Radu Vucea ⭐️

Leading AR/VR Design @ Reality Labs

Mento Design Academy

Our mission is to help young professionals and career-switchers transition faster and smoother to a career in UX, UI, or Product Design by teaching the right skills, the right way.

Founder

MYBENEFITS

Advisor & Investor

FlairMakers

ixperi

Building a Digital Product Design Studio has been a dream of mine for a long time.

In early 2021, I finally decided to give it a go, and I co-founded ixperi with the mission of creating an elite design team that could deliver exceptional quality and impact.

In just three years, completely bootstrapped, my team and I:

→ Grew the studio to 13 stellar Product Designers and Product Managers
→ Built a fantastic culture of learning, development, and excellence through mentorship and coaching
→ Went from $0 to $1M in yearly revenue
→ Designed and delivered for high growth start-ups like Fresha, FlowX and Jellysmack

Co-Founder, Exit in 2023

Actio

Chief Design Officer

VP, Product Design

Fitbit (now part of Google)

In my role of Product Design Manager at Fitbit, I was initially in charge of building from the ground up and leading the whole design team in Bucharest.

In my three years in this role I have:

→ Built the Product Design team in Bucharest, 15 strong, influencing the headcount strategy to bring in key roles such as UX Research and Design Ops.
→ Created an amazing design culture, recognized company-wide, based on transparency, authenticity, trust, and support, which enabled shipping successful products while maintaining a near-zero attrition rate.
→ Established processes and opportunities that enabled team growth, such as reviews, critiques, and knowledge sharing sessions and events such as Learning Friday and Friday Speaker Series.
→ Influenced the company roadmap and strategy to ship the first line of Fitbit products for kids.
→ Shipped several products that had a revenue and company strategy impact, such as Active Zone Minutes and Fitbit Premium, the latter bringing in over 1,000,000 subscribers in under one year.

Product Design Manager

While in my role as a Senior Product Designer at Fitbit I owned the development of the Fitbit App Gallery from the ground up.

Initially meant to support our first smartwatch, the Ionic, with custom content that users could download, it now supports almost a dozen Fitbit smart devices, counts over 12,000 apps, and watch faces, all of which have been downloaded over 245 Million times.

The Fitbit App Gallery also attracted a thriving community of over 1,000 developers, many of them creating a steady stream of income through creating content for Fitbit.

Senior Product Designer

Vector Watch

While in my role at Vector Watch I wore many hats, as any does in a startup.

From redesigning the company's website with a goal to increase sales — to creating marketing assets in partnership with our marketing department to create awareness, no day was the same.

My most significant achievement, however, has been creating the Vector Developer Portal from the ground up, an easy-to-use web-based tool anyone could use to create a custom watch face or app for their Vector Watch.

It was exceptionally received, gathering over 1800 content creators and over 3000 watch faces and apps in just a few months.

Vector Watch was acquired in 2017 by Fitbit, and I went to be a Product Designer and Design Manager for them.

Product Designer

Adobe

In my time at Adobe, I moved from a Graphic Designer role in the marketing department to a Visual Designer role for the same product and, ultimately, for the last two years, to a Product Designer role as part of the innovation team tasked with validating next-generation products for Adobe.

Through a Lean Startup methodology we were validating product ideas and opportunities, at a fast pace, employing user interviews, prototyping and usability testing, working within a cross-functional team of developers, product managers and designers.

The most notable achievement is validating the MVP for what would become Adobe Stock and the Libraries feature inside Photoshop, Illustrator and other five Adobe CC products.

Various

Freelance Digital Designer

I am a Senior Design Executive, Investor, and Advisor who began his career back in 2005. Since then, I had the opportunity to work for startups, design studios, and big brands alike, having built products and design teams from scratch for companies like Adobe and Fitbit.

More recently, I served as Chief Design Officer for Berlin-based start-up Actio. With a drive for entrepreneurship, I founded my own Product Design Studio back in 2020 and grew that to a 7 figure yearly revenue in less than two years, exiting in late 2023. I now serve as an advisor and investor for several tech start-ups across the world.

My happy place is helping other designers grow and create stellar work. Having hired and mentored hundreds of designers to date, I'm currently focused on scaling up my Design Academy, founded three years ago.

Feel free to contact me for the following:
* Public speaking opportunities (panels, podcasts, events, corporate training)
* Advisory roles on Product Design
* Opportunities on the level of Co-Founder or Senior Design Leadership

Make sure to check my recommendations on my profile here if you'd like to know what it's like to work with me.

Shandrea Martin Design

Working with clients to develop better experiences for their users by utilizing my skills in empathy, business communication, and visual design. Clients Include Silverton Paideia Staff, R.E.C., Commencing Allure, and OrcaSound
 • Grew user engagement by 59%  by refining UI for Commencing Allure
 • Organize the information architecture, build wireframes, and conduct usability testing with prototypes doubling online traffic by 66%
 • Minimize user complaints and eliminated points of friction by 42% utilizing heuristic methods from concept validation to usability testing
 • Construct interactive prototypes for digital design solutions and collaborate with peers to demonstrate and iterate 3+ web and mobile services

UX and Visual Designer

The Home Depot

• Achieved over $100,000 in sales within five months through coordinating in-home projects
• Demonstrated expertise in home improvement products and installation services, resulting in increased sale quotes for 100+ customers
• Resolved issues and complaints promptly, leading to a significant 90% increase in customer satisfaction within a month

Sales Specialist

• Assisted in inventory management and ordering processes, as well as maintaining a strong rapport with teammates
• Delivered exceptional customer service by warmly greeting customers, addressing their inquiries, and guiding them to their desired products

Garden Associate

AfroBrainiac Media, Inc.

