TARA COUGHLIN
Product design leader defining experiences and the teams behind them.
Designer, builder, and leader.
10+ years leading design at RetailMeNot and Raise, I've turned quality into a business strategy, shipping experiences used by more than a 500k people, growing designers into leaders, and following curiosity into every aspect of design.
NOW BUILDING
I've spent this past year standing up programs, ramping up AI integration, designing crypto flows, web design, and feature buildout for companies large and small.
BOLT.NEW
Contracting as Lead Product Designer to stand up and scale Bolt.new's display ad program, working directly with the Head of Design and Product Design Lead. I used Claude Design to generate concept volume and get fast reads on direction, then rebuilt winners in Figma Make and turned them into slot-based components for plug-and-play testing. AI covered exploration, I made the creative calls.
The program scaled with roughly 50% more output across 80+ testable ad variations.
CONTRACTING NOW
raise.com
Six-month contract as Lead Product Designer for Raise.com, working daily with the Head of Product and Design to help the team move fast on their consumer-facing website. I designed the core pages including brand landings, category pages, gifting, onboarding, and modal flows, plus crypto payment flows for app and web, site architecture and mapping, design system buildout, and creative direction.
Trust and SEO performance improved significantly through breadcrumb navigation, ADA compliance, and a content and site-mapping strategy that gave the site real structure.
CONTRactor • 6 months
select works
A few case studies in design leadership and the products I've built. The problems, the bets, and what shipped.
RETAILMENOT / DESIGN SYSTEM
the global design system THAT REBUILT EVERYTHING
RETAILMENOT / APP
Instant Cash Back 45 days to instant
RETAILMENOT / EXTENSION
redesigning the moment a visitor becomes a loyalist
RAISE / NEW APP
Slide — a cash back app from zero
how i show up
Craft gets you in the room. How you show up is what makes people want to build something with you. These are the things I come back to when the work gets messy, when the ask isn't clear, or when the stakes are high.
Commitment to success
01
I care a lot about the work, so I'll say something when I think we're off track. That's not me being difficult, it's me being invested. But once we've made a call together, I'm all in. Some of the best moments I've had on a team came from letting go of my own idea and getting fully behind someone else's. Teams move so much faster when everyone's rowing in the same direction.
team mindset
02
The best teams I've been on feel coordinated, honest, and resilient. We celebrate the wins loudly, we learn from the losses without making anyone feel small, and when the work gets hard, nobody disappears. I want the people I work with to know I've got their back, whether they're crushing it or having a rough week. That's not a nice-to-have. It's what makes a team able to take real swings together.
be genuine
03
Give me real over polished any day. Kindness isn't weakness and honesty isn't rudeness. In my experience they're what trust is built on, and trust is what lets a team say the hard thing, ask the dumb question, and keep going when things aren't working. I want people to feel like they can be themselves with me, because that's when the best work happens.