Head of Product Design · Hilton Grand Vacations
About
I lead UX and product design through systems, tooling, operating cadence, and teams that can ship consistently.
My focus is the end-user journey — customer, member, and associate — and the design organization required to improve it at every touchpoint. I have built and managed teams, stood up Design Operations from zero, and implemented cross-platform design systems and the technical frameworks around them.
How I lead
At Home Depot, Design Ops, a component library, and a home for brand standards did not exist when I stepped in. I built the function, the team, and the adoption path in parallel with product, engineering, marketing, and creative.
I grow teams against business outcomes. Expanding from 2 to 8 direct reports followed evidence that better systems reduced cost and increased throughput.
Experience
2026
Head of Product Design — Hilton Grand Vacations
Accountable for product design across HGV’s digital experience.
2025
Design Operations Manager — Hilton Grand Vacations
Stood up Design Operations for HGV, then promoted to Head of Product Design.
2024
Sr. UX Manager, Headless UI Design Systems — Gap Inc.
Strategy and execution for a Headless UI design system across Gap, Banana Republic, Athleta, and Old Navy. Centralized systems and tooling that improved experience quality and team throughput. Average 15% lift in user-experience metrics across brands.
2021
UX Manager, Design Ops — The Home Depot
Led a multidisciplinary UX team. Partnered with leadership, Online UX, Creative, Marketing, Engineering, and Product. Accountable for Stencil, design tooling, system strategy, and people-ops systems for the online UX organization.
2019
Staff UX Designer, Enterprise Ops — The Home Depot
Design Ops lead for Enterprise UX: style guides and prototype libraries, artifact parity with the internal system, WFH tooling through COVID, procurement and security for design software, vendor management, and an internal UX ticketing system via Slack.
2017
Sr. User Experience Designer, Enterprise — The Home Depot
Research, design, and iteration on associate-facing applications inside a 200+ UX org. Self-checkout, receiving, associate training/gamification, and Chrome OS migration exploration. Foundational Enterprise style guide work; critique and lunch-and-learn facilitation.
2015
Sr. Interaction Designer — The Home Depot
Joined as a contractor; converted to full-time in 2016. Helped stand up Enterprise UX as it grew from 13 people to 200+.
Earlier: UX Designer/Developer at LocumTenens (Jackson Healthcare); Sr. Interaction Designer at Cox Media Group.
Education
Salem State and UMass Dartmouth, Fine Arts concentration. Bachelor’s in Business Management, University of Phoenix. Award-winning artist and designer (BBC America poster finalist, IDW Orphan Black feature, SpiceWorks grand prize) with 15+ years across media, product, and systems.
What colleagues say
Denise has the unique ability to create order and logic without a playbook to follow. When she joined as Design Operations Manager, we had never had that role. We did not have a Design System, a component library, a place that housed brand standards and guidelines. Denise did not shrink from this enormous challenge. She builds teams from scratch, meets deadlines, and exceeds expectations.
Janna Hill, Senior Manager of User Experience, The Home Depot
Denise communicates with transparency, advocates for her team, and has an attention to detail. I especially appreciate her willingness to tackle large, complex opportunities. She identifies the resources, processes, and tools required for success. She is a strong manager who would be an asset to any organization looking to take their UX practice to the next level.
J. Swirsky, Sr. Product Manager, Stencil design system, The Home Depot
She is hands down the easiest person to drop into an existing product team and get results. She understands how to separate design critique from personal critique. That is a huge asset to a team with constantly emerging priorities.
Rachel Modugno, Software Engineering Sr. Manager, The Home Depot