Dave Cortright
653 University Avenue 408 -835- 4661
Los Altos, CA 94022 davecortright@yahoo.com
Objective To be the lead designer creating simple, useful, and usable user experiences that delight
customers and drive product success. To be an integral member of a smart, passionate,
and affable team that gets things done using constantly improving, agile processes.
To inject an essential customer-centric view into the product vision and business model.
Qualifications 14 years of experience crafting customer-focused visions and designing user interfaces
for consumer and enterprise products. 9 years managing projects, driving them from
concept to release on schedule. A resourceful and pragmatic “ideas guy” who can
scale from strategic planning all the way down to small design details and CSS layout bugs.
Experience Venrock in Palo Alto, CA Chief Design Officer for the EIR program
Oct 07–Nov 08 Worked on a five-person team to help entrepreneurs define, create, and launch startups.
Led the product design and kept the vision customer-focused on a dozen startup ideas.
Two received seed funding—Nombray and TipMobile—and two others received series A
funding: LiveSpot (an in-car connected digital experience) and Martini Media Network.
Delivered value across all stages of product development: customer-focused vision,
personas, scenarios, concept maps, information architectures, task flows, wireframes,
interface text, visual assets, and HTML + CSS + JavaScript coding and debugging.
General Partners at Venrock have said of my work, “This is tremendous!” “[Your] app
looks beautiful,” “[Your design] is a massive huge upgrade from what was there before,”
and “[Your] interface blows this [competitor] away.” Entrepreneurs have said of my work,
“ [Your] design looks superb; it really grabs you,” “Your help has been invaluable,”
“ It looks really slick,” and “I am awed and stoked to be on a team with you!”
Feb 05–Oct 07 Yahoo! in Sunnyvale, CA Senior Interaction Designer on Messenger
Developed and championed a vision for Yahoo! Messenger 9.0 based on an improved
user experience rather than simply adding new features. Completely redesigned the
main window to simplify the experience by focusing on the friends’ list, their online
activity, self-expression, and available communication channels. (Details in my portfolio.)
Redesigned the web search bar at the bottom of the main window, which resulted in
30% more searches, 42% more revenue per search and 85% more revenue (over $1 million).
Designed the voice user experience for PC-to-PC calls and the premium PC-to-phone
service. A subsequent customer survey found that “Yahoo! Messenger holds a huge
advantage in perceived ease of use.”
Russell Shaw of ZDNet.com said, “I love Yahoo! Messenger with Voice 7.5… It has a far
more intuitive calling interface than Skype… I have found a new favorite…” (03/23/2006)
Wrote over 40 well-received articles on vision and design for an internal competitive
intelligence blog to help business leaders understand the role of design and its essential
role in making successful and profitable products that customers love.
Apr 03–Feb 05 Microsoft in Mountain View, CA Lead Program Manager on Microsoft Office:mac
Led a team of three program managers simultaneously working on two separate
releases of Entourage. Managed and co-designed the Office 2004 flagship feature
Project Center. Spearheaded a partnership with Microsoft’s anti-spam team to integrate
their latest junk mail filter technology into Entourage. Created the Office 2008 feature

My Day based on personas and scenarios derived from customer data. Iterated designs
influenced by focus group and usability testing results. MacUser UK said, “Entourage
has been refined… and the changes have really improved its usability.” (May 2004)
Apr 01–Apr 03 Lead Program Manager on MSN for Mac OS X
Drove this project through the entire cycle of vision, planning, design, implementation,
debugging, and release. Managed an external visual design firm to create polished, Mac-
like visuals. Helped conduct usability tests. MacAddict gave it an A+ for Interface saying,
“ It’s much less cluttered and easier to understand than AOL.” (August 2003)
Oct 99–Apr 01 Lead Program Manager on Entourage 2001
While managing a team of three program managers, designed, project managed, and
released Microsoft’s first Mac PIM as a part of Microsoft Office:mac. Stephen Windstorm
in BusinessWeek Online said, “Entourage is a good contact manager and the best e-mail
program I have ever used.” (10/30/2000)
Apr 98–Oct 99 Program Manager on Outlook Express 5
Conceived, designed, and managed development of innovative e-mail features including
auto-fill addressing (patented), junk mail filter, and mailing list manager. Created
features later adopted by Apple: Cycle Through Windows ( ⌘ ` ) and email address objects.
Aug 96–Feb 98 Claris in Santa Clara, CA Interface Designer on Emailer and Impact
Designed the interface for Claris Emailer 2.0, winner of MacWorld’s Editor’s Choice award
in 1998 for Best Internet Client. Designed the interface for Claris Impact 4.0. Traveled to
Tokyo for customer visits to gain firsthand knowledge of user needs and cultural context.
July 95–Aug 96 Oracle in Redwood Shores, CA Interface Designer on Developer/ 2000 R2.0
Education Stanford University in Palo Alto, CA
June 95 M.S. Computer Science
Concentration in Human-Computer Interaction
University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, MI
May 93 B.S. Engineering Physics
Magna Cum Laude and Class Honors
Publications KPAO blog—Musings on my Silicon Valley life: observations and ideas on design,
technology, and typography that will improve the world, enlighten, or just entertain;
http://KPAO.com, December 2007–
Recognizing User Needs (where Users = Penguins) and Redesigning the Buffet Line;
http://StealThisIdea.com, April 2007 and May 2006 respectively
An Insider’s View of Interface Design at Microsoft; ACM Interactions Vol. 7 No. 2,
March/April 2000. pp. 39–40
SportScope: A User-Centered Design for Baseball Fans; CHI ’96 Human Factors in
Computing Systems Conference Companion, ACM Press 1996. pp. 297–298
Patents Sole inventor of 6,828,989—Graphically represented dynamic time strip for displaying
user-accessible time-dependent data objects; December 7, 2004
Co-inventor on five others: 6,624,831 · 6,829,607 · 6,895,426 · 6,952,805 · 7,360,165