Resume
TJ Gioconda
Experience
Staff Product Designer
The Washington Post — June 2021 to Present
Led design for On the Record (Webby Honoree) — a sports and entertainment knowledge quiz — from concept through launch, running 10+ in-person testing sessions and iterating on 1,000+ survey responses to build one of The Post’s most habit-forming products
Designed and grew a games portfolio to 8.5M average monthly page views, 1M users per month, and 63M monthly ad impressions, contributing 7% of total site ad impressions; protected over $1M in annual revenue through a strategic games migration that preserved UX and subscription value
Drove a 221% increase in comments engagement through a full redesign featuring animated emoji reactions and sentiment-based ranking, creating a fan-style community layer that increased return visit rates
Led Project Lighthouse (personalization infrastructure) and Ripple (mobile-first news aggregation), designing adaptive feeds, publication filtering, and notification systems that balance algorithmic recommendations with editorial curation
Led Washington Post Intelligence, The Post’s first B2B product, from concept through a successful 2024 launch, opening a new revenue stream
Established comprehensive design ops infrastructure for 25+ designers: Confluence wiki, Jira workflows, ticketing system, and process documentation; led mentorship and training programs in prototyping, animation, and design strategy
Delivered specialized design systems for the US Elections and the Olympics under tight deadlines; served as the external face of the design team via Zeplin podcast, WPDS showcase, and AIGA DC Board of Directors
Design Director
Brllnt — January 2020 to January 2021
Managed an 8-person design team through the COVID-19 transition, maintaining delivery quality across branding, UX/UI, and product design
Served as primary creative contact for all company clients; led coaching and career development for junior designers
Coached designers to enhance their skills and foster professional growth.
Overhauled company marketing, contracting, and client payment agreements
Senior UX & UI Designer
Taoti Creative — January 2017 - December 2019
Delivered UX/UI solutions for a diverse portfolio of clients, including NASCAR, PBS, AARP, and USAA across web, iOS, Android, and custom platforms
Led innovative projects new to the company, including VR/AR implementations, interactive experiences, and in-person installations
Conducted comprehensive user research: in-person and remote prototype testing, tree testing, card sorting, surveys, and interviews
Established 508/WCAG accessibility compliance standards and created an in-office QA lab enabling simultaneous testing on 25+ physical devices
Producer
Agency Chief — October 2015 to January 2017
Managed content and product applications for federal government clients, overseeing multi-platform campaigns and editorial workflows
Created and managed social media campaigns.
Regularly reported on social, website, and media campaign analytics.
Created editorial workflow for consistent and accurate publishing of editorial content.
Monitored breaking news for clients to identify impactful and important stories.
Producer
Armed Forces Foundation — August 2011 to December 2016
Managed post-production, promotion, and showings for the feature-length documentary That Which I Love Destroys Me (2015) at the Austin Film Festival and other locations nationwide.
Online Media Specalist
Goodwill Industries International — March 2011 to February 2014
Planned, recorded, and edited the award-winning video and audio stories -- Goodwill's My Story.
Event Production Administrator
American Heart Association — January 2007 to February 2010
Managed all online and offline materials for a yearly fundraising event on the National Mall in Washington, DC that raised over 1 million dollars and attracted over 10,000 participants.
Education
Masters of Arts in Interactive Journalism
American University
Completed while working full-time
Bachelors of Science in Psychology
Old Dominion University
Minor in Special Education