John Manicke profile picture with a yellow background

I like turning complex ideas into delightful products.

Comfortable navigating ambiguity, evolving strategy, and large-scale transformation. I design for how people actually work, and today that means working alongside AI.

Longtime practitioner of digital product design, platform strategy, and team leadership. My work has been like a Venn Digram of human-centered design, AI-native product thinking, and the organizational accumen required to ship at scale.

I've led UX across complex product ecosystems where AI isn't simply a feature, it's the core interaction model. That means designing for ambiguity, probability, and outputs users can't fully predict, while keeping experiences coherent and trustworthy.

I align Product, Engineering, and Data teams around cohesive experiences, and help organizations build the operating models and design culture needed to move with clarity as AI capabilities force teams to rethink what products can and should do.

A collaborative partner to product, engineering, and executive leaders. Comfortable shaping AI product strategy, facilitating ambiguous decisions, and translating emerging capabilities into direction teams can actually execute, with a focus on strong design culture, practical decision frameworks, and durable systems that scale.

This site reflects projects and initiatives that I've had the privilege to work on with very talented teams. I care deeply about attribution. Everything here was built alongside a thoughtful team of collaborators.

If you’d like to connect, feel free to email me: johnmanicke@gmail.com

I've worked with some great companies.

logos from Samsung, Starbucks, Toyota, Strategy, ESPN, Home Depot, Mercedes and Shop Rite