How the sausage gets made...

Case Studies

Gates 
CreateMe (reach out to me for my video presentation)
FanFood (reach out to me for my video presentation)


Projects & Artifacts

CreateMe, 12/2021 to 01/2023 - In the trenches  Senior Director of UX

Global on-demand apparel customization & robotic manufacturing

Led & built a UX practice as a hands-on contributor both tactically & strategically. Provided direction & a full suite of UX deliverables for several external & internal kiosk, mobile, & web products in various levels of completion. Cross-company collaboration (i.e., prod, dev, sales, ops, & founders) around offerings, direction, & solutions. Hired & mentored a global UX team from interns to senior designers. Built full research plans, and UX operational processes, while also behaving as an individual contributor on time-sensitive customer implementations.

Select here to see Zeplin B2C Project & B2B Project Assets 

Read management's, cross-team's, & direct report's Recommendations

Ingredients: Sketch / Figma / Research / JIRA / Notion / ADO / Aha

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Havoc Shield, 12/2020 to 06/2021 - In the trenches VP of Product

Foundational cybersecurity platform & security questionnaire engine for startups

I joined to lead and build the UX and Product practice and act as the primary product designer.  Working closely with the founder to understand, translate, and extrapolate his vision into SaaS applications that both resonated with and empowered customers.  Pairing customer discovery findings with competitive analysis, I attacked the complexity of the space and problems not only by simplifying interactions, reducing friction, and task cognitive load but also through clear and approachable UX writing.  The goal to provide a fun and witty experience to what is normally an unwelcome but necessary host of tasks for a business trying to protect their employees, and their data, and win new customers.  

Using the Shape-Up methodology, I was also tasked with drafting pitches, bets, and tasks associated with our four-week design and development cycles.  Ensuring the team was both on task and on time.

Select here to see Zeplin Projects & Assets 

Read Founder, Brian Fritton's Recommendation

Ingredients: Figma / Customer Discovery Sessions / Basecamp / Notion / Shape-Up

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FanFood, 03/2019 to 12/2020 - In the trenches VP of UX/Product & CTO

In-seat/in-suite ordering & support platform for live sports & entertainment

I joined to build out four mobile (native, PWA, and tablet) products, two web apps, and our marketing website. My focus for the first year was primarily on providing both strategic and tactical support to the founder/CEO as well as all the core items of product design (e.g., discovery, wireframing, user research, prototyping, visual design, etc.) and product/project management (e.g., drafting JIRA stories, backlog grooming, scrum master, QA, reporting, etc.). My second year added the responsibilities of CTO, which included hiring and managing four different dev shops (local & offshore) to work on all of our products and building, managing, and mentoring a remote core product team of 12 interns and junior individuals through aggressive two-week sprints.

In addition, I worked extensively throughout my tenure directly with the founder on business, hiring, marketing, and related needs in order to provide guidance, leadership, and deliverables whenever needed—often presented to board members, investors, and prospects.

Select here to see Zeplin Projects & Assets

Read Founder, Carson Goodale's Recommendation

Ingredients: Sketch / Figma / UserBrain / JIRA / Agile

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Challenge Club, 01/2019 to ongoing - CoFounder & In the trenches VP of UX & Product

Creator platform for sponsor-requested content allowing both revenue & community growth

I joined as the lead, director, and co-founder in all things design and front-end dev related.  Spent significant time doing comparative and user research to vet and revisit the team's vision and focus.  Designed the taxonomy, visual language, interactions, design system, etc. of the entire platform with several user research-fueled iterations.  Managed and collaborated with graphic design and product design interns, and several front-end devs.  I managed the project team, timelines, and release schedules as well as drafted and refined detailed user stories within JIRA.

Select here to see Zeplin Projects & Assets

Ingredients: Sketch / Figma / SME Research Sessions / JIRA / Agile

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Jetson, 03/2020 to 11/2021 - Lead Product/Visual Designer & Strategist

A platform connecting restaurants/bars & beverage suppliers for targeted end-customer marketing

I joined as the sole product designer to address rampant UX issues on several incomplete developer-designed applications.  I also worked side-by-side with the founder whiteboarding and brainstorming in order to help him articulate his vision and ultimately translate it into something which is both simple and engaging for each of Jetson's three personas.  Created multiple high-fidelity designs and accompanying prototypes for both testing and prospective customer demos. 

Select here to see Zeplin Projects & Assets

Ingredients: Figma / JIRA / (this one is still on the stove...)

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Chaperone, 09/2020 to 05/2021 - CoFounder & In the trenches CXO

A platform allowing vaccine manufacturers & recipients satellite location & temperature tracking

Leveraged my other startup lean sig-sigma SaaS platform infrastructure to allow safe and secure vaccine tracking from inception to injection while following zero-trust data security.  Was lead on application design and worked with both a product designer and graphic designer intern.  Managed both internal and external design and development teams.  Drafted epics, stories, and design assets as needed.  Presented to potential investors and customers as well as managing all marketing requirements.

Select here to see Zeplin Projects & Assets

Ingredients: Figma / SME Research Sessions / JIRA / Agile

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Heuristic Evaluations

FTD
Mesirow
Performance Health
Pro Flowers
Truckstop
Havoc Shield

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Various Projects, 2016 to 2018

ULTA Beauty, FTD, McDonald's, Press Ganey, & more (hooray!)

Gates Tablet App - Zeplin Projects & Assets

FTD Desktop Apps - Zeplin Projects & Assets

A Hodge-Podge of UX/Product-Related Assets & Deliverables

Seven Project Overviews & UX assets (15 MB zip file)

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Tired of hearing me go on!?
Read my 40 LinkedIn recommendations here
 
ezio e magarotto, cua - magarottos, inc.

ezio@magarottos.com - linkedin - resume - portfolio