My name is Jason Croatto. I currently live outside London, England1 with my wife and daughter.
I am a UX designer at Google currently focusing on Legal and compliance workflow products. I approach this more as a Product person vs. just a designer, more on that elsewhere.
I am a native New Yorker, born in NYC, grew up downstate, and went to higher education in Western New York. The son of an Argentine father and a German mother. I don’t read into these things much, but they are identities that I see in myself whether they have an overt influence or not.
I am not all work, though creativity is a common thread, I like photography, playing with drones, curious about home automation and architecture, and creating basically. There is a project list that will take me way into retirement. More
Longer bio
Location
In December 2022 we (my family unit) packed up, sold our house and moved to the UK. My wife is English and her family is there. As of this writing it’s been 10 months and I miss the access to my parents, and I am terrible at calling because of timezones. I think I miss the familiarity of the US, not the politics or the increase in school shootings. I miss the access to friends, but all my really close friends didn’t live near me.
Education and Work
I have a BFA in Film and Animation from the Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester, NY. I graduated in 2001 and got my first job in June 20022 working for a product company in LA called Bungalow3. I wore many creative hats, probably was okay to better than OK at most of them, and I still reference storytelling techniques to this day. I did a gap back in NY and then came back to LA and started working for a tech company starting in January 2007. I joined AdMob in September 2008 and moved to Silicon Valley. In 2009 the announcement of AdMob’s acquisition was announced. It took until May 2010 for it to go through, the acquisition had to be approved by the FTC, and here I am, working at Google.
I have worked on Mobile Advertising products, Enterprise Search, Video Conferencing, Mobile Apps for internal solutions, Workflow management and the last 7 years Legal Compliance Process support tools.
I like solving problems
In general I like to be creative, explore, bring a natural curiosity to solutions or experiments, with an, “Oh I see what you are saying, that is good, I can see it doing x or y.” I believe forward looking programs/projects should be somewhat bound in reality, in fact when working on something new and bold, we should show it’s connection to the existing flow, even if that is to show how we got rid of something, or made something redundant.
My influences
Hip-Hop/Graffiti/Urban
I grew up in a town about 72 miles north of NYC, and hour from the border of the Bronx. My extended family lived in Queens or on Long Island, or in New Jersey. These being pockets of influence on Hip-Hop was that when visiting family I saw graffiti, had access to mixtapes and fashion sort of passively.
Understandable caveat
I am a white, first generation American, born and raised in a middle-class family in America. My parents were together until my last year of college and gave me support, love and values. I didn’t suffer great loss in my youth, I had some recently released video game systems as a kid, I had my balance though, I knew to trade something for another. Sold my Sega Genesis to get a Super Nintendo. My aspirations were always ‘reasonable’, I wanted an Audi A4, not a Ferrari.
Architecture
I love building and spaces, probably could consider this to be interior design in addition to Architecture. If I had unlimited funds, aside from having a few different vehicles, I would have properties and spaces globally that I would use as a canvas to explore my ideas and moments of inspiration. House in Hawaii, oh I have ideas. Apartment in NYC, done, know what I would like, or well I have about 10 ideas.
My wife
I would say women in general, but my Mom and my wife have had a huge influence on me and my thinking. It may not be in creative endeavors but more in how they are human, and we are different (men and women) but an appreciation of how we are different, and how we are similar. It’s probably more a slight delta vs. a complete perpendicular difference. My skills (or are they strengths?)
Technical-ish
I know enough how systems are built, the theory, so I tend to approach products with realistic questions and ideas. Additionally I like to ask questions to understand how to pivot.
Product Design Strategy/Service Design
Sure the product has flows to get a job done, or a process, a thing, to get a thing done. I don’t dismiss the ancillary experiences and emotions/states of the users during that process. I like to think of all the contributing experiences so the solution is thoroughly thoughtful.
User Experience
Like the above, but for the story of the user’s journey in the product, what is their experience for that series of tasks or steps to get to the end state, or to that critical step. I don’t believe in just having mocks of screens or an experience, but who are the people doing the work?
Team building
I have built a team of cross-functional UXers from myself and a research partner to 34 people strong, including my eventual manager. I balance people’s growth, potential, stretch opportunities with a realistic approach that is available with the products, areas, and teams roadmap.
No BS
I don’t believe in beating around the bush, it’s not radical transparency, it’s just honesty. I won’t divulge company secrets, I won’t beat around the facts, and will be reasonable with company and personal insights.