About Jess Dale
As a kid on my family's desktop PC, I discovered the internet and started designing GeoCities sites. That led me to art school for graphic design, but I switched to web design. After graduating, I started out as an engineer, building websites at a small agency.
Anxious to try something new, I moved to NYC in my twenties to cook professionally in restaurants. It was everything it looks like on TV (long hours, angry yelling, multiple burns, ridiculously low pay). I quickly abandoned that dream in favor of staying in the city.
After I went back to tech, I realized I was more interested in the people using the things than the things themselves. I gradually moved into design, and then into leading designers. Twenty years later I'm back in code (totally unexpected), building my first iOS app.
I've never thought of myself as creative in the traditional sense. I'm not a fine artist (I tried in college). But I love making things: designs, code, meals, playlists, stories, and now a video game. My favorite thing to make is a team that feels like a safe place to do good work.
These days I spend my time on age-appropriate hobbies like writing and pottery. I make pots, badly and then slightly less badly.
This site is a work in progress, built with Astro and a Claude Code agent named Cee, who writes the code and has opinions about the design. If you want to talk about design leadership, AI, ceramics, or anything else, say hi.
If you need a bio
Jess Dale is a product design leader who grows designers and design teams. She started out as a software engineer, with detours through restaurant kitchens and farm work. Most recently she was Director of Product Design at Gusto. Before that she was at Etsy, where she built the team that taught her how she wants to lead. She's comfortable moving between the executive team and the Figma file. She's a yinzer living in (upstate) Manhattan. She's very into rituals.