Lucia Bustamante, Design Manager

Owner: Large Title Insurance Company (Real Estate)

Product: digital ecosystem to manage and close commercial property deals.

Mission: Make the deal process for commercial property transactions, efficient, transparent, and secure.

Role: Product Designer, Design Manager

Date: 2020 – Current

Direct reports: 5 Product Designers

Squads: 6

Leading and scaling teams with a drive to deliver digital transformation results

I'm responsible for leading and scaling a team of product designers to define game-changer digital experiences. I also support agile product discovery and product definition, collaborating closely across design, product, and engineering teams.

As a design manager, I'm the person to speak for the team and filter out the noise, so designers can work without blocking and find resources on their own.

I mentor designers so that they are able to decide through critical thinking and design rationale, so as not to act only reactively, having the power to decide "what to do next".

Supporting the team to deliver powerful features for complex transactions

I provide support to cross-functional design teams to create standard and cohesive design interfaces, serving employees and customers to easily manage complex transactions in the real estate industry. I enable conversation spaces for designers to develop their potential.

Cross functional teams. 6 squads, 5 designers.

Empowering designers to lead the conversation

I'm an advisor for designers, mentoring in communication skills, helping them to minimize the impostor syndrome, and encouraging participation in internal and client-facing events, such as design critiques, workshops, and design reviews.

I align the team with the expectations of the program, and encourage early involvement of product designers in the discovery process, educating product managers and tech teams on the scope of product design practice.

Improvement of processes and artifacts

I have improved the onboarding materials for new joiners, keeping the information concise and progressive to integrate new members into the program, smoothly. I help educate new product managers about design practice in the program.

I have created a deck of design standards for current and new members of the program, establishing design standards such as Figma folder formats and production file structure.

I have started a product multi-track collaboration diagram for team members to identify milestones during the product lifecycle.

I have created design QA guidelines for the team to unify design testing criteria.

I have Improved performance review templates, to focus on career milestones and short- and mid-term goals.