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Hey, I'm Merve Koók
Hey, I’m Merve — a Senior UX Designer who loves bringing clarity to complex problems and momentum to messy spaces.

Over the past 7+ years, I’ve helped teams across SaaS, B2B, AI, and Web3 turn tangled challenges into simple, intuitive experiences that make sense for both people and businesses. I’m at my best where strategy meets empathy — connecting insight, intuition, and design systems into products that just feel right.

I also mentor emerging designers, helping them find their voice, think critically, and design with confidence. Whether I’m refining a dense workflow or coaching someone through their next step, I aim to bring calm, focus, and a touch of curiosity to the process.

Originally from Turkey and now based in Budapest, I’m open to remote collaborations and meaningful, human-centered problems worth solving.
Remote | Worldwide
Working with Merve has been such a great experience. She brings so much passion, creativity, and initiative to everything she does — but what really stands out to me is how reliable she is. As a manager, having someone you can always count on makes all the difference, and Merve is that person. She’s the kind of teammate who doesn’t just get things done — she goes above and beyond, supports others, and brings a real sense of partnership to the table. Any design team would be lucky to have her. I can’t recommend Merve enough — she’s an absolute star.
Rick Rocha
DIrect UX Manager | Genesys
01 career highlights
expertise
Product Strategy & UX Craft
Over 6 years designing user-centered digital products across SaaS, CPaaS, AI, blockchain, and e-commerce. Drives product clarity through strong UX strategy, research-backed decisions, and beautifully functional interfaces.
Cross-Functional Collaboration
Thrives in multi-disciplinary teams—working closely with product, engineering, and marketing to turn complex needs into elegant, scalable solutions in Agile methodology. Known for turning ambiguity into alignment through systems thinking and clear communication.
Design Systems & Scalable UI
Actively contributes to scalable UI foundations and documentation. Improves speed and consistency across squads by building and maintaining thoughtful design systems.
Mentorship & Community Leadership
ADPList mentor with 80+ designers supported. Known for empowering others through approachable guidance, strong feedback, and community-building— organised multiple in-person UX meetups/workshops in Budapest.
recognition & measurable impact
→ Two times All-Star Award winner at Genesys for excellence in design delivery and team collaboration.
→ Drove widget usage from 4% to 13.38% in one week at UPSY through iterative UX improvements.
→ Delivered NFT dashboard to 1,200+ engaged users within 3 months at CyberBox.

→ Led UX for an award-winning SaaS voice product at Telesmart (Best Voice/UCaaS Service Innovation, Global Carrier Awards 2021)

02 education & experience

experience
Senior Product Designer
Zenitech, Budapest - HU | Oct 2025 - Present

Product Designer
Genesys, Budapest - HU | July 2023 - Aug 2025
- All Star Award 2023 & 2024
Product Designer
UPSY, Remote | May 2022 - May 2023
Product Designer
CyberBox, Remote | Jan 2022 - Dec 2022
UX Designer
Telesmart, Remote | Jan 2021 - Mar 2021
volunteering
Mentor, ADPList
Remote | Mar 2024 - Present
- 100+ individual session completed
- Top 1% Mentor Recognition
language
English: C1 | Turkish: C2 | Hungarian: A2
tools
Figma | Miro | Maze | WordPress | Jira | Microsoft Suite | Slack | Atlas | Confluence | Google Suite
education
Marketing and Commerce
Budapest University of Economics and Business
2020-2023
- Stipendium Hungaricum Scholarship Holder

Thesis: In depth analysis on the relationship between customer satisfaction and mobile application UX design for market-leading grocery stores in Hungary
Faculty of Science, Mathematics
Akdeniz University

2010-2016
- Pedagogic Formation Higher Education
course
AI Design Summit
ADPList | 2025
Design Thinking Practitioner
Genesys | 2024
Agile Product Management
Google | 2022
Unity Game Development
Google | 2022
User Experience Design
Google | 2021
UI & Figma Masterclass
Google | 2021

03 projects

Converting Visitors into Buyers: Reimagining an AI Shopping Assistant

I helped redesign an AI-driven shopping assistant and its customer dashboard to improve user experience and increase conversion rates.

We focused on clarity, usability, and seamless feature expansion to support online retailers in turning more visitors into paying customers.

Bringing Clarity to Conversation: Designing Rich Text Messaging for Agents

I designed and implemented rich text messaging features across a multi-channel support tool—focused on improving agent efficiency and customer clarity.

