Dongho Koo

Summary

Multidisciplinary product leader with 20+ years spanning software engineering, UX architecture, design systems, product design, and founder-led product development. I connect strategy, interaction design, technical implementation, and go-to-market, from early concept and prototyping to launch, iteration, and growth. Background in platform engineering, developer ecosystems, AR/VR, AI-enabled consumer products, and cross-functional leadership across startups and global organizations.

Experience

Founder · AI product builder and design technologist, DNNR Tech

July 2025 – present · San Mateo, CA

• Build and launch AI-powered consumer products across iOS and Android; 20+ products shipped.
• Lead end-to-end product development: opportunity identification, UX architecture, design, implementation, launch, analytics, and iteration.
• Use AI-assisted workflows to accelerate concept development, prototyping, content generation, implementation, and operational decisions.
• Highlights: TJ Near & Hot reached 102K iOS installs in 12 months with no paid acquisition and a store rating rebuilt from 1.9 to 4.4; AutoMiles holds 37.6% day-1 and 16.6% day-7 retention after an onboarding redesign lifted first-day activation from 4.8% to 60%+.

Founding head of design and product · GenAI, AR, creator ecosystem, Phygtl, Inc.

January 2024 – June 2025

• Led product and UX strategy for a next-generation social platform that transformed user-generated content into immersive 3D experiences through generative AI.
• Architected the foundational UX, creator tools, onboarding flows, and community mechanics to support acquisition, activation, and extensibility in an ambiguous early-stage environment.

AR design team lead · Creator tools, AI avatars, strategic partnerships, Samsung Electronics

January 2019 – December 2023

• Led cross-functional UX development for the AI-driven 3D avatar platform, reaching 20M+ monthly active users. Developed creator pipelines, avatar generation tools, and scalable personalization systems.
• Translated emerging technical capabilities into end-user and partner-facing experiences, including collaborations with Disney and other major IP partners. iF Design Award, 2020.

VR product design lead · Mobile VR, B2B, XR design system, Samsung Electronics

January 2017 – December 2018

• Directed end-to-end UX and product development for PhoneCast VR (1M+ monthly active users), prototyping multi-screen environments, controller interactions, and VR-native navigation patterns.
• Worked with framework engineers to validate concepts against DRM, performance, and technical constraints, bridging exploration with viable implementation.

Platform design system designer · OS design system, developer UX, Samsung Electronics

January 2014 – December 2016

• Architected design systems across mobile, wearable, and TV for Samsung's Tizen platform, shipped on 10M+ devices.
• Published design guidelines that enabled 10,000+ external partner applications, establishing the ecosystem.

Android input framework software engineer · Interaction systems, Samsung Electronics

January 2012 – December 2013

• Built handwriting and keyboard frameworks, improving multilingual input, accessibility, and custom keyboard integration.

Android UI framework software engineer · Visual system foundations, Samsung Electronics

January 2010 – December 2012

• Built and optimized core UI components such as font engines, themes, and transitions, improving visual fidelity and accessibility across 100M+ devices.

Product manager · Cloud LMS platform, Usher Institute

February 2016 – May 2017

• Managed full-cycle development of an AWS-deployed learning management system.

Web designer and developer · Full-stack, real-time exam system, Usher Institute

September 2007 – December 2009

• Designed, implemented, and launched a virtual TOEFL exam system that reduced testing cost by $200 per student and gave instructors real-time feedback.

PHP web developer · Webmail and intranet, Cham Publishing Co.

May 2006 – December 2006

• Built and maintained webmail, subscription, and bulletin-board services, cutting event promotion time from 2 days to 3 hours.

Systems engineer · Military training simulators and evaluation platforms, ROK Army Signal School

March 2004 – March 2006

• Developed radar communication equipment simulators used in instruction, reducing hardware training cost by $200K per unit; built and operated a student evaluation system that cut instructor grading time.

Co-founder and CEO · Web agency, C-Plus

July 2000 – December 2001

• Co-founded a web agency that helped nonprofits and small businesses go digital with their first websites.

Patents and publications

• US20200401213A1 · EP3705982A4 · WO2019103350A1 · KR20190058839A: apparatus and method for adaptively configuring user interface (Samsung Electronics).
• US20160133228A1 · KR102255456B1: method and apparatus for controlling screen (Samsung Electronics).
• Immersive Emotions: Translating Emotions Into Visualization, ACM MobileHCI 2022.
• Demonstration of a low-cost EEG system providing on-demand communication for locked-in patients, IEEE GHTC 2021.
• Methods of identifying touched areas have been wiped properly, ACM PETRA 2021.
• Advent of Web 2.0 and FLEX, Expert Magazine (ISSN 1975-356X).