Luis Reyes

Head of Continuous Improvement and Innovation

I worked for Yoni at Coforma. As our CTO, Yoni was in tune both with the technical implementations of our project approaches and with the human factors of the staff. He led our team with a remarkable blend of compassion and insight, fostering an environment where each team member felt valued and motivated to excel. His ability to connect with people, particularly the technically minded, unified our department toward our common goals and forged an engineering culture.

For me as an accomplished technical leader, it has been refreshing to work with a leader like Yoni who employed his intellect and depth of experience not only to challenge me but also to understand the necessary tradeoffs, and contribute strategically and technically to the solution.

In the tech industry, he posses a rare collection of skills in leadership - strategic thinking, technical depth, and empathy - that keeps employees happy, focused on the tasks ahead, and productive.

Frances Yllana

Senior Manager Design Operations at Coforma

Great Chief Technology Officers drive technological innovation. They lead and manage technology teams and ensure their initiatives align with the org’s business goals and values. CTOs must understand the various technologies that can be leveraged to advance everyday delivery and long-term strategies. They must also stay up-to-date on emerging trends and advancements, continually stretching their expertise to maintain and shape the organization and its future leaders.

Today, these qualities are table stakes for any tech leader above the role of director — and they’re standard for creating the policies, processes and tools to run an organization well — however it’s the ability to build and foster an open, collaborative, inclusive and inspired culture and community that sustains and grows those policies, processes and tools, and the motivations behind them.

That is where Yoni thrives: in the community, in the culture, and in the collaborations that drive change and adoption. When I joined Coforma as the first DesignOps lead, he was not only a great collaborator, but a supporter, a teacher, and model of leadership. In my 20+ years in the industry, I can count the number of technology collaborators in the C-suite that I sincerely felt real, mutual trust and respect, on one finger.

With no hesitation and with all my enthusiasm, I recommend Yoni for any endeavor involving technology, community, culture and leadership. He makes organizations and the people in them better. And he’s also really fun to be around. Even in high stress situations. I really enjoyed working with Yoni, and any organization will be lucky to have him join, lead and shape them.

Jamie Newberry

VP of Delivery

Yoni was an amazing partner at Coforma and brings an abundance of knowledge to the table. Collaborating with Yoni was a joy and pleasure, Yoni’s proactive teamwork and willingness to go above and beyond to ensure the success of customer missions set him apart. I was consistently impressed by his thinking and his capacity to contribute valuable insights to our discussions in solving technical problems, managing people and teams, and in delivering amazing solutions to our customers.

His unique combination of inspiration and level-headedness positions him perfectly to lead a team to resounding success. He is not only an invaluable asset to a software development team but also a natural leader capable of elevating your team to new heights.

Brandon Bodnar

Senior Software Engineer

Yoni sets the standard for an engineering leader that elevates any technology team. I had the privilege of having Yoni both as my CTO and my direct supervisor. In every interaction, from before I started with the company, to each 1:1 we had, to our informal chat messages, I felt that Yoni cared deeply for my professional development and how I was adjusting to the team. This extended further to my own reports, where Yoni took a clear interest in their development, ensuring both I and them had the tools and empowerment to grow. When I needed guidance or even just a sounding board to double check an idea, Yoni always made the time to listen. Never once did I hear him express a “well, that’s not my job” thought, instead pitching in when the organization needed it and setting our goals to grow to cover those missing pieces. I’m honored to call Yoni a friend and former teammate / supervisor. If you get the opportunity to work with him, I strongly recommend you take it.

Jared Cunha

Senior Director of Creative Technology at Coforma

If I were to name one person who has made the most profound impact on my career, it would no doubt be Yoni. He has a unique ability to see things in others that they might not be able to see for themselves, and help coax that out into the open and show them how to nurture it.

During the time I was reporting to Yoni, I had never directly managed anyone before. I’ve bounced between design and engineering roles for most of my career, often feeling like a jack of all trades and a master of none. I always viewed that as something that would cap my potential, but Yoni provided the mentorship that helped me turn that into a strength, not only in how I approach my project work, but how to harness that experience to manage people and lead teams. I now manage 6 reports, half of which are directors with their own reports. It’s something I truly enjoy doing and I don’t think I ever would have considered it if it weren’t for Yoni.

The two of us are the original engineering team at Coforma, and we’ve how grown to around 40 at time I am writing this. That’s just engineers. I’ve seen first hand the level of care thoughtful attention that Yoni put into building this team. Those values he instilled still persist today and they will persist tomorrow. I’ve never been on a team that was ever truly as there for each other as humans before, and now that I have, I never want to know anything else. That’s not something that happens by accident, it’s done deliberately. That was all Yoni.

In client services, it’s important to maintain healthy relationships between parties, but difficult situations to arise that require navigation with grace. Yoni posses both the technical leadership and communication skills to move things forward. I’ve witnessed this on multiple occasions. He is driven by ensuring that the work we do brings material benefit to the people we are serving. He is just an excellent collaborator… across disciplines, across teams, and across partnerships.

