Karin Waszazak Email & Phone Number

Hanover, Md, Us

Supporting Etsy’s Design Systems team with a primary focus on project delivery: supporting the team in hitting target milestones; helping organize the work and clearing a path; facilitating meetings and contributing to sprint planning; communicating progress to stakeholders; partnering with leads to rework plans, if needed, as new information arises; defining goals through an OKR framework.

San Jose, Ca, Us

• Led Frame.io’s Design Systems squad, overseeing UX Design, UI Design, Motion Design, UX Content, and UX engineering, responsible for driving roadmaps, task prioritization, and stewarding guidelines, components, and patterns. Improved design velocity, standards, reviews, rituals, and communication paths to support high-quality features.• Developed and executed program roadmaps with clear goals, project scope, schedules, and milestones, ensuring high-quality execution through planning workshops and effective Jira issue mapping.• Successfully migrated Design Systems squad from Airtable to Jira, optimizing workflow efficiency, collaboration, and project tracking, and implemented best practices to optimize project tracking and reporting capabilities.• Drove alignment and a shared vision between product squad and Design Systems goals, ensuring strategic roadmaps were fully aligned with organizational objectives.• Implemented and optimized communication flow and work intake process for the design system, improving operational efficiencies and work transparency among design teams, engineers, product managers, and leadership.• Enhanced deliverable quality, accelerated team velocity, and maximized team and partner satisfaction through the successful implementation of iterative feedback loops, streamlined team ceremonies, and a cohesive workflow.• Coordinated and communicated across workstreams to translate product requirements into solutions, balancing competing priorities and maximizing team resources to quickly execute on top priorities.• Managed Frame.io’s department budgeting and cross-functional software tools, optimizing resource allocation, mastering a new procurement system, and took a proactive approach in monthly and quarterly reporting.• Championed a vibrant and inclusive design team culture, nurturing a positive and collaborative work environment in a distributed setting, promoting well-being through regular check-ins and curated team bonding events.

Chicago, Illinois, Us

• Spearheaded the overall organization and seamless facilitation of four crucial product areas, namely Driver, Restaurant, Internal Tools, and Design System, while driving an impactful North Star redesign • Implemented and managed agile processes with a dual-track discover and deliver approach, enhancing design efficacy and ensuring adherence to process standards, systems, and documentation. • Drove growth of the Design System through scalable models, internal tooling, playbooks, and an open design process, resulting in increased adoption, effectiveness and significant progress for the organization.• Empowered designers, UX researchers, and engineers as project partners, fostering collaboration and advanced problem-solving through early involvement in decision-making processes.• Revamped UX Design new hire onboarding, ways of working, and growth guides by developing comprehensive documentation, protocols, and curriculum, ensuring seamless integration and fostering professional growth.• Led logistics coordination for team health initiatives, driving the development of a strong design culture. Managed and executed diverse event planning efforts, including successful Meetups and a well-received 52-person offsite.• Facilitated design-led workshops for design discovery. Utilized story mapping techniques to effectively break down work and align stakeholders, promoting collaboration and shared understanding.

Greater Chicago Area, Il, Us

• Transformed and led a cross-functional team, expanding the design practice to include user research, visual and interaction design, and content strategy. Achieved a 20% increase in productivity through optimized designer-developer collaboration, tool integration, and governance measures.• Implemented successful transition from waterfall to agile methodology, driving faster program delivery with improved efficiency and consistency. Created support documentation, training, and process implementation.• Managed end-to-end client and stakeholder relationships for programs, overseeing design reviews, demos, weekly status updates, deliverables, business cases, and effectively handling issues and risks.

Greater Chicago Area, Il, Us

• Managed and coached a 5-person Design Team, providing clear communication and guidance on design vision. Directed and supervised digital creative output, collaborating with agency leaders and clients.• Established creative strategies for initiatives ranging from go-to-market cross-channel campaigns to responsive websites of brands such as P&G, Blue Bunny and Celestial Seasonings, Ricola and Merck. Earned industry awards.• Led teams in utilizing a range of techniques including qualitative and quantitative research, ideation workshops, concept visualization, prototyping, and content strategy to enhance design quality for client projects.

Addison, Il, Us

• Led large-scale email platform migration project, consolidating to a single automation platform. Developed customer experience strategy, ensured seamless data mapping, and optimized usability of the system interface.• Introduced UI/UX as a foundational pillar in a 2-year internal tools migration to an enterprise ecommerce CMS, driving company-wide design engagement. Orchestrated transition, redesign, and vendor collaboration.• Managed and mentored an additional team of 9 visual designers and front-end designers, successfully scaling the team to meet business as usual plus the demands of the migration.

Addison, Il, Us

• Owned and directed global B2B/B2C creative across digital media, SaaS, and ecommerce channels. • Provided visionary leadership for digital product initiatives, overseeing approach and creative output. Led the reengineering of digital communications to support integrated closed-loop marketing programs.• Developed and implemented effective strategies, resulting in record-breaking revenue numbers for 2012. Achieved significant growth in overall traffic, leads, digital/web footprint, and brand equity/recognition.• Led strategic direction, creative and production efforts to redesign transactional emails. Increased upsells 45%.

Trade Angle Strategies, Kiddie Academy Franchise, Create Good Sinks:Met startup profitability growth challenges. Expansion of digital marketing programs. Refined key creative pieces for visual impact. Drove growth, improved brand recognition and content, and supported lead generation.

Chicago, Il, Us

Responsible for designing, building and maintaining campaigns for client roster. Managed high-focus luxury cruise client and spearheaded a transformation initiative for website’s content, user interface and customer/booking data.

Bfa, Illustration

Associate'S Degree, General