---
title: "Drew Littrell"
description: "Product architecture and systems design for teams whose product has outgrown its structure."
canonical_url: "https://drewlittrell.com/"
markdown_url: "https://drewlittrell.com/index.md"
content_type: "profile"
language: "en-US"
---

# Drew Littrell

Product Architecture and Systems Design

Principal Product Designer & Owner at Drew Littrell, LLC, focused on product architecture and systems design. I work with teams whose product has outgrown the structure holding it together. I also write about what AI changes: how things get built, and what people are for.

[Work with me](mailto:drew@drewlittrell.com)

## Selected case studies

### [Pearson Futures](https://drewlittrell.com/work/pearson)

Helping Pearson turn student uncertainty into a platform students could use, partners could join, and the company could keep building.

_2023-2026 · Pearson_

### [Simile](https://drewlittrell.com/work/simile)

Turning design intent into product behavior a team can build from.

_2026 · Independent_

[View all work](https://drewlittrell.com/work)

## Selected essays

### [Before the First Screen](https://drewlittrell.com/writing/before-the-first-screen)

Product Schema Mapping is a product discovery method that extends user story mapping below actions, into the questions users must answer and the information they need to answer them. The output is a product schema — the shape of the problem a product must serve.

_Essay · 2026_

### [The Transition Is Not the Destination](https://drewlittrell.com/writing/the-transition-is-not-the-destination)

AI is a general-purpose coordination technology. When coordination becomes cheap, the structures built around expensive coordination begin to wobble.

_Part 1 · 2025_

[View all essays](https://drewlittrell.com/writing)

## Work and Background

For the last fifteen years I've worked across product design, information architecture, and systems strategy. I co-owned [BUILT](https://builtbybuilt.com/) from November 2019 through December 2024, where I led product and systems work for clients in consumer, finance, and education. Since November 2019, I have also run [Drew Littrell, LLC](/services), my independent product and systems design practice. I was Fractional CPO at [Doorpass](https://doorpass.ai/) from January 2025 through June 2026.

I'm most useful when the brief is the whole system: a product that's grown past its original shape, or new tools that have changed what's worth building. The work is making the system clear enough that a team can move again.

### Select clients

Adobe, Bridgewater, Cornell, Galaxy, Nike, Pearson

### Experience

- Principal Product Designer & Owner, Drew Littrell, LLC, 2019–Present
- Fractional CPO, Doorpass, 2025–2026
- Principal Product Designer & Co-owner, BUILT, 2019–2024
- Lead Designer, Farm Credit Mid-America, 2011–2019

## Contact

I work with founders and operators whose systems have grown harder to understand than they were to build.

- Email: [drew@drewlittrell.com](mailto:drew@drewlittrell.com)
- LinkedIn: [linkedin.com/in/andrewlittrell](https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewlittrell)
- GitHub: [github.com/drewlittrell](https://github.com/drewlittrell)