Hey there! I’m Nguyet Vuong (pronounced NU-way VAWNG), the Head of Product Design at Disco (now part of privado.id), a startup focused on digital identity empowerment.

My journey has taken me through leading design teams at various startups, where I honed my skills in product design, user research, and product strategy. Lately, I’ve also been diving into product management.

I’m all about building great teams, mentoring folks, and fostering a kind, design-centric culture. What really gets me going? Mission-driven projects that make a difference – from tackling world hunger, and educating the public about cancer statistics to revolutionizing ethical journalism. The theme has always been designing humane digital products.

Right now, I’m sinking my teeth into the juicy world of digital identity. How can we help people showcase their multifaceted selves or control their identity data without compromising privacy? It’s complex but oh so exciting!

While I love the work, it’s the super-talented and deeply caring people I get to collaborate with who truly make my day.

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. While there, I designed the Serto Suite of 3 products, allowing users to manage organization identities, generate off-chain verifiable data, and create verifiable credential schemas. These products include 1) Serto Agent for Issuers to manage IDs, issue, request, disclose, and revoke verifiable credentials. 2) Serto Search, a search engine and portal for identifiers, verifiable credentials, and non-fungible tokens (NFTs). 3) Serto Schemas: a no-code schema builder and explorer to define new W3C-compliant verifiable credentials.

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 (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.

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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.