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Sam Hankins

About me

Product work shaped by real stakes.

I design products where the complexity is real but invisible to the people who depend on them.

Sam Hankins

Background

A comment section seems simple until you are the moderator triaging hundreds of flagged comments during a breaking news event.

A pay stub seems simple until you are the tipped worker trying to figure out whether you got paid correctly. A job application seems simple until you are filling it out on your phone between shifts and the offer expires in 24 hours.

I have spent most of my career in these moments: the places where complicated rules, real stakes, and limited time collide, and the people using the tools cannot afford to be confused.

For nearly eight years, I was a founding and then principal designer at Coral, a commenting and community platform that started as a collaboration between Mozilla, The New York Times, and The Washington Post. I helped build moderation infrastructure, AI-assisted toxicity detection, and the design system that scaled to 120+ newsrooms in 23 languages.

After Coral was acquired by Vox Media, I expanded into publishing tools, editorial workflows, and sports community design across brands including The Verge, New York Magazine, and SB Nation.

Now I design and build independently. rssHQ is a recruiting platform I built from the ground up for a staffing company I have partnered with since 2017. Check My Checks is a wage verification tool for tipped restaurant workers. Both reflect the same instinct: find the complexity hiding in something people interact with every day, then design so they do not have to think about it.

Before any of this, I went to law school. I did not practice, but it keeps showing up in the work: compliance logic, audit trail architecture, and the instinct that people with the least power should get the most clarity.

Work

See the projects behind the story.

Case studies from Coral, Vox Media, rssHQ, and Check My Checks.

See the work +

Teaching

Clear thinking is part of the craft.

I spent three years mentoring career-transitioning designers at Bloc. Teaching sharpened how I explain decisions, tradeoffs, and product judgment.

Let's talk

Have a product problem with teeth?

I am open to full-time roles, freelance engagements, and collaborations where research, systems, and shipping all matter.