Hey, I’m Lenora.

For the past decade, I’ve designed and built products across AI, cloud computing, developer tools, and enterprise software.

Today, I’m at HubSpot, where I lead the product design direction for access management, shaping how larger organizations manage who can access their data, tools, and products.

Access and security have traditionally been the kind of work people hope to configure once and rarely think about again. But as AI becomes embedded in more of the products we use, I think this space is taking on a much more interesting job. Yes, help me understand that my systems are secure, but can you also take a few things off my plate?

That question is part of a much bigger one that has followed me through my work: how can we give humans more time to be human?

It shaped how I approached AI products at Jasper, where we built tools to help marketers do their best work, and my time at DigitalOcean, where we built tools to help developers do theirs. I’m interested in technology that reduces cognitive load, makes decisions easier, and handles more of the manual execution so people can spend their attention on the work that actually needs them.

Becoming a designer who builds.

In 2018, a few years into my design career, I set out to become a designer who could build. I wanted to understand what happened after the mockup and learn the medium I was designing for well enough to make things myself.

That journey eventually took me from product design into software engineering at Salesforce, where I spent several years building the design system that supported Heroku’s product experiences.

Along the way, I realized that knowing how to build made me a better designer in a way I hadn’t expected. Prototypes became one of my favorite tools for getting teams aligned. Instead of asking everyone to imagine how a series of static screens would come together, I could give them something they could actually use, react to, and improve with me.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, I think a prototype is worth a novel.

I eventually returned to product design, but I brought that way of working with me. I still like being close to the code and turning ideas into something tangible early, especially when the interaction itself is part of the idea.

Away from the screen

I’m usually making something there, too. I woodwork, sew, garden, and practice calligraphy. I like learning how things are made, developing the skill to make them myself, and getting better with every attempt.

I also love traveling, reading, good conversations, and spending time with the people I care about.