Sr. Experience Design Manager & Lead · San Diego, CA

Dan
Staton

Sr. Experience Design Manager & Lead at CVS Health — driving strategic partnerships, launching Health100, and coaching teams on AI-integrated design.

I lead with heart and build high-performing design teams that deliver fast, high-quality experiences, integrating AI to amplify efficiency and creativity across the entire design process.

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Dan Staton

20+

Designers led

10M+

Patients reached

10+

Years in design

24h

Fastest ship

See my work

↓

🏆 CVS Annual Vibrancy Award — Exceptional leadership & design delivery, Dec 2025

⭐ 100% Trust Rating — Rated by all direct reports, CVS Management Survey 2024

🎖️ CVS Excellence Award — New process reduced design delivery time, Sep 2023

Selected Work

Featured Case Studies

A few projects that show the range of my work, from shipped products to leadership at scale.

CVS Health · 2025

★ Featured UX Design

Health100 App Launch

Helping lead the end-to-end design and launch of Health100 on a team of 6, bringing together personalized health programs for CVS patients in one place.

Health Experience Vision

CVS Health · 2024

★ Featured Leadership

Health Experience Vision for CVS Patients

Led workshops and strategy. Facilitated vision sessions to redefine how millions of patients manage and monitor their health across the CVS ecosystem.

CVS Virtual Care

CVS Health · 2022

★ Featured Leadership

CVS Health Virtual Care

Managed a cross-functional team of designers, researchers, and content strategists. Designed and launched virtual care to 1M+ patients, a full end-to-end product experience built from zero.

All Projects

Full portfolio

All case studies, ordered by year. Use the filters to browse by type.

CVS Apple Watch app

Apple Watch App for CVS Health

Sole designer. Partnered with Product and Engineering to design, develop, and ship "Upcoming Appointments" in 24 hours.

CVS Notifications

CVS Notifications: Email, SMS, Push

Lead designer. Unified 200+ health notifications into 23 user-tested templates, reaching 8M patients annually.

2023 – Present→

New Design Team

How I Established a New Design Team & Culture

Post-reorg, built working agreements and a trusting culture from scratch for a new team.

Design Process

Improving Design Process & Product Collaboration

New planning and stakeholder checkpoints reduced average design delivery time by 2 weeks (35%) per feature.

Coaching Designers

How I Coach Designers to Meet Their Career Goals

Led teams of up to 7 direct reports, plus cross-functional disciplines. Coached 20+ designers toward career growth through personalized monthly goals. Rated 100% in trust in 2024.

2021 – Present→

Student Co-op

Design Student Co-op Management

Supervised a design co-op student through project management and professional development.

Co-Creation Process

Design Systems: My Co-Creation Process

Built a process for cross-functional product teams to create and share design patterns together.

Smoking Cessation

CVS Pharmacy Smoking Cessation

UX lead on a small team. Met a tough deadline strategizing and designing a new service site together.

Wayfair Partner Home

Wayfair Partner Home Design Vision

Led 27 designers. Facilitated workshops for 250+ team members to define new platform principles and redesign 180 products.

Wayfair Design System

Wayfair Enterprise Design System

Managed and evolved design system components and usage guidelines across Wayfair's enterprise suite.

Asset Management Tool

Wayfair Asset Management Tool

Sole designer. Created a new product allowing digital stylists to search all Wayfair media assets in one place.

2018 – 2019→

3D QA Tool

3D Model QA Tool

Redesigned a quality assurance tool for 3D model review, informed by direct user interviews.

TeachersConnect

TeachersConnect

TeachersConnect App

Designed a Q&A and networking app for teachers through usability testing at a small start-up.

Leading with heart, delivering with precision.

I'm a Senior Experience Design Manager who believes the best products come from psychologically safe, high-trust teams where designers feel empowered to take creative risks and move fast without burning out. Rated 100% in trust by all direct reports in 2024.

"Teaching taught me that empathy is a skill, not a trait. I bring that to every team I lead."

Read my story →

🧭

Building and scaling high-performing design teams

🤝

Cross-functional strategy and stakeholder collaboration

⚡

Integrating AI to amplify design efficiency and creativity

📐

Scalable design systems and component architecture

♿

Accessible, data-informed product design