Roya Montgomery is a creative technologist and designer. Her practice links hardware and software interfaces, translating complex technologies into intuitive, human‑centered experiences. She develops forward‑looking products, pairing her technical fluency with creativity to derive everyday value from emerging technologies in industries including health-tech and smart. She translates complex systems into human intuition.
EXPERIENCE HIGHLIGHTS
Scentinel | Co-Founder
Scentinel team is working on a bedside monitor, engineered for children with type 1 diabetes. It continuously analyzes exhaled breath for acetone which is the earliest, most reliable biomarker of diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA). Drawing on lab‑grade gas‑chromatography research, the device houses a solid‑state sensor array capable of flagging unsafe acetone concentrations and delivering instant caregiver alerts, offering the round‑the‑clock protection of a diabetic‑alert dog without the cost or upkeep.
As a co‑founder, Roya is guiding the translation of this technology into a child‑safe, hospital‑grade product. Scentinel’s long‑term vision is to miniaturize the product into a nano‑scale wearable that provides continuous DKA monitoring.
JPMorgan | Creative Technologist
As a Lead Creative Technologist on JPMorgan’s Special Projects team, she converted frontier AI research into product prototypes aimed five‑to‑ten years out. Her mission was to embed these future‑focused concepts within narratives people already understand—much like early design pioneers who transformed raw map tiles into the intuitive Google Maps we rely on today.
By pairing horizon‑scanning with rapid experience mapping and story‑driven prototyping, she translated complex systems into human‑scale interactions, producing artifacts that now anchor the bank’s long‑term strategic roadmap.
Nest | Product Designer
As a product designer on the thermostat team, she collaborated with engineers, hardware teams, and product managers to stitch device‑level UI to a seamless onboarding flow on the app. Her contribution was to translate HVAC complexity into intuitive visuals and adaptive micro‑copy, step‑by‑step guidance, real‑time wiring checks, and context‑aware tips so that people could install and activate the thermostat in under 30 minutes, fulfilling Nest’s promise of “smart‑home‑ready, no handyman required.”
CURRENT BOOKS ON HER NIGHTSTAND
HER DESIGN PHILOSOPHY
She translates breakthrough ideas into everyday intuition. As a creative technologist, she is guided by non‑negotiable design values: relentless curiosity, elegant problem‑solving, and beauty that fulfills real, tangible needs. Collaboration energizes her—she believes diverse teams sharpen vision and elevate outcomes beyond what any individual could achieve.
Her process shifts seamlessly between macro and micro scales: zooming out to align with long‑term, sustainable strategy, then zooming in to perfect the smallest detail until it sings. She thinks big, moves fast yet carefully, and builds holistically across disciplines so each product feels inevitable—simple enough for the average person, robust enough for the future. Improvement is her default setting; she is always learning, always raising the bar, and always anchoring her work to the larger mission of leaving the world better than she found it.
Montgomery.Roya@Gmail