In the latest episode of The Boss Ladies Podcast, Manasi and Sualeha sit down with Kim Ryu, a Product Designer at Microsoft AI, working on designing consumer-facing AI. Previously, Kim has served as a Product Designer at Inflection AI, acquired by Microsoft AI, Product Design Manager with a focus on Investing and Family verticals at CashApp, and senior product design roles at Intuit and Robinhood. Kim is also a painter, illustrator, and editorial artist who has worked with the NYT, The New Yorker, NPR, The Washington Post, NBC, and The Atlantic.
We kick off the episode by discussing Kim’s identity growing up as a Korean-American and its influence on her personal artstyle—in which she frequently uses anthropomorphic figures that are in the process of discovery or survival in a foreign landscape—often breaking the rules of perspective and dripping with symbolism in a dream-like setting.
Kim then dives deeper into her work at Intuit, Robinhood, and Cashapp in designing not only independent financial products but an ecosystem of personal finance. At Intuit, Kim helped design mobile experiences for an app simplifying financial management and tax preparation for the self-employed, an experience that translated to her work at Cash App Taxes, a website to make filing taxes 100% free, regardless of your tax situation. Kim also expands on her work at CashApp in expanding investing to the teenage bracket and increasing accessibility to wealth building for a younger and traditionally financially disadvantaged demographic. Kim also shares more about her transition to Robinhood, where she worked on projects including Robinhood’s Crypto Wallet and Crypto gifting feature, as well as the design for the Robinhood Cash Card.
As we wrap up the episode, Kim shares more about her work at Inflection AI, the creator of pi.ai, a personal AI chatbot that acts as a friendly conversation partner by prioritizing both factual and empathetic support. Kim talks about knowledge gaps as a driving factor for her to try projects in unfamiliar domains, and her experience designing a truly empathetic AI tool.
Kim’s Portfolio: https://www.kimryustudio.com/