Nick Myers, former Facebook lead, joins Patreon as the new head of design

Patreon is excited to welcome Nick Myers to our team as the new Head of Design. Nick brings over two decades of experience leading design for some of the world’s biggest companies, like Facebook and Fitbit. We’re excited to have Nick join the Patreon leadership team to bring a new level of craft, creativity, and design excellence to our product and brand, and empower our community of creators and members.

Tell us about yourself.

I’m originally from Yorkshire, England, but I’ve lived in the Bay Area for about 27 years. I’ve spent two decades in the design field leading product design, user research, brand design, and content teams for technology companies, including Facebook (now Meta), Fitbit, and Trulia. Most recently, I was the Director of Product Design in the Community Consumer Products team at Facebook, where I led various product design pillars in the Facebook App, including Groups, Events, Hashtags, Discovery, and more.

What role/achievement stands out to you from your 20 years of design experience?

Looking back on my career so far, I’m most proud of my role leading design at Fitbit. I joined the company in 2013 — while it was still in its infancy, long before it was a household name — and was part of the team responsible for creating the best-selling fitness product that forged an entirely new path in wearable technology. It was inspiring to build a product that had major benefits to people’s overall health and well-being while defining a new market.

My time at Facebook also had a huge impact on my career. I led a team of product designers to improve Facebook’s user interface in Search, Interests, News, and Discovery. Not only were we working on products used on a global scale, we were building design experiences that shared critical information, including centers for the 2020 U.S. presidential election results and COVID-19 information, and Facebook’s Lift Black Voices Content Hub. Being part of a team dedicated to uplifting voices and providing pertinent information on a global scale was an incredibly proud moment for me.

What drew you to Patreon?

Patreon has tremendous potential to help creators. As a creator in both my professional and personal life (I paint too!), I’m eager to use my position to build products that empower the entire creative community.

The creator economy is on the rise, and Patreon’s role in creating an ecosystem of tools that enable creators to build careers around their passions is inspiring. For creators to harness their craft and achieve long-term success, we as consumers need to place more value on their work, and I believe that Patreon is key in making that happen.

I was also impressed by the leadership team at Patreon — they’re transparent, communicative, and genuinely care about the work we’re doing and the people making it happen. Throughout my career, I’ve noticed that the quality of the leadership team makes a massive difference, not only in the day-to-day experiences of the team but also in terms of the business’s overall success.

What values are you going to lead with as the new Head of Design?

I am passionate about design and its impact on the products we all use. I believe good design and well-crafted products are created when you stay curious, encourage collaboration, and communicate effectively. For a product design team (or really any team) to be successful, it’s important to practice empathy, foster a unique culture, seek out feedback, and always stay hungry to learn.

I also cannot overstate the importance of diversity on teams, both in terms of people and in thinking. Not incorporating various perspectives and experiences as part of your process is a massive missed opportunity that leads to gaps in your design and overall product. We see this in the creator economy right now, as certain groups are prioritized on content platforms, whether by exposure and opportunity, payment, or something else. To ensure a broad range of individuals receive a fair chance in the creator economy, we must build with that as the focus, and that starts with making sure the teams building the products are diverse.

Patreon is growing rapidly to build industry-leading products for the next era of the creator economy, and carrying these values into how we operate as a team, and what we build, is essential.

What’s something most people wouldn’t know about you?

I mentioned earlier that I’m a painter, but I’ve also run five marathons and can solve a Rubik’s Cube in about three minutes. And of course, I’d be remiss not to mention that I’m a massive Liverpool FC sports fan.