Erick Rico - Product Designer

OCTO

I've been part of the OCTO team, working in a small group led by our CTO to advance Insomnia and develop proof-of-concept projects—some of which have reached production to test market response.

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Background

I've been part of the OCTO team at Kong, working directly with the CTO for the past three years, focusing on high-impact, forward-looking initiatives. While my primary work has been on Insomnia, I have also contributed to proof-of-concept projects that explore new opportunities and innovations within Kong's ecosystem. Some of these projects have been successfully launched, others are in active development, and some served as early experiments to assess viability and market readiness.

Beyond individual projects, my role has involved navigating ambiguous problem spaces, rapidly iterating on design solutions, and collaborating with cross-functional teams to align technical feasibility with business goals. This work has helped shape Kong's long-term strategy, particularly in developer experience and platform expansion. Due to the nature of my work, I can't share detailed workflows or designs, but my time in OCTO has reinforced my expertise in designing for highly technical audiences, experimenting with emerging technologies, and driving innovation in fast-moving environments.

Key Contributions

Designed and executed all UX for Insomnia's evolution, including collaboration tools, navigation redesign, and web admin enhancements.

Created early-stage prototypes to explore new opportunities, some of which transitioned into fully developed products.

Crafted intuitive solutions for highly technical users, balancing usability with complex product requirements

Worked directly with leadership, engineering, and product teams to shape the direction of innovative and experimental initiatives.

AI Runner

Egress

API Marketplace

OCTO

2023 - Present

Kong

I've been part of the OCTO team at Kong, working directly with the CTO and a small team of developers for the past three years. While my primary focus has been on Insomnia, I've also contributed to developing proof-of-concept projects across various stages of development. Some of these concepts have already been released, others are in active development, and a few have served as exploratory initiatives to test viability and timing for future opportunities. Due to the nature of my work, I'm unable to share detailed workflows or designs.

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Insomnia 8.0

2023

Kong

Insomnia 8.0 was one of our most significant releases, introducing collaboration, streamlining workflows, and enabling new file types like mocks and tests. I worked on this major update for over a year alongside Kong's CTO, driving momentum that increased active users and solidified Insomnia as a first-class product within the organization. Following this release, I have continued to work on improvements in subsequent updates. This release was not just about adding new features and enhancing the web admin—it also included a complete redesign of the navigation system to better accommodate the needs of diverse organizations.

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