An Awarded Design Leader and Consultant with experience across Marketing, Startups, New Technologies, small scale Redesigns, and Enterprise Wide Digital Transformations.

I’ve lead teams of Researchers and Designers, collaborated with Business Analysts, Data Scientists and Engineers, and run workshops with both the C-suites and blue collars.

Hi, I’m Ewa

20+

years in design

10+

industries served

5

patents filed

My Philosophy

Understand Broadly

A product is not just design. The Design team doesn’t get to exist in a vacuum. To collaborate we need to empathize with the entire ecosystem:

  • Why are we making this process, software, product etc.

  • What does the business need out of this endeavor

  • What are our current constraints

  • How will we measure success

  • What do the users need

  • What do all of the collaborators and stakeholders need

Deliver Experimentally

Product is part Art, part Science. We cannot just explore, nor deliver without consideration. We need to build and learn simultaneously:

  • Focus on doing

  • Don’t attach yourself to any part of the solution

  • Version and adapt as you create

  • Check in constantly (with business, engineers and users)

  • Question all assumptions

  • User test to identify gaps and not to prove yourself right

Work Highlights

How do you help an Oil and Gas Giant adopt Design?

  • Kick off with a few small projects making sure you bring on designers with experience, resiliency and flexibilty.
    Show, don’t tell, the impact a good design has on the individual projects delivery timelines and cost.

  • Esablish a proven Process and make it easy to adopt by creating flexible Templates of doing things. Scope out projects to determine best practice and people to tackle it. Create a Design System to systematically build quality products faster. Enable adoption of Design Thinking.

  • Establish a Design Studio Culture with free exchanges and cross pollination of ideas and solutions. Educate internally by designing a Design Program and hosting talks. Broaden the impact of Design with Digital Credentials. Support internal teams in applying Design Best Practices.

How do you Design for Modernized Operations of a Global Financial Institution?

  • The modernization efforts were creating a suite of internal tools, external facing software for investors and API Dashoards for Developers. Each of these unique groups had different Design needs and required unique systems and styes.

  • To help monetize the external facing solutions, we crafted a 3-tier white labeling system allowing for more and more custom look and feel to allow the Client’s customers to apply their Brands onto the Investor Portal.

  • Working fast through a massive organization is tricky. From workshopping through the process, applying frequent check-ins with all our stakeholder, an showcasing work to end users we we able to confirm work, pivot early and deliver ahead of schedules.

How do you help a Bank expose hundreds of services to it’s users in a Mobile App?

  • The design team was closely collaborating with the business analyst teams, the front end and backend engineer teams, aligning our work products and evaluating efficiencies along the way. We planned work together and broke through the silos with Agile Practices and face-to-face time.

  • Leveraging the enterprise owned data, the team was able to focus on actions more frequently taken and information most frequently requested, including the types of phrases used by users to find services.

  • Our work was never done, from evaluating phrases used for chat prompts, to checking if back end services were able to surface information, we paused, reconnected, and made sure that