About

Cześć! I’m Karolina (“k-aa-r-oh-l-ee-n-aa”), a Polish-Australian designer working from Naarm. Over the last 18 years, I’ve been a founder, product designer and front-end developer, focusing on building delightful and easy to use products.

I’m at my best combining leadership and hands-on design. I love creating processes, fostering collaboration and delivering feedback within cross-functional teams, with the best UX outcomes as the north star. As a designer, I focus on well-documented, easy to maintain design systems and comps. My practice always speaks to customer needs and has their positive experience at heart.

I effectively bridge the gap between design and implementation, coaching designers on how to make decisions for the web as a medium, and developers on how to bring visuals to life with, delightful micro interactions, accessibility, and performance in mind.

In 2017, I started working part-time on Calibre, a software as a service platform measuring and improving web performance. In 2020, I joined full time as a co-founder, leading design efforts. Over four years, I’ve created and maintained design systems, authored the company’s voice and tone, released numerous product features, and took charge of communication and support strategies. I’ve worn dozens of hats, all of which gave me invaluable experience in the end-to-end product process and underscored the importance of never being too far from your customers.

I studied Photography and Human-Computer Interaction, both of which show in my work through creativity, a keen eye for design, and always paying attention to the impact of technology on people’s lives and experiences.

I live by my values: integrity and equity. I focus on my impact, trying to leave the world a better place than I found it, minimising any footprint.

Outside of work, I’m a photographer, pilates enthusiast, lover of great coffee, books, and cats. I live on Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung people’s land, and try to spend as much time in nature as possible. So, you might find me in a forest, admiring varieties of eucalyptus and birds (how great is the black cockatoo?). When I can, I visit where I’m from—Kraków, Poland.

Speaking

It’s been a privilege to present on global stages, covering subjects such as creativity, burnout, web performance, front-end development, inclusion, and the dangers of technology. My talks are thoroughly researched, and thought-provoking, aiming to leave the audience with new knowledge and perspectives. Nowadays, I primarily speak about people-first design, covering strategies, processes, and values that help, not exploit.

Selected events

You can find several of my past talks on Speakerdeck. I’m currently accepting limited speaking engagements. All events I participate in must have a documented commitment to diversity, equality, and inclusion and cover costs for every speaker involved. Here are the requirements for conferences I participate in.

If you’d like me to speak at your event, reach out.

Event organising

I’ve always sought like-minded people, and took on an active role in the communities I was a part of. What started with organising meetups and workshops, quickly evolved into large-scale tech events, where I used my management, communication, design, and curation skills.

I’ve run over 15 industry-leading conferences, and have been an advisor for dozens more. My goal as an event director was to curate spaces where everyone feels welcome and safe to show up as their authentic selves, which often is still difficult in tech spaces and beyond.

Selected events

Writing

I love the clarity writing brings. Over the years, I’ve contributed to numerous publications, such as Smashing Magazine, .net Magazine, or Offscreen. In the recent past, I’ve mostly published Calibre’s product release posts, its changelog and sharing how we run a small company. Here are a few recent pieces:

• The calm web

  Published on Calibre

  Apr 19, 2023
• Four day work week: how and why we work less

  Published on Calibre

  Aug 27, 2021
• Why we run a people-first company

  Published on Calibre

  Jun 3, 2021
• How we deliver great customer experience

  Published on Calibre

  Mar 9, 2021
• The technical debt myth

  Published on Help Scout

  Apr 10, 2019