Erica Lakata
I’m a Senior Product Designer with 8+ years of experience designing products across consumer, education, AI platforms, and more. My work sits at the intersection of product strategy, user experience, and design system thinking—helping teams turn complex ideas into clear, scalable experiences that drive real outcomes.
More recently, I’ve been designing enterprise AI products through Tribe AI, collaborating with ML engineers to ship LLM-powered workflows, tools, and data-driven platforms into production.
I run Baked Potato Studio and work with a wide variety of creators and businesses: from early ideation to high-impact prouduction. Earlier in my career, I also bootstrapped and founded a volleyball e-commerce brand, growing it from the ground up — which gave me even more of a hands-on understanding of product, growth, and execution.
In general, I tend to gravitate toward problems that are complex, fast-moving, or system-heavy—where the challenge isn’t just designing the interface, but defining what should exist in the first place and why. My approach is rooted in understanding real user needs, rapidly exploring solutions, and building toward clarity through iteration.
Previously, I spent nearly five years at Marie Forleo International, where I grew from junior to lead designer and helped shape the next generation of flagship and net-new digital products for the brand. This included leading strategy and UX for multi-million-dollar launches, building scalable design systems, and defining early AI-powered tools for both Marie's internal team and customers.
‍Some other fun facts:
- - I play cello and piano!
- - Former NCAAÂ Division I volleyball player
- - Soft spot for open-world RPGs (RDR2 is my #1)
- - I love cheese and baked potatoes *shocker *
What Y'all Think
"Working with Erica has been SO seamless. Her expertise, skill and execution is unparalleled and I’d highly recommend her to anyone!"
Founder, Creative Director | Saevil Row
What sets Erica apart is her ability to balance creativity with business goals. Every layout, visual choice, and interaction is intentional and optimized to support the end objective, whether that’s clarity, engagement, or conversion. She’s highly collaborative, thoughtful, and ego-free — always focused on getting to the strongest possible outcome. She welcomes feedback, iterates intelligently, and makes the process genuinely enjoyable.
Senior Copywriter & Content Strategist
"Erica is the most talented designer working today. Creative, collaborative and fun to be around? She's the total package...the most talented b*tch in the world."
Author of A Little Less Broken
"NEXT. LEVEL... The few things you've done already have helped the business look super professional."
Founder and CEOÂ of BKU Digital Agency
"Erica's attention to detail, especially when it comes to user research, is unmatched. She really took the time to understand our customer base and deliver a product strategy that increased our numbers across the board."
Founder and CEOÂ of Mirage
"Erica's design expertise and professionalism is excellent. Equally, she does a great job keeping the collaborative process fun by bringing her sense of humor to the table. The team thoroughly enjoyed working with her!"
Enterprise Account Executive, Sonar
"We LOVE working with Erica on all of our projects. She always offers a unique perspective that creates quality results."
VP of Project Mangement, SCGE, Inc.
"Not only is Erica an excellent designer, she also has the personality you'll want to work with again and again. She was able to translate our legal needs into easy, scalable tools used across our firm."
Attorney |Â L&LÂ PLLC
"The quality and efficiency Erica brought to the table was dope. She helped my team and IÂ go from start-to-launch, even going above and beyond to provide marketing strategies we could implement in the future. I've already recommended her to a ton of other folks in the industry!"
DJÂ &Â Producer
