Thomas Watkins

Thomas Watkins is Guest Instructor at NN/G and the Founder and Design Psychologist at 3Leaf, where he helps SaaS founders and product teams make their product the obvious choice. He hosts two podcasts, The Design Psychologist and Product Led Growth Leaders.

Thomas's 18-year career began in human factors research at NASA's Bioastronautics Laboratory. From there, he worked as a UX practitioner across a wide range of SaaS vendors and industries, eventually settling into a focus on 0-1 product work and digital transformations, largely through 3Leaf since 2016. He's also the founding product designer for the startup RealTheory. His projects have included UX research and design for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, and data visualization work for cybersecurity vendors and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

He holds a Master's in Human Factors Engineering from George Mason University, a Master's in Experimental Psychology from Louisiana State University, and a Bachelor's in Psychology from Hampton University. He's an adjunct instructor at Rice University's Jones Graduate School of Business, and annually taught UXPA's data visualization course for over a decade. Thomas is based in Houston, Texas.