It’s difficult to list all of the reasons that Yoni has my highest possible recommendation, because there are just so many than this text box allows. But I wouldn’t be where I am today see what other potential I have without him. For that, I am forever grateful. And I know he’ll make whoever he works with feel exactly the same.

Jorge Arango

Partner at Futuredraft

You know how some people can take a blank sheet of paper and a Sharpie and draw viable user interfaces super fast? Yoni does that with code. He has an uncanny ability to turn vague sketches into beautiful and functional HTML. Want to see alternatives? Not a problem — tap tap tap tap — there you go. It changes how you work: the blurring of prototyping and sketching; sketching in code; freehand prototyping.

Do you value speed, accuracy, and a great eye for design? You need Yoni on your team.

Louis Rosenfeld

Publisher at Rosenfeld Media, LLC

Yoni’s reputation is, deservedly, as a canonical example of a unicorn--someone who can design and code… But that doesn’t tell the whole story. While Yoni sweats the details of design, I’ve always appreciated his broader view of UX strategy and customer experience, and his ability to cut through the bullshit that often pervades discussions of design and get right to the heart of what’s important.

Amy Silvers

Senior Product Designer at NASDAQ

True UX unicorns are almost impossible to find, but Yoni is one. He has deep, foundational knowledge of coding concepts but also thinks like a designer. He is an innovator who quickly understands a problem space and envisions solutions, and he has the skills to design and build those solutions efficiently and effectively. He has the natural curiosity that is essential for a designer, and he’s also a patient and thorough teacher. He regularly helped me with coding questions and always made sure I understood the solution rather than just handing it to me.

Boon Sheridan

Experience. Design. Stories.

Yoni’s the sort of guy I struggle to describe because there are so many ways to do it. Lately I’ve settled on, “he’s a data-literate developer, a design-friendly developer, and relentless in bringing an idea to life.”

The simplest way I can put it is that one of the most comforting phrases I’ve heard over the years is, “Don’t worry, Yoni’s on it.” Go design first code second? Lead with code and follow with data then design? I don’t know anymore... We’ve worked together inside, and I trusted him enough to bring him on to projects when we both went outside. It was always a blast.

Jeremy Breslau

Senior Product Designer at Nasdaq, Inc.

He’s ambitious, driven, and feverishly focused on the work he takes on. I’ve seen him thrive on projects ranging from designing improved interactions and user workflows on complex applications, to developing better prototyping processes and component libraries. Yoni exudes confidence, and is well equipped to solve difficult problems. He’s incredibly technically savvy as a designer, and quite adept at front-end development. As such, he was a valuable mentor as well.

Erin Liman

Consultant, Business Growth Strategist

Yoni was able to rapidly design as we brainstormed an overarching story and the related UX flows, nailing a complex user experience design in less than two days.

I recommend Yoni for his speed, ability to think through all aspects of the system in his design, and his coding know-how. He has a wonderful, collaborative way of working, and I look forward to working with him on a future project.

Jay Zaveri

Curious tinkerer and purpose-driven product builder

Yoni is a multi-talented designer that can add significant value to any product. He can help with design strategy, sit in a room and brainstorm ideas, quickly prototype them, think deeply about UX, refine IA and do just about anything to come to a winning design for the user. He is a pleasure to work with and I have always been able to rely on him to turn around the best work in a very short time. I would recommend him to anyone that needs an experienced, multi-talented and skilled product design professional.

Chris Baum

Partner at Futuredraft

Yoni is literally a game-changer. His powerful perspective of design from code makes a huge difference in creating products that work naturally.

For our studio, he was a key person on a huge project to build a next-gen healthcare platform. Yoni made critical contributions by demonstrating the new design in HTML/Javascript/CSS and baking responsive design into the prototype to demonstrate that hurdle wasn’t all that difficult. In the year that I’ve worked with him, he’s been a great partner - doing what he said he would do, generally more than requested. Also, he asks the really hard questions in a way that uncovers important unknowns and actually helps get at the answers.

We will not at all hesitate hire him again. You should do so before we snap him up.

Meredith Wood

VP, Content at Fundera

Working with Yoni was easily one of the best experiences I have had with a designer. He was excellent at articulating ideas, brainstorming and working with a group of people to help reach what really is the best user experience. He helped everyone on the team understand the psychology behind the product, which not only helped design an incredible application, but gain a deeper understanding for the industry we serve. So much of my conversations and work with Yoni filtered into the customer service experience we’ve created (which is rated 5 stars) and even the content we produce on various publications... Not a day goes by that I don’t hear a customer say how easy and intuitive the app is. Yoni is incredible to work with on both a personal and professional level and I recommend him without any hesitation.

