I’m Cheryl Platz, a design leader, author, teacher, and innovator with a unique career that spans enterprise productivity, information technology, consumer products, video games, and natural user interfaces like multimodal and conversational UI. My avocational work in design education and improvisational theater means I also bring significant strength in storytelling, process innovation, facilitation, and organizational influence to all of my work.
You can read here for an easy-to-scan look through my work history (professional, volunteer, and arts/non-profits), or you can check out my professional resume [PDF] and online design portfolio for more traditional formats. In the interest of brevity, my volunteer, arts, and non-profit work history is not captured on my professional resume.
Current Roles
The Pokemon Company International
Creative Director, Game Studio (2024-Present)
I lead a team of several dozen creative professionals across the disciplines of UX, UI, Art, Game Design, and Audio. I am responsible for providing the team with a strong strategic framework to guide our decisions, ensuring brand alignment and optimizing our partnerships across TPCi, and creating an environment in which all of our creatives can thrive with agency while collaborating fluidly across organizational and disciplinary boundaries. My primary focus is the live-service game Pokémon TCG Live, and my influence began with the R25 releases in early 2025. I also maintain the creative vision for our campaign calendar, and created original campaigns like “Study Season” and “Budew Year 2026.”
Ideaplatz
Owner & Principal (2017-Present)
I founded my design education company Ideaplatz in 2017 in response to the great need at the time for training to support designers looking to break into the voice user interface field. Since then, I’ve worked with dozens of companies and appeared on four continents bringing a wide variety of talks and workshops to designers looking to grow their craft.
Carnegie Mellon University
Adjunct Faculty, Heinz College (2024-Present)
Masters of Entertainment Industry Management Program
In addition to sponsoring a capstone project in 2023, I was invited to create an original game development course for second-year MBA students at CMU’s Hollywood campus. The resulting 12-hour mini, “What Makes Us Play: The Craft of Video Gaming” more than doubled enrollment in its second year and is returning for its third year in 2026, and inspired my second book The Game Development Strategy Guide.
Previous Design Roles
Scopely, Inc.
Director of Experience Design (2024)
Marvel Strike Force
Award Received:
Honorable Mention, Best Visual Achievement
Mobile Game Awards 2025
Major features shipped during my time with the team:
- Battleworld v1 (November 2024)
- Open More Orbs
- Improved Alliance Chat Rooms
- Roster Squads View
- Roster Filter and Sort
- Pool Party campaign (Deadpool and Wolverine)
- Improved Settings and Code Redemption Experience
- UI 2.0: New Level Up, Victory, and Defeat screens
Riot Games
Director of User Experience, Player Platform (2021 – 2024)
- Led and grew a team of 16 UX designers supporting Riot’s game-adjacent and cross-game experiences for players and developers on all platforms. Our work encompassed products including Riot Client, Riot Mobile, Riot Accounts, and cross-Riot game systems, commerce, and web tools.
- Served as the craft lead for all of the User Experience craft at Riot, identifying and driving plans to enrich and strengthen our community of ~70 full time full time UX designers and their managers.
- Acted as Design Lead for the Xbox Game Pass partnership between Riot Games and Microsoft across all of Riot, coordinating shared understanding and experience vision across all disciplines, game teams, and platform teams for an on-time launch to strongly positive player feedback and engagement that vastly exceeded all targets and projections.
Bill & MElinda Gates Foundation
Principal User Experience Designer (2018 – 2021)
During my time in the Human-Centered Design group at the Gates Foundation, I had the honor of applying all of my design and research skills in service of removing technological obstacles for our program officers and grantees doing our important work every day around the world.
My projects included large-scale employee experience ethnography, a year-long service design engagement for Teams as a replacement for Skype that played a critical role in the foundation’s pandemic readiness, and over a year working on the future of knowledge management for the foundation.
Microsoft
Principal UX Designer (2016-2018)
I returned to Microsoft to take on a challenging role as Lead Designer for the Azure Framework (2016-2017), mentoring earlier career designers, managing vendor teams, and spearheading the creation of new Azure UX Guidelines and the socialization of these guidelines to our 70+ partner teams. I also acted as the sole designer on our Azure Marketplace and AppSource teams, supporting a major relaunch of both.
