Sadok Cervantes

Product Designer and Builder

Sadok Cervantes

I design products that millions of people use every day.

Reach/
100M+ PEOPLE
Years/
14 YEARS
Mentored/
1K+ STUDENTS

Badges

  • Innovation By DesignFast Company
  • Nominet Trust 2016 NT100, MapSwipeNominet Trust
  • Best Mobile InnovationMobile World Congress
  • 50 Most Innovative Companies, InteligasInnovation Week Magazine
Sadok Cervantes on a city street at night, arms crossed

If you've ever used the internet, chances are you have seen or used something I've worked on.

About

I’m a designer and engineer who builds products around how people actually behave. In 14 years, that work has reached over 100 million people, from Wikipedia’s fundraising banners to one of the world’s largest dating apps. I connect research, brand, and code, and I lead teams that do the same.

I'm one of FastCompany's "Most Innovative People". I received the Best Mobile Innovation award during the Mobile World Congress in 2020 for creating one of the world's most innovative social good apps.

In 2016 I led the design of MapSwipe for Doctors Without Borders and the Red Cross, an app that turned mapping remote communities into micro-volunteering on people's phones.

That project set the pattern for my design philosophy: Every hard problem hides a human behavior that already makes it easy.

People already know the shortcut. My job is noticing it.

I've given multiple talks about human behavior through-out the years.

Mockups are cute, but... I design for real devices and real behavior, and I judge the work by what happens after it ships. I've done it as a solo builder, inside small agile teams, and leading teams of designers and developers in big corporations.

Most designers consider themselves user advocates, while leaving the business goals on a second term. Businesses need money to survive. There’s no point in having a beautiful website with joyful users if they are not converting into sales. A good designer must make sure that the business goals and user goals live in harmony and cooperation.

Since 2015, I’ve led Leangap, one of the world’s most respected entrepreneurship programs for teenagers, recommended by the biggest college counseling companies and hundreds of independent counselors.

I designed the program, built its brand and website, and trained the team that runs it. As lead instructor I've mentored more than 1,000 students and taught them to pitch like founders, drawing on my own talks as a TEDx speaker at conferences from Seattle to Vienna to Melbourne.

The Leangap students and team on the steps of a building at Berkeley, holding a Leangap banner
Leangap, on the Berkeley steps
A Leangap class in session, students at their desks facing the whiteboard
In class
Leangap students lifting Sadok Cervantes at the Leangap anniversary party
The anniversary party

“You can have everything in life you want, if you will just help other people get what they want.”

Zig Ziglar

Speaking

Conference talks on design, entrepreneurship, product and mental health in Seattle, San Francisco, Vienna, Melbourne, Mexico City and Houston, and online to thousands of attendees.

Sadok Cervantes on stage in front of a slide about human behavior
Sadok Cervantes on stage beside giant NO/BS. letters
Sadok Cervantes speaking to a full room at Digital Summit
A full auditorium facing the NO/BS. stage
Sadok Cervantes on stage in a warm wooden auditorium, a slide behind him
An audience in a wood paneled auditorium during a talk

Beyond the work

Languages

  • Englishfluent
  • Spanishfluent
  • Frenchbasic
  • Japanesebasic

Skills

  • Team leadership
  • outcome-oriented
  • business thinking
  • brand strategy
  • marketing
  • technical implementation
  • client pitching
A dark blue illustration of Sadok Cervantes sitting among the stars
A purple cartoon portrait of Sadok Cervantes, signed Leangap
A painted portrait of Sadok Cervantes on an easel beside a paint palette
My students have the unexplained urge to paint me

Off-work

I'm an amateur athlete. I compete in Obstacle Course Races like Spartan Race, Jungle Race, and a bunch of others. I could probably bench press you. I also run a nice 10k but don't quote me on that (hey, don't judge my pacing).

I love my 2 dogs and travel as much as possible with them.

If you got a plug for SD Comic-Con tickets, hit me up.

Sadok Cervantes in a park with his two dogs
Sadok Cervantes at a Super Mario installation of green pipes and a question block
Sadok Cervantes with his snowboard on a sunny, snowy mountain

Contact me

Site/
sadok.mx
Email/
sadok.ycr[at]gmail.com
LinkedIn/
linkedin.com/in/sadokx

Experience

  1. 2024to 2026

    Senior Product Engineer

    Grindr

    • Built and launched the web side of the app: standalone sites and in-app web experiences, 15M+ monthly users.
    • Owned design-to-production across all web properties, including Grindr.com.
    • Launched the company's first in-app livestream: a global artist concert streamed to millions.
    • Built and launched Grindr Presents, the content hub for LGBTQ+ culture.
    • Designed and built woodwork.com, Grindr's first health vertical.
    • Pitched and rebuilt Grindr for Equality.

  2. 2019to 2023

    Senior UX Designer

    Wikipedia

    • Designed the fundraising banners shown on top of Wikipedia articles.
    • Winning banner variants lifted conversion by up to 30% over control.
    • Conversion optimization across the fundraising strategy.
    • Hundreds of A/B tests with millions of data points.
    • Localized across dozens of countries and languages
    • Managed a team of 4 developers and designers.

  3. 2017to 2020

    Lead Designer

    Medal.tv

    • Joined the founding team as its first designer taking it to a $250M valuation.
    • 2.4 million gamers using Medal in January 2019.
    • Built the brand from scratch: logo, illustrations, MedalBot mascot, motion, marketing sites, decks, swag. Led a team of 2 graphic designers and 1 front-end developer.
    • Shipped products on Android, iOS and Web.

  4. 2012to present

    Product Designer (Contractor)

    multiple clients

  5. 2015to present

    Co-founder and Managing Director

    Leangap

    • The most renowned entrepreneurship program for teenagers in the world.
    • Grew net revenue 4x from 2020 to 2026, and more than doubled it from 2021 to 2022.
    • Manage a team of 20: marketers, designers, developers and counselors.
    • As lead instructor, mentored 1,000+ students.