I’m Sandra
Product Design Leader
DISCIPLINES I HAVE LED
During the last eight years, I’ve had the opportunity to inspire, manage and lead multidisciplinary teams. I’ve built teams from scratch to deliver projects within three months; I have also inherited low-performing teams and successfully turned them into award-winners.
Here are some of the skill sets I have developed and grown:
Business Strategy
“Companies that excel at design, grow revenues and shareholder returns at nearly twice the rate of their industry peers”
This was concluded by one of McKinsey’s most robust studies ever conducted on the business value of design, published in October 2018. They tracked the design practices of 300 publicly listed companies collecting more than two million pieces of financial data and 100,000 design actions over five years.
With this in mind, I worked side-by-side with Product Leaders at Not on The High Street, Coty and Just Eat to develop business strategies. These strategies were shaped by generative research delivered by the UX Research teams I was leading.
Brand Identity
Implementing the brand personality in the product invites customers to have an emotional connection rather than just a transitional experience that is quickly forgotten. This is why I actively participate in rebranding activities. In addition, it is an opportunity to advocate for outcomes that have digital best practices in mind, such as accessible colour palettes.
I built a 10+ member cross-functional team to deliver Just Eat’s global rebrand, working side-by-side with the CMO to future-proof the new brand. Six years later, I worked with the same CMO to deliver the most significant rebrand that Not on The High Street has embarked on.
Emerging Technologies
As a trained computer engineer, I find it so exciting to learn about the latest technologies and how they can come together to make people’s lives easier. I am curious but also cautious to avoid falling in love with the technology instead of the problem that emerging technology can potentially be solved. This pragmatism has helped me lead award-winning teams that successfully brought products with emerging technologies to markets. For example, the Product Design team at Coty leveraged augmented reality and artificial intelligence to design the Virtual Make Up Artist experience under my guidance. At Just Eat, my team developed the non-visual brand personality for the Alexa skill.
UX Research
Understanding customers’ needs, pains and delights are at the heart of creating innovative products that solve day-to-day problems; therefore, the teams I have led have always had a UX Research function.
I established the UX Research function at TalkTalk and Just Eat. At Not On The High Street, I elevated it to become a strategic function for the business. The teams I led introduced numerous research methodologies, such as Jobs to Be Done and Continuous Discovery.
Workshop Facilitation
Facilitation is a crucial technique to drive understanding, alignment and consensus. I also use it as a co-design technique when designing complex experiences that involve cross-departmental collaboration. I have extensive experience as a facilitator, especially with Senior Leadership Teams. Some of the facilitations I’m most proud of are the value propositions workshops for Coty and Not On the High Street because of the impact they had.
Design Systems
Design Systems are a win-win for businesses, technology and customers. Once the design system is in place, the cost and time savings in engineering and design is clearly impacful. For customers, the consistency in the UI, higher the usability of the product. I led brand new Design System projects in Just Eat, Coty and Not On The High Street. At Coty, the Design System served 77 beauty brands.
About Me
I’m a curious individual with an innate leadership spirit who likes to design impactful things. For the last eight years, I have pursued a career in leadership guided by my values: curiosity, bravery and creativity. This pursuit has granted me many titles: Founder, Author, Award-Winner, Conference Speaker, Panelist, Strategist, Thought Leader, Director, etc. But above all these titles, I want to be known as a Latina who enables positive change in the world.