This included behavior rules for text editor variations, free-resizing for text areas, and tailored UI across screen sizes and embedded workflows.

Optimizing After-Call Workflows: A Research-Led Discovery

I led a discovery initiative to understand and improve the After Call Work (ACW) experience for support agents.

Through in-depth interviews and workflow mapping with 7 agents, I identified pain points, quick wins, and deeper UX opportunities to reduce friction and increase efficiency in during-call & post-call tasks.

04 testimonials

Merve was a designer on one of my teams, and I would hire her again in a heartbeat. She was a cornerstone of the team. Merve sponsored team events, helped colleagues without being asked, and made a huge difference in our day-to-day team culture. I particularly appreciated her combination of hustle and polish; she wants to grow and learn, and she’s incredibly thorough with a high-degree of attention to detail. Merve’s projects are organized and easy to review even when juggling multiple pieces of work. She doesn’t just start things—she finishes them with quality and consistency.

I’m located in the United States while the entire team was based in Europe, and it was so nice to wake up every morning and see an active team chat, and Merve was a big part of that. She was active in our channels, quick to celebrate wins, planned team bonding activities, and just kept the conversation going. I would highly recommend her in any distributed environment. Her ability to foster genuine connection was a real differentiator. Any team would be lucky to have Merve!
Shiyuan Deng
Design Director | Genesys
Merve Koók is a pleasure to work with and she has good experience in UX and Web design solutions. She is an organized and customer-oriented perfectionist, has no problem working hard when necessary. Result-driven, experienced and efficient designer. Deliver results and move on. That's Merve Koók's way. I certainly would recommend her as a UX designer.

Bulut Gok
Product Manager @Telesmart
She is very kind and experienced in her field. She gives constructive feedback on my projects and helps me learn more about UX and plan my career path. We work step by step and focus carefully on every detail. She also answers my questions clearly. She is a great person, and I’m happy to learn from her.
Buse Arican
ADPList | Mentee
The session with Merve was extremely efficient and highly valuable. She shared her professional experience with me and gave great advice on how I can guide my career. Her approach was fully personalized – she listened carefully to my needs and current situation, which allowed her to offer thoughtful and practical advice. She is a mentor who truly wants to support and help young designers in their development.
Karolina Daniluk
ADPList | Mentee
I was very happy to talk with Merve. She was very helpful and gave useful advice! I have a lot of inspiration and ideas in my head after our meeting! Lot of things became more understandable!
Kate Soldatova
ADPList | Mentee
Merve worked on my team while at Genesys and I was always impressed by her level of engagement with her peers, and with her work. She contributed significantly to UX meetings in the office, acting as a leader to gather community and to drive continued excellence in UX craft. She thrived while performing quick explorations in different product areas, unafraid to learn new techniques or to meet with new partners. She is a curious, positive person and I wish her success in her next role!
John Pettengill
Design Director | Genesys
It was a pleasure working with Merve. She is an energetic and proactive professional, always bringing great ideas to the team and willing to help whenever needed. She stands out technically, demonstrating exceptional attention to detail and a strong commitment to delivering high-quality results. We had the opportunity to collaborate on several projects, and her contributions were always outstanding. Even today, whenever I come across something she worked on, I know I can rely on the quality and thoroughness of her work.
Bruna Schmitz
Senior Product Designer | Genesys
Worked together with Merve on an NFT analytical software, built it up together from scratch. Merve has a special talent to design complete softwares beautifully, and one of my favorite things about her is the responsiveness and work ethic. Whatever part of the day it was, she was available, if something urgent came up, she was there and saved the day!
Robert Csala
Co-Founder of CyberBox
Merve is an absolute treasure, hard worker and one of the most reliable desingers I've worked with ever. You're lucky to get her attention as an employer and have her contribute in your team.
Adam Sal
CyberBox
Merve has been great to work with. She picks up on new things fast and is very patient when collaborating on product designs. In a startup environment where agility is key, Merve fits right in.
Peeter-Erik Kiis
Product Manager @UPSY
All my sessions with my mentor are very productive and enjoyable. By benefiting from her professional experience, I'm learning how to deal with the challenges I face in my career. The feedback I receive on my projects helps me gain deeper insights into UX. Most importantly, I feel motivated after each session. You're a great mentor! Thank you so much.
Naciye Okcu
ADPList | Mentee

let's connect

Curious to collaborate?

I’m always open to thoughtful conversations and meaningful projects.
Let’s explore what we can build together.

2025 | All Rights reserved.

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