CharTaker
Mobile AppA Starfinder character manager that carries a player from a guided build through live play, starships, and shared campaigns. Built solo and shipped to the App Store.
ReactCapacitorSupabase
Live demoApp StoreGoogle PlayView →
Senior product designer & design leader
Building in
the AI age
Always up for an interesting problem
I'm JC Zabel. Currently at Microsoft, where I've led design across Azure Advisor, Resiliency, and Customer Health. Before that, founding designer on an enterprise platform now past 20M devices. AI-native, drawn to mission work, still shipping the software myself.
Flagship case study
Azure Advisor · Build 2026 · Private preview
A wall of recommendations → five decisions that matter.
AI-powered, agentic guidance for enterprise cloud resiliency and retirements. Turning walls of context-free recommendations into five decisions that matter. Private preview, unveiled at Microsoft Build 2026.
Read the case study →How I lead
Hand over whole workstreams
On Azure, six designers and researchers covered three products because each person owned a whole problem end to end.
Azure Advisor →Decide what not to build
OvrC went from 3 device models to 200+ and stayed usable by people who weren't network engineers. Most of that was saying no.
OvrC →Argue on the customer's terms
I got a hardware requirement dropped from OvrC Connect because integrators couldn't sell it. Attachment climbed once it was gone.
OvrC Connect →Watch someone else use it
MealMapper's worst problems were invisible to me until friends and family used it for a week.
MealMapper →Recent projects
MealMapper
Mobile AppA cross-platform app that turns a week of meals into a sorted grocery list and a one-tap store order, built for two people sharing one kitchen.
React NativeSupabaseKroger API
Live demoView →
Sealed Bid
Game DesignFourteen managers secretly split 1,000 points across the draft slots, and one night in front of a TV decides who picks first.
Next.jsPostgresData Viz
Live demoView →
Working on something that matters?
I'd like to hear about it. I lean toward places where AI meets climate, energy, healthcare, or public service, but if it's real work on a hard problem, drop me a line.
jc.zabel@gmail.com →