Hi, I'm Rotem.
I'm a product designer in San Jose. I build design systems, AI-native prototypes, and the tools I wish existed.
How I got here
I came to product design from Interdisciplinary Computing and the Arts at UC San Diego — a program that mixed code, visual design, sound, and interaction. It taught me the most interesting problems sit between disciplines, and the fastest way to learn a new tool is to build something hard with it.
I finished my degree in December 2024 and started at LexisNexis Risk Solutions the same month, working on the ThreatMetrix fraud detection product. I came in green — no design system experience, no enterprise research behind me. I closed the gap in three months by asking specific questions of senior designers and putting evenings and weekends into the work. By month seven I'd shipped a Figma-to-Storybook token pipeline that took palette updates from a full day with three people down to thirty seconds with one.
The thesis I took from that work: design infrastructure is leverage. A good token system doesn't just make designs consistent — it makes everyone on the team faster. It's the throughline for most of what I build now.
What I'm building now
Since leaving LexisNexis in July 2025, I've been building the tools I wish existed. Pulse and Ghost — the two AI-native concept products documented on this site — alongside a VR golf game, a daily art practice, and the relaunch of my apparel brand.
Looking for a team to bring this pace into.
Currently building
Gote Golf VR
A first-person golf game I'm building in Unity with OpenXR for the Meta Quest 3S. Teaching myself C#, physics, and how to make a putter feel like a putter.
GoteFigure
A daily art channel where I post one timelapse drawing every day. 30+ consecutive days in, still going. Same hand that draws the apparel brand.
Rotems Adventures
An outdoor channel about road biking, mountain biking, snowboarding, and hiking with my dog Bear around Northern California. 3.8K subscribers, growing.
Outside design
I road bike, mountain bike, snowboard, golf, and hike with Bear around the Bay Area and the Sierras. The bike rides are usually long enough that the day's design problem solves itself by the time I'm back — the most reliable process I have, even if it won't show up in a case study.
Skills & Tools
Tools: Figma (variables, components, Dev Mode), Storybook, Next.js, Tailwind, Framer Motion, Claude Code, Dovetail, Adobe Creative Suite, Unity, OpenXR
Practices: design systems, design-to-code pipelines, accessibility (WCAG AA), user research and synthesis, rapid prototyping, AI-augmented prototyping, interaction design, motion design
Experience
LexisNexis Risk Solutions (ThreatMetrix)
UX Designer & Researcher
December 2024 – July 2025
Shipped the Figma-to-Storybook token pipeline now used across two product teams. Ran user research with fraud analysts that shaped the Custom Layouts roadmap. Built AA-compliant component libraries.
Redis
Product Design Intern (Contract)
July 2022 – September 2022
Audited and streamlined the e-book download flow, designed a refreshed icon set used on the main landing page, and partnered with developers and marketing on handoff specs.
WellSpoken
UX Designer (Contract)
November 2021 – February 2022
Tested and improved virtual-assistant response flows, contributed to a website refresh focused on inclusive design and clear hierarchy, and ran user and competitor research to tailor the site to its audience.
GoteFigure
Founder & Product Designer
March 2020 – July 2022 (brand still active)
Built the brand end-to-end — branding, logos, color system, storefront UX, product illustration, photography, fulfillment. Everything shipped on a lightweight design system I built in Illustrator.
Reach me
The fastest way to get in touch is email: rotem.gotlieb@gmail.com. I'm also on LinkedIn. For work-in-progress, I post daily art at @gotefigure and outdoor videos at @RotemsAdventures.
About this site
Built in vanilla HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. No framework, no build tools, no site builder. The intro animation — name reveal, orbiting tool icons, cursor glide to Figma — uses trigonometric orbit math to position eight icons around an ellipse. Hosted on Vercel, deployed from the command line. I wrote every line.