Hi, I’m Nguyet Vuong – pronounced NU-way VAWNG. I am currently the Head of Product Design at Disco, an early startup building products to empower people to own and manage their digital identity.

I’ve led design teams at both small and growing startups. I have a wealth of experience in leading product design, user research, and product strategy. I’ve also recently been learning more about product management. I enjoy building teams, mentoring ICs and managers, establishing and advocating for design (and company) culture, and leading teams with kindness.

I’m incredibly passionate about mission-driven projects, whether that is enabling UN World Food Program USA to solve world hunger better, educating the public about cancer statistics, implementing a cooperative funding mechanism for ethical journalism, or building tools for people to own their identity data. The theme has always been designing humane digital products. My background running my own design studio and volunteer program gives me a lot of respect for building a business from the ground up. My experience at larger companies like AOL and Sabre Hospitality Solutions has given me the desire to solve large-scale problems.

Currently, I am chewing on the highly delicious, complex digital identity problem. More specifically, how might we enable people to reflect their multi-faceted selves to the world however they choose? Or, how can we allow people to own, control, and manage their identity data no matter where they go? While I enjoy working on these challenges, what motivates me to show up every day is working alongside a compassionate and talented team.

2020 – 2021

Previously, I was VP of Design at Consensys, leading product design for Serto, an initiative to build the future of self-sovereign identity.

2017 – 2020

I co-founded Civil, a startup building a community-owned journalism network based on transparency and trust using Ethereum blockchain technology. At Civil, I led the design team to create an anti-censorship tool that allowed journalists to publish to the blockchain, a cooperative funding mechanism that allowed readers to fund newsrooms with fiat and cryptocurrency directly, and the first-ever decentralized governance system for journalism (Token Curated Registry). Read more about Civil’s token launch and the Token Curated Registry here. ConsenSys acquired Civil in 2020 to continue building identity solutions.

I am very proud of the impacts Civil made, including supporting more than 70+ newsrooms and 1000+ journalists who joined the Civil network. Our journalists spanned more than 28 countries across six continents. Even though our products are no longer in development, they are open-sourced and operational.

2013 – 2017

As the Creative Director of Products, I led the design team and design projects at The Atlantic 57 (now Long Dash), The Atlantic’s creative agency. We designed digital experiences for mission-driven brands. You can view some of my work during that time here.

2009 – 2013

I co-owned and ran a design studio for four years. We helped small businesses and non-profits to transform their online presence with easy-to-update WordPress websites, online marketing collateral, and brand identity. This experience gave me a lot of insights and respect for building a business from the ground up.

While working with great clients with a budget, I thought about all those grassroots organizations with limited resources doing equally meaningful work. I partnered with friends in my community to co-found Probonafide. It was a network of 15 designers, developers, and project managers volunteering their time to provide professional services to grassroots organizations—specifically organizations that support humanitarian efforts, education, the arts, community development, and the environment. I co-led the program for four years.

2007 – 2013

I joined Sabre Hospitality Solutions as a Senior Designer, leading design projects for luxury hotels & resorts and improving our internal team workflow & processes. This job was my first remote working environment, and I learned much about the importance of remote team coordination and communication.

2006 – 2007

I joined AOL as a Senior Designer. There, I led design initiatives for the aol.com portal and worked alongside a fantastic design team to set design standards for AOL Latino & AOL Chinese. I also led designs for co-branded products like toolbars for AOL’s partners, including Mapquest, Verizon, AIM, Winamp, and Fan Photo Gallery with AOL Pictures.

—

In my spare time, I enjoy exploring watercolor portraits, traveling as much as possible, and trying to contribute to the community.

If you’ve made it this far, I’m honored. Thanks for stopping by.