Carried out UX research, content creation, market research, and project management with ed-tech start-up AfroBrainiac Media, Inc. 
• Conducted user research to improve eCommerce efforts, resulting in a 55% increase in engagement
• Drove the social branding campaign, gaining over 8.5K followers in three months
• Managed the end-to-end UX design process, leading to a 34% increase in lead generation
• Utilized agile methodologies (Google Slides, Figjam, Asana) for seamless collaboration with cross-functional teams
• Directed all aspects of social media platforms, from ideation to content publishing

User Experience Designer

Sans Serif

On-call UX Researcher collaborating with the Sans Serif team on a client-facing project, Mission Bit.
• Performed user research and orchestrate 4 user interviews in order to identify and advocate for the core needs of users
• Providing insight for beginning stages in website rebranding based off of user interviews completed

UX Designer and Researcher

I worked with several clients and received constructive feedback to continue improving my skills in visual design, design thinking, and user research. 
• Mobilized 2 agile design sprints to evaluate their impact on products, for both users and Fortune 100 businesses
• Partnered with designers to create design style guides, information architecture iterations, wireframes, and layouts for graphic media sent to over 1 million employees at a Fortune 100
• Delivered consistency in 3+ shipped services by collaborating with developers using Zeplin, following guidelines and technical constraints

UX Design Intern

SpontaneYes!

• Collaborated with a team of 3 UX Designers and stakeholders to complete research and design a mid-level fidelity prototype for SpontaneYes!, a start-up company’s mobile app concept product.
• Delegated qualitative research using user interviews and usability testing, which resulted in 80% success rates for the final prototype.
 • Presented work and designed slides for final stand-up presentation with stakeholders and client present
 • Generated and maintained design style guides for interactive prototypes using Figma and Adobe XD.

General Electric Credit Union

• Achieved 92% complaint resolution by advocating and listening to user pain points
• Directed a team of 5+ that excelled in monthly customer satisfaction ratings by 98%
• Spearheaded practices in 2 department processes to ensure consistent information across the entire organization

Assistant Member Communications Manager

Citi

• Achieved monthly individual and team-based targeted performance goals
• Exhibited quality customer service for branded and Citi credit cards in over 500+ client interactions
• Utilized good judgment and understanding of company policy to effectively make decisions to resolve client issues at a 95% positive impact score

Customer Service Specialist 3

Kentucky Department of Juvenile Justice,

• Supervised over 30+ youth during daily activities that included; school, leisure, recreation, mealtimes, and bedtimes 
• Created structured tasks lists to teach responsibility, honesty, and accountability as a role model
• Demonstrated up-to-date state training methods and focused on being a team player for my coworkers

Youth Worker

Resource Employment Solutions

• Showcased information on shifts available and contacted previous employees for 5 innovative companies we serviced
• Outperformed numerous duties including interviewing 10+ potential employees and filing candidate information into priority roles and companies
• Taught orientation and background checks for 100+ new hires presented training videos, and demonstrated on-the-job skills and requirements

Assistant Recruiter

Daqiao Foreign Training School

• Developed and taught ESL curriculum to improve students' conversational abilities
• Created monthly academic status reports based on in-depth student evaluations resulting in 60% overall improvements
• Prepared lesson plans for over 10 classes per week to accommodate 100+ students with varying English proficiency levels

TEFL Oral English Instructor

UX Designer and Researcher with 3+ years of experience designing customer-centric experiences which have generated positive results for my clients. I’ve worked with community business owners, start-ups, retail and financial customer service, education, and financial leadership. The skills I gain during my career have been valuable to teams in the nonprofit, Ed-Tech, Design, and Banking industries! 

From updating a web interface that resulted in a 60% increase of engagement to leading research and launching a successful social media campaign, no tasks has been too big for me!

When I’m not working, I enjoy music that makes me move, my dogs that keep me busy, and my family that keeps me loved! Oh! And traveling to learn about different cultures! I’m always learning❤️

Email: shandreamartin@gmail.com 
Portfolio: *in progress on Notion, will update soon!*

🙂 Skills include: 
🎯 Team Collaboration, Empathetic Communication, Diplomacy, Accountability, Resiliency, and Humility Project Management, People Management, User Research, Wireframing, Prototyping, Usability Testing, Qualitative Research, Quantitative Research, Mobile Design, Web Design

👩🏾‍💻 Tools include:
⭐️ Figma, Sketch, Adobe XD, Axure, Adobe Creative Suite, Spline, Blender, Zeplin, Miro, Mural, Maze, Optimal Sort, Trello, Asana, Google Analytics, Meta Digital Marketing, Google Sites, Notion

taplio

The Battle

Radu Vucea ⭐️

Shandreanna M.

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