Lynne Polischuik

Co-founder, Research Lead at First Chair Partners

There are few within our industry that can be called true ‘unicorns,’ but Yoni is one of them. He is as proficient with frontend code as he is at deftly handling a user interview. He really embodies what it means to be ‘user-centric’ in your approach: He has an engaging manner that brings even the toughest research participant out of their shell, coupled with a sharp analytical mind and the ability to craft design solutions that are both elegant and highly functional. He is the perfect package of strategic thinking and solid execution. I was fortunate to work for Yoni on one of the most complex projects of my career and he is still someone I turn to for advice and expertise. I can’t stress enough how much I took away from this experience and how it’s shaped my approach to research and design work since.

Matt Rogish

Founder at ReactiveOps, Inc.

Yoni provided amazing user experience research, design, and product strategy for our software-as-a-service company. He has an uncanny knack to get to the core of what a user wants (not always what they SAY they want) and then drives the product design home. The product wouldn’t have been a success without him, and would love to work with him again in the future.

John Morris

Independent Design Consultant

I hired Yoni to conduct user research in order to set the stage for my planned redesign of one of our products, an advertising technology platform. Yoni’s findings were genuinely insightful, and his coded prototypes illustrated thoughtful and creative concepts which pointed us in a clear direction.

Yoni has an uncanny ability to quickly assess a system or product from broad strokes to finer details, and to connect concepts along the way. The first was from my experience working with him when we were both consultants at Standard & Poor’s; this recommendation is a result of Yoni’s two-month consulting engagement for me at MediaOcean... I see the project as an exemplar of what the often-meaningless term “consulting” can be... , which builds real value for his clients. I have found this breadth and depth of knowledge, skills and ability to be extremely rare

Murray Cox

Community Artist, Data Activist and Technology Expert

Yoni has a unique set of technical skills combined with outstanding personal skills to ask the right questions, make suggestions that cut to the core of an issue, and iteratively visualize solutions. Yoni understands constraints, and helped our team come up with some pragmatic solutions that he collaborated with us to build a plan, which is currently being implemented. Yoni worked with our customers and business users to discover how they use our application, and do their job (with and without our application)...

I’d thoroughly recommend Yoni to any assignment, in any business domain, he proves his value almost immediately... I look forward to continuing our relationship with Yoni.

Christopher Buchino

Director of Advanced Engineering at Interactions LLC

Yoni is one of those rare people who can not only design amazing user experiences but can also write the code to bring those designs to life. He is a top notch front end developer and designer and I really enjoyed working with him.

Phil Gordon

UX Researcher

I had the great fortune to work with Yoni (Yoni) on some recent project work at Gilt. Suffice it to say that he made my job incredibly easy! I moderate and conduct usability studies, and Yoni’s prototypes are by far the best I have ever worked with. He has the amazing ability to turn wireframes and lo-fidelity visual comps into functional, beautiful prototype masterpieces. I can’t recommend his work highly enough!

Ciaran Rogers

Freelance Brand/ Digital Strategist

Yoni has the unique ability to weed through reams of data and multitudes of complicated scenarios to arrive at the most simple conclusion. While that is a fundamental skill of an IA, what sets Yoni apart is his ability to naturally overlay the mindset and desired experience of the user. This makes brainstorming exceedingly more efficient, and provides a solid point of unification between the numerous constituents that get involved in the site creation process. He also has a very strong and unique point of view on how to evolve the IA process. As a discipline in its relative infancy, his mentality is absolutely necessary to fully explore and express what an IA brings to the table.

Eduardo F. Ortiz

Helping improve peoples’ access to government services through design, and technology.

Yoni’s title really doesn’t do him enough justice. Yoni met, exceeded and set a whole new set of expectations on a tough project. He constantly “pushed the envelope” and found ways to marry the user experience with the development process. Yoni is not your typical Interface Engineer, he’s a User Experience Architect (if I were to define his title) with amazing development skills and a thirst for doing what is right. I highly recommend Yoni and am pleased to have worked with him.

Michael Paige

Front-End Development Manager at Apple

Yoni is by far one of the best people we’ve ever hired here at Icon. His work has been impeccable, and he became a valuable part of each team he worked with. He’s full of ideas and is always pushing for the best solution for the project and the client. He’s personable, easy to work with, and very fast. His knowledge and skills will make him an asset wherever he goes. He basically needs no oversight. Give him a job and it’s done. I recommend him highly.

Angelo Fazio

Transformation & Solution Architect

Yoni’s uncanny ability to listen to users, coupled with his insightful questions about their work, provide the foundation for his excellent results. Moreover, his openness and honesty make the process educational and enjoyable for team members. He is able to leverage his understanding of both human behavior, as well as pertinent technologies, to act as an advocate for users and help the project team deliver results that exceed users’ expectations.

Yan Tsirklin

Advisor at Datavore® Labs

Yoni is one of the smartest people I have worked with. His intellectual curiosity spans beyond his own responsibilities and duties. Yoni is always looking to see and understanding the bigger picture; while not losing site of the details that needed to get you there. At S&P, I witnessed him strive to deliver the very best solutions. He was never afraid to question himself and others. Yoni always tried to ensure that the business got more than they expected. He is incredibly passionate about his work and I admire that.