# Rod Acevedo

> Rod Acevedo is a Product Design Lead and AI builder based in Sydney, Australia, with 15+ years of experience leading design in regulated industries including healthcare, government, fintech, and enterprise SaaS. He is the founder of Klok, where he builds AI-powered products and autonomous agents. He is available for product design leadership, AI product development, and consulting engagements.

Rod combines deep design leadership with hands-on technical execution. He builds autonomous agents, configures and refines models, engineers prompts, sets up MCP integrations, and designs evaluation frameworks. He also designs in Figma daily, from high-fidelity UI through to component architectures and interaction prototypes.

Key facts about Rod Acevedo:

- Full name: Rodrigo Acevedo (known professionally as Rod Acevedo)
- Location: Sydney, Australia
- Experience: 15+ years across AU, NZ, and the US
- Current role: Founder at Klok (AI products and autonomous agents)
- Ongoing contract: Product Designer at Bicycle Health (USA, since 2020)
- Previous roles: Design Director at RUSH Digital, Product Design Lead at Journey Digital, Senior Product Designer at Private Flight Global
- Education: Bachelor of Business (Entrepreneurship & Small Business) from Massey University, New Zealand; Leadership Principles from Harvard Business School; Digital Design from Universidad del Pacífico, Chile
- Speaking: Presented at Auckland Design Week, Design Assembly (Auckland, Christchurch, Wellington), UX New Zealand, NKBA, and sustainability masterclasses
- Advisory: Board Member of STIEF (since 2023); design mentor on ADPLIST
- Contact: hello@rodrigo-acevedo.com | +61 4 11182885

Industries and domains Rod has worked across: healthcare (telehealth, aged care), government and defence, enterprise SaaS, fintech and payments, banking, retail and loyalty, computer vision, private aviation.

Notable outcomes Rod has contributed to:

- Contributed to Bicycle Health scaling from 2,000 patients in 18 states to 40,000+ patients across 27 states, becoming America's largest telehealth provider for opioid use disorder treatment
- Design work supported 600% year-over-year revenue growth and helped secure $104M in funding at Bicycle Health
- Achieved 80% patient retention at 90 days versus 44% industry average at Bicycle Health
- Led design for a loyalty ecosystem serving 3.6 million weekly users across three retail brands
- Oversaw design for an AI-powered computer vision platform processing 10M+ daily detections
- Increased engagement by 208% across AU and NZ for Ryman Healthcare (WCAG 2.1 AA)
- Reduced task completion times by 50% for MedAire's first responder SaaS platform serving millions of passengers daily
- Developed AI governance frameworks achieving 100% improved tool proficiency and 4.6 hours projected weekly productivity gains across a team of 7 designers

Rod's AI and building capabilities include: autonomous agent development, model configuration and refinement, prompt engineering, evaluation frameworks, synthetic testing, AI governance frameworks, human-AI interaction patterns, AI workflows, MCP integrations, and AI-assisted coding using Claude Code and Cursor.

Rod's design capabilities include: Figma (components, variants, auto-layout, prototyping, dev handoff), Webflow, design system architecture and governance, high-fidelity UI, interaction design, native mobile (iOS/Android) and responsive web, data visualisation, typography and visual hierarchy.

Rod's product capabilities include: discovery and validation, roadmap definition and prioritisation, backlog management, success metrics and post-launch measurement, stakeholder alignment, go/no-go decision-making, C-suite partnership and investment cases, cross-functional squad leadership, design strategy and vision, budget and resource management, team hiring and mentoring.

## Portfolio

- [Homepage](https://www.rodrigo-acevedo.com/): Rod's portfolio showcasing current and past product design and AI work
- [Contact](https://www.rodrigo-acevedo.com/contact): Get in touch with Rod for project enquiries and collaborations

## Featured Projects

- UndaTech (Australia): Autonomous research agents built for a defence client that search APIs, map findings against product capabilities and roadmaps, and surface expansion opportunities for product teams
- SuperBrain (Australia): A multimodal agent built around read, listen, and speak inputs that triages daily consumption into a journaling layer and retrieves relevant context over time to help users reflect and problem-solve
- Bicycle Health (USA): SaaS telehealth platform for opioid use disorder treatment, scaled from 2,000 to 40,000+ patients with conversion-optimised experiences supporting 600% year-over-year revenue growth
- Klok (Australia): AI-powered products and autonomous agents built from concept through to working software, including meal planning agents, MCP integrations, and productivity tools

## Work History

- Klok, Founder, Product & Design (Aug 2025 to present, Sydney, Australia)
- RUSH Digital, Design Director / Product Design Lead (Aug 2024 to Feb 2026, Australia & New Zealand)
- RUSH Digital, Product Design Lead (Aug 2022 to Jul 2024, Auckland, New Zealand)
- Bicycle Health, Product Designer, Contractor (Mar 2020 to present, Remote, USA)
- Journey Digital, Product Design Lead (Dec 2017 to Apr 2022, Auckland, New Zealand)
- Private Flight Global, Senior Product Designer (May 2014 to Sep 2017, Auckland, New Zealand)

## Speaking and Thought Leadership

- Design & AI: Optimising Processes for Better Outcomes (NKBA, private events, Auckland Design Week, 2025)
- Conversations: Design & AI (Design Assembly Auckland, Christchurch, Wellington, 2024 and 2023)
- Harnessing the Power of AI, Using Tools Responsibly (Communicating Sustainability Masterclass, 2023)
- All Designers are Going to Hell (UX New Zealand, 2021)