Peers

“I worked with Pat in two very different capacities. He was my manager at Google, and more recently a peer at The Trade Desk, where my team partnered closely with his as we went through a foundational design system shift.

What stands out most is how consistent he is across those two roles. Pat has real technical depth in design systems, from tokens to governance to the architecture decisions that determine whether a system holds up under real usage. Above all, Pat really shows up for partner teams. During a major foundational migration, he was hands-on with the feature teams building on top of the system, genuinely trying to understand our specific problems rather than handing down a spec and moving on. That kind of engagement is rare, especially at the pace this work demanded, and it's what got a hard, cross-team shift through without teams like mine feeling stranded.

Anyone lucky enough to work with him next is getting someone who treats partner teams as people to solve problems with, not just consumers of a spec. I'd want him on the other side of any hard system change again.

Pat, thank you for being a great partner and a genuinely excellent person to work with.”

“When I joined The Trade Desk, I knew I'd be in good company with Pat on the team after having crossed paths at Google. Pat is not only highly skilled from both a creative and technical standpoint, but also genuinely invested in his team and in creating a foundation that lasts. The design system he built from the ground up has become essential infrastructure across our entire product organization. I would be thrilled to work with him again and know that he'd be a valuable addition to any organization.”

“I worked extensively with Patrick and his team as part of his role leading Ads' design system as part of the Angular team's investment in supporting that design system. Working with Patrick's team was the best experience I've had working with any design group at Google in my 11+ years doing front-end engineering at Google. Patrick ran his team with a customer-centric approach that produced solid designs, solving real problems through collaborative iteration. If I became CEO of Google tomorrow, I'd put Patrick in charge of Material Design.”

“ACX is the framework and widget set that most of the Ads products at Google use. Google Ads, Google Ad Manager, Google 360, Ad Mob, AdSense, and many others. In that time I've worked with many Ads design leads, and Pat is head and shoulders above all the others. He was one of the only ones on the design side to understand how different design system work is, and the value in that work. He is a strong leader both as a direct manager, and with soft skills influencing areas where he does not have direct control.”

“I worked with Pat for two years in my capacity as TLM of Campaign Manager 360 Trafficking and volunteer / de-facto TL of the Ads Design System components for Angular, which started from nothing in 2020 and are now used by thousands of teams in Google. Without the support of Pat and team, it’s hard to imagine that the effort to build out the components for Angular would have been successful. Through a supportive and collaborative atmosphere, improved both the specifications and the resulting component implementations substantially.”

“I collaborated with Pat as an engineering lead for Connect’s Angular component library and as a maintainer of Google’s broader Angular component library. The Angular developer experience has changed for the better in recent years. In my opinion, a notable portion of the change can be attributed to Pat’s work on the Ads UX design system. Overall, Pat is a valuable partner for my team and the broader ACX/Angular developer communities. He is a leader in the enterprise design system space. I am very disappointed to see him and Ads UX go.”

“I’ve had the privilege of working closely with Pat over the last ~6 years on the Pulse and The Forge teams. Pat’s leadership was crucial to bringing to market some of the most celebrated internal tools.

Pat steered vision and strategy, and provided extensive product and UX expertise, enabling dozens of successful feature launches across each of these tools. Without Pat’s leadership and contributions these resources would not be available to Googlers today.”

“The Ads Design system and Carbon Patrick has been a Manager / lead of have been foundational to building our design system, as they were the pioneers of enterprise design systems that became the source of truth when it came to gaps in enterprise guidance. His leadership and partnership have been critical to our design system, which supports 130+ internal products. He has collaborated on high value opportunities to encourage cohesion, create reusable components, and reduce costs. I have always appreciated his strategic partnership, empowerment of his leads, consideration for risk mitigation, and boldness to speak up when he sees a high-value opportunity.”

“Pat’s has a user-centric approach, with a constant eye towards the long term strategy and success of the Design System. He has exceptional cross-functional collaboration skills, working across product teams varying disciplines, including PM, Engineering, and all UX disciplines. As a Program Manager, I worked closely with Pat on strategy, prioritization of work, and focusing our team's bandwidth on the most impactful user needs. Pat always brought critical considerations, and was a constant advocate for creating long term value for our users and products. ”

“I worked with Pat for many years in Ads on DoubleClick for Publishers, which later became Google Ad Manager. I always loved working with Pat. He was knowledgeable about the publisher space, passionate, collaborative, and an excellent designer. He is incredibly easy to work with and is a true UX visionary. With his many years of UX design experience, Pat would be an amazing addition to any team. I always appreciated his focus on impact and ability to drive forward his vision and ideas to completion. Any team would be lucky to have him.”

“He’s built a community of design excellence with Google Ads…He’s personally responsible for driving consistency and excellence across many of Google’s core products, both leading the design efforts to ensure the highest quality, most effective solution, and effectively navigating the complexities of Google’s internal politics in order to ensure that the solution is realized.

He’s a leader who cares deeply about the people on his team, and is adept at supporting them in their goals.”

“Excellent Design Managers at Google are rare. People that truly understand the Google ecosystem and have the ability to create runways for everyone on the team to excel and exceed expectations with every project they are on.

I owe a lot of my success in my career to the guidance Patrick provided, the focus and skills he had to bring the team together, and the culture he built. He’s my most trusted advisor and mentor.”