About Daniel Ritzenthaler

Hello! My name is Daniel Ritzenthaler. Everyone calls me Dan or Ritz. I enjoy working in the messy creation and evolution phases of a product and, more importantly, the organization behind the product. Helping out with anything loosely related to design. Tools and tactics, people and processes. All of it is interesting and exciting.

I'm at my best when I’m helping people to improve things. At my second best when improving things to help people. People over processes, but processes are still cool.

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The Big Professional Highlights

Second designer at Iora Health through a $2.1 billion acquisition.
Second designer at HubSpot through going public.

Recent Responsibilities

As a consultant with DEPT Agency I supported many design, research, and strategy workshops. Between workshops I was embedded on:

Moody’s Analytics with their product leadership team to flesh out how to merge two acquired companies over two years.
ezCater with their design and growth teams to consolidate multiple design systems and develop onboarding experiments for a year.

Previous Responsibilities

Interim product management role for six months at Iora Health.
Managed a design team for over two years at Iora Health.
Helped build a dedicated research team at HubSpot and an embedded research practice at Iora Health.
Between HubSpot and Iora Health I built a SaaS product (with real users!) to explore starting my own company.
Coached product managers at HubSpot to develop better user-centered practices.
Helped build HubSpot's first design system.
Cofounded a small design agency that worked with several Fortune 100s, a few 10s, and one 1 (Walmart at the time).

An adult male sitting in a home office wearing a t-shirt a hat with 'design' written across the front

Do you like my hat?

I’ve written in various places around the internet over the years. They’ve been moved and lightly edited here, but if you’d like to read them as they were originally published:

Chapter 9 of Intercom's book on Jobs‑to‑be‑Done titled Asking Why the Right Way
Match the Tool to the Problem and What Does it Mean to be Simple? on 52 Weeks of UX
Decoupling Usability and Visuals on UX Booth
Taking the Guesswork Out of Design on A List Apart

In a professional environment, most of my writing makes its way into wikis and emails. I know, cringe.

An adult male speaking at an event in front of a large screen with the word 'horrified' set in a creepy font

Joking, but not really joking about myself and the design industry.

Occasionally I speak at design events. I sometimes wonder if I've become too critical of the design industry. I feel we rely too much on clumsy tools, linear processes, and rigid policies instead of working on things together. Progress feels closer to people and teams and organizational design. And there are people way more qualified than I am to speak on these topics.

If you're looking for someone like this, I'm happy to help!

If you want to talk about any of this in a practical operational capacity, I’m happy to hang out with your team. I can share stories and highlight what I would advocate for in your company if I was an employee.

An old orange bus in a forest campground with an orange tent and shelves with an orange roof on each side

Orange bus. Orange tent. OMG the campground has orange roofed shelves!

I love going on adventures with my family in my '73 Volkswagen bus. Every summer there's an exciting DIY restoration project, a frustrating (and expensive) professional restoration project, and a few trips around northeastern United States.

A bay surrounded by small buildings with mountains and forests in the background

Beautiful Wellington, New Zealand.

If you spend any time with me, you'll be painfully aware I lived in Wellington, New Zealand for almost a year. Bringing it up is an excellent way to shake me out of my occasional introversion. You'll be begging me to shut up!

A majestic landscape of huge mountains far away with flat grassland and flowers in the foreground

Just a normal, average, typical roadside view while exploring New Zealand.

Look at that. Just look at it! I mean, seriously. I think it's time to go back. My then girlfriend — now wifey! — agrees.

Meet us there?

If you want to keep exploring, I’m saving all my favorite things related to working as a designer. Taking my time reading all my favorite books, watching all my favorite lectures, listening to my favorite music. Adding what I find enjoyable, inspiring, and helpful. Take a look and sign the guestbook!