforce + Slack that grew multi-billion ARR.
  • Pioneered design-led trust and governance frameworks for agentic AI now shaping the future of enterprise platforms.
  • Salesforce Suite — drove meaningful gains in sign-up rates, trial-to-logo conversion, Starter customer growth, and post-trial expansion.
  • Scaled design organization and processes to accelerate product velocity across large engineering teams.
  • Established the cross-functional design governance council overseeing enterprise design quality across product organizations.
  • Regularly present design strategy to CTO, CPO, and EVP audiences; speaker at Dreamforce.

2024 — Present

Founder · Fountain

Seattle, WA

A concept for ambient AI hardware — a wearable Pin and a desktop Stand that project intelligence into the physical world rather than behind a screen. In research and prototyping. thefountain.ai

2016 — 2021

Co-Founder, Product Design Director · Elevar

Charleston, SC

Co-founded Elevar, an analytics product that brought conversational interfaces to ecommerce reporting before chatbots were cool. Drove product vision, design, and naming. Exited 2021.

2014 — 2018

UX Design and Innovation Consultant (Redshift) · Autodesk

San Francisco, CA

Led design strategy for Redshift, Autodesk's brand publication and content marketing initiative — increased engagement 10×. Designed mobile applications for "Future of Cities" and IoT projects. Webby, Digiday, CMA, and Davey awards.

2010 — 2011

Creative Principal · Blackbaud

Charleston, SC

Strategic and tactical leadership for nonprofit clients including Make-A-Wish, Habitat for Humanity, the Arthritis Society, and International Justice Mission.

Education & certification

2026

Leading for Success

University of California, Berkeley · Haas School of Business

What others have said

“100% — John is the best designer I have worked with at Salesforce. He has been key in every step we have taken as a team.”

— EVP & GM, Salesforce

“John will make an outstanding VP design leader. He has that rare-to-find approachability, craft, and skill that somehow removes the tension in a room.”

— VP UX, Salesforce

“I counted myself incredibly lucky to hire and bring John to my team. He brings an eye for visual execution that cannot be taught, and an innate ability to craft beautiful & intuitive solutions out of massive amounts of ambiguity.”

— Design lead, Atlassian

“He adds a sense of calm to every meeting.”

— VP Content, Salesforce

“After working with John for over 18 years, I consider him to be a top notch thinker. His creative energy brings a fresh perspective to any project.”

— Former manager (18+ year working relationship)

Selected clients (across roles)

Autodesk · Bristol Myers Squibb · Novartis · Boehringer Ingelheim · NASCAR · Major League Baseball · US Air Force · International Justice Mission · Make-A-Wish · Habitat for Humanity · Tableau · Mulesoft · Heroku

What I bring

  • AI experience design
  • Design leadership at scale
  • Generative & agentic interfaces
  • Product architecture
  • Founder-operator track record
  • Visual craft and brand
  • Hardware concept development
  • Design systems
  • Cross-functional executive partnership