Makonnen Dos Santos

As a UI/UX and Product Design specialist, I offer expertise ranging from user research (discovery, user tests) to the design of mobile-first, responsive, and user-centric interfaces. With solid experience as a hands-on Design Manager, Lead Product Designer, and Head of Product & Design, I structure, lead, and develop design teams while ensuring fluid and qualitative delivery.

-Design System:design, documentation, adoption, governance, and scalability

-Product Design:structuring product scope, business-user alignment, roadmap, cross-functional management. Discovery, user research, testing, prototyping, hypothesis validation. Mobile-first, responsive design, high fidelity, interaction design, visual guidelines

-Process & Delivery:design-product-tech workflows, cycle reduction, incremental and iterative delivery.

-iBanFirst (Lead Product Designer):implementation of an internal design system that reduced development time by ~30%, structuring of the design team and diffusion of a design culture, optimization of cross-team processes with a 20% reduction in cycles.

–Expedia Group (Design Manager):recruitment and onboarding of 6 designers in EMEA, leadership of product strategy with over 100 features delivered, optimized workflows reducing delivery cycles by 20-30%, high-impact mobile-first UX design.

–Les Sherpas (Head of Product & Design):definition of the product vision, roadmap aligned with business and user KPIs, implementation of Agile processes, structuring of the design system, KPI/data monitoring to guide product decisions.

I combine operational and strategic expertise, capable of intervening in all aspects of product design, from brief to delivery. My practice is user-centered, yet very pragmatic and business-impact oriented.