PJ Mason

For over two decades, I've been driven by a simple but powerful belief: the best products emerge when deep user empathy meets hands-on creation. As a designer, maker, and leader, I've spent my career building teams and capabilities that don't just create beautiful products—they transform entire categories and create lasting business value.

My journey began at the University of Cincinnati's College of Design, where I was named Industrial Design Student of the Year in 1999. Those formative years taught me that great design requires both strategic thinking and the ability to make ideas tangible. This philosophy has guided my career ever since, from my early days working across continents—Knoxville, Hong Kong, Cincinnati—to leading global design teams across North America, Europe, and Asia.

Building Capabilities, Not Just Products

What excites me most isn't just designing the next great product—it's building the teams, processes, and capabilities that enable sustained innovation. At Procter & Gamble, where I've spent the last 20+ years, I've had the privilege of leading design organizations through transformative change. One of my proudest achievements was developing P&G's first Digital Design Capability, taking it from external dependencies to a fully internalized team that now tackles our category's most important consumer needs.

This capability-building mindset extends to how I lead. I believe in creating environments where designers can do their best work—where rapid prototyping, user co-creation, and strategic thinking aren't just buzzwords, but daily practices. My team of 16 designers across three continents doesn't just execute; they innovate, challenge assumptions, and push boundaries.

Design as Strategic Advantage

Throughout my career, I've seen firsthand how design can be a powerful strategic tool. Whether it was leading the Pantene global restage, reimagining HairCare packaging systems that saved $55 million annually while reducing complexity by 30%, or developing the vision for what became the award-winning Oral-B iO platform, I've always approached design challenges through both a creative and business lens.

My executive education at Harvard Business School—in both Launching New Ventures and Leading Product Innovation—reinforced this dual perspective. Great design isn't just aesthetically pleasing; it drives measurable business outcomes. The programs I've led or co-developed have generated hundreds of millions in topline growth for the Oral Care category over the past 13 years.

Oral-B iO: A Case Study in Vision and Value

The Oral-B iO project exemplifies my approach to design leadership. This wasn't just about creating another electric toothbrush—it was about reimagining the entire brushing experience through the lens of user needs, technological possibility, and brand equity. Leading the vision development and design across multiple innovation verticals—product, accessories, materials & finishes, and human-computer interface—required orchestrating insights from consumer research, engineering, marketing, and manufacturing.

The impact speaks for itself: Oral-B iO has generated hundreds of millions in topline sales growth while simultaneously earning some of the industry's most prestigious design awards—German Design Award Gold, iF Design Award, Red Dot, and CES Innovation Award. This dual success validates not just the aesthetic and functional excellence of the product, but proves that great design directly drives business results. The recognition demonstrates that when you get the user experience right, commercial success follows.

Philosophy: Empathy, Prototyping, Co-creation

My design philosophy centers on three pillars: deep user empathy, rapid visualization through prototyping, and user co-creation. I believe you can't design great experiences from a conference room—you need to be in the field, understanding real needs, building quick prototypes, and iterating with users. This hands-on approach, combined with strategic foresight, allows teams to take calculated risks and innovate boldly.

Whether I'm sketching concepts, building CAD models in Fusion 360, designing interfaces in Figma, or even coding light front-end experiences in Swift or Flutter, I stay close to the craft. Leadership doesn't mean stepping away from making—it means modeling the behaviors you want to see in your team.

Looking Forward

As I continue my work in design leadership, I remain energized by opportunities to step-change industries and create value through design. With over 300 patents to my name spanning product innovation, interface design, packaging, and manufacturing processes, I'm constantly exploring new ways to solve problems and create delightful experiences.

But beyond the patents and awards, what drives me is the opportunity to mentor the next generation of designers, build capabilities that outlast any single project, and continue pushing the boundaries of what's possible when empathy, creativity, and strategic thinking come together.