About

Derek Balmer

I’m a product designer with 20+ years of experience shipping thoughtful, human-centered experiences for web and mobile.

I kicked off my career designing apps and video games for clunky mobile phones with tiny screens. This was four years before the iPhone. Quite a lot has changed since then. Throughout my career, I’ve developed a multi-disciplinary skillset encompassing user experience, interface design, and front-end development.

I’m currently a Senior Product Designer at Cadence Solutions, helping health systems deliver world-class care at home to achieve industry-leading outcomes. As Cadence’s first design hire, I’ve shaped the user experience across key areas, including our clinical care platform, provider-facing EHR applications, and patient-facing materials. Most recently, I led design for the Zero-to-One launch of our new care management service lines, guiding the process from concept to implementation.

Before transitioning to digital health in 2015, I had the opportunity to work with clients like Cava, Mammoth Lakes Trails, and AccuTerra through my studio, Hold Fast Creative.

Outside of work, I’m busy raising two incredible humans with my amazing wife. We call Colorado home and can usually be found snowboarding, slashing trails, or getting lost in the mountains somewhere.


This site was crafted in the before times with old school HTML and CSS, before the era of vibe coding, published via Statamic, and hosted on Linode.

Awards

2009

Apple Design Award

AccuTerra for iPhone: Best iPhone OS 3.0 Beta Application - 2009 Winner

2006

BREW Developer Award

RealTone JukeBox™: Best Ringtone Application

Experience

2021–Present

Cadence Solutions

Senior Product Designer // Leading end-to-end design of clinical remote care platforms, from concept to launch and ongoing enhancement to empower clinicians and providers.

2020–2021

Teladoc Health

Staff Product Designer // Created a global design system to accelerate the integration of Livongo and Teladoc products, providing a cohesive user experience across consumer web and mobile apps.

2019–2020

Livongo Health

Senior Product Designer // Created an all new version of the consumer web surface, supporting diabetes, hypertension and obesity management.

Acquired 2020, Teladoc

2015–2019

myStrength

Creative Director // Owned and led design of consumer iOS, Android, and web behavioral health applications. Developed company branding, marketing site, B2B portals, and ongoing materials to support growth and sales.

Acquired 2019, Livongo Health

2012–2014

RoundPegg

Senior Designer // Worked directly with leadership and engineering to design their culture management web application, and provided design services for marketing and sales teams' online initiatives.

2007–2012

Hold Fast Creative

President // Boutique design studio providing custom design and development services for web and mobile projects to clients such as Cava, AccuTerra, and Car Toys.

2003–2007

9 Squared

Creative Director // Led design for one of the original mobile content distributors in the U.S. my responsibilities included growing and managing the design team, visual design/front-end design of all B2C and B2B web properties, native mobile app UX/UI design, branding, and marketing collateral.

Acquired 2007, Zed Group