
Rick Butterworth
Entrepreneur | Designer | Coder | Author | PodcasterFounder/Co-Founder
- Play Ed3, LLC
- Wakelet
- RPB-Designs
- SBS Resources
Media/Presentations
- Ed3 Summit Session Presenter (2024)
- Web 3 & the Evolution of EdTech (ISTE) (2023)
- Digital Portfolios: The Future of CVs (ISTE) (2023)
- Sketchnoting on Wakelet! Get Creative (2022)
- SEE to Lead Podcast, House of EdTech Podcast (Episode 208) (2022)
Author
- Today's Learners, Tomorrow's Leaders (2025)
Software
Tech
With over a decade of experience in product design, front-end development, product management, and operations, I specialize in:
Creating intuitive, inclusive user experiences
Aligning product strategy with long-term goals
Strengthening internal operations to boost efficiency and reduce risk
Identifying and solving process bottlenecks that slow teams down
Being neurodivergent (dyslexic), I'm passionate about accessibility, equity, and designing solutions that work for all, especially those often overlooked. I've co-authored a book with ISTE, co-founded a platform used by millions, and bring a deep understanding of what it takes to move from idea to implementation in the fast-evolving edtech world.
Experience
wakeletSenior Product Designer & Software Engineer2024 - 2025
- Consolidated components used in the products core functionality
- Improved feature consistency across the platform
- Implemented improvements to onboarding process for new users
- Creating and maintaining landing page components for the marketing team
wakeletProduct Manager & Lead Product Designer - Mobile Apps2022 - 2024
- Increased engineering productivity by over 15% by simplifying and restructuring the ticketing process
- Identifying potential features and improvements to grow mobile app usage
- Coordinating with all key stakeholders across the business
- Manage engineering resource availability
- Mobile app roadmap
wakeletHead of Product Design & UI Developer2018 - 2022
- Implemented new design processes resulting in a 25% increase in team efficiency
- Designed the mobile account setup to tailor content to the user's preferences resulting in a 40% for week 4 retention on both iOS and Android apps
- Product managed and product designed mobile specific features, like draw, RSS feeds, and accessibility which increased iOS MAU by over 300% and Android MAU by over 700%
- Introduced new features like templates, spaces, account set up, new collection layouts, and more, growing the MAU across all products from 500K to 6.1M from 2019 to 2022
- Identified new opportunities and implemented into the company roadmap
- Align and improve the company brand/design system across all products
- Coordinated with key stakeholders in all departments
wakeletLead Product Designer & Web Developer2011 - 2018
- Sole UX/UI designer for all products (web, mobile apps, and extensions)
- Built the company's first design system for products
- Identified product market fit within education and tailored all products for educators and students growing the MAU from 0 to 500K
- Roadmap planning
- Sole HTML & CSS developer
- Coordination across the engineering and marketing team