After a bit over a year on Azure, I became the Lead for the new unified Power Platform Admin Center that unified 4 disparate admin experiences (Dynamics, Dynamics environments, Flow, and PowerApps) into a single experience.
My final few months at Microsoft were spent as a Principal Designer on the fledgling Power Virtual Agents team, helping envision new business models and groundbreaking approaches to WYSIWYG conversational agent editors.
Power Platform Admin Settings case study
Amazon
Senior User Experience Designer (2014 – 2016)
I joined Amazon to become Employee #4 on an exciting “secret” project that became the Amazon Echo Look – a first of its kind voice-enabled fashion management device that spent 3 years on the market. My role encompassed everything from storyboards and design prototyping to research and voice hardware specifications.
During my second year at Amazon, I moved on to join the central Alexa voice user interface design team just after the Echo exited Beta. I was the sole designer on Alexa Notifications, treading new ground on the first truly cross-device voice notification system on the market. I also served as Amazon’s primary contact with external partners like Ford and Sonos.
Microsoft
Senior UX Designer (2007 – 2014)
Full stack design for enterprise and consumer products, including information architecture, wireframing, prototyping, high fidelity visual design, storyboarding, voice UI design, design guidelines, and vision work.
Products included:
- System Center Configuration Manager 2012 (2007-2012)
- Windows Intune Wave C and D (2012)
- Windows Automotive Next-Gen (2012-2014)
- Cortana: Email, Messaging, Reminders and Meetings (2014)
Recipient of multiple awards, including Gold Star Award, Emerging Leader Bench, and Leader Bench (multiple years). Represented Microsoft4Africa at the iHub in Nairobi, Kenya.
Windows Automotive notifications case study
Griptonite Games
Lead Producer (2004 – 2007)
Lead teams of 8-15 artists, designers and developers in developing high-quality licensed titles for Nintendo platforms. Create and maintain game designs, product pitches, and team schedules. Serve as primary project liaison with Disney Interactive and Nintendo. Manage user testing.
- Disney Friends (DS)
- Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest (DS/GBA)
- Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (GBA)
Electronic Arts / Maxis
Assistant Producer (2004 – 2007)
Perform a wide variety of production tasks (writing, game design, reviews) and manage external relationships with developers and certification groups like the ESRB and Nintendo Lot Check.
- Urbz: Sims in the City (GBA/DS)
- The Sims Makin’ Magic (PC)
- The Sims Bustin’ Out (GBA, PS2/Xbox/GC, NGage)
- The Sims 2 (PC)
Walt Disney Parks & Resorts
Professional Intern, Interface design (2002)
Interaction design and interactive prototyping/development using VB and Flash.
- Disney’s Photopass (in partnership with Imagineering)
- DTV Resort Television System (cancelled)
MAYA Design
Interaction designer (2001, 2003)
Variety of expert analyses, wireframes, and prototypes for banking and software clients.
Carnegie Mellon University
Teaching Assistant (2002)
Provided one-on-one assistance and support for the ETC’s Building Virtual Worlds class, specializing in assisting texture artists using Deep Paint 3D and 3D modelers using 3D Studio Max.
Selected arts and non-profit Roles
The Online Creators Association
Administrator & grantwriter
unexpected Productions
Ensemble performer (2008-2021)
instructor (2011-2021)
Artistic Associate director of digital productiions (2020-2021)
Performed in live improvised stage shows several times a month. Taught several quarters of improv per year via the Unexpected Productions school. Directed “Cupid on Mute”, a groundbreaking digital show.
Photo by Bill Grinnell.
Seattle Experimental Theater
Performer (2011 – 2020)
Digital Media Coordinator (2011-2017)
Maintained multiple Facebook pages and company Web presence. Designed and launched dozens of successful ad campaigns on a per-production basis. Co-starred in “Where No Man Has Gone Before,” “The Journal,” “Wedding Horror Stories,” and other productions.
IGNITE wORLDWIDE
VICE PRESIDENT, BOARD OF DIRECTORS (2010-2012)
VOLUNTEER (2007-2010)
Helped to guide a worldwide non-profit focused on exposing more school-age girls to STEM careers and role models. Focused on branding, community building, Microsoft partnership, and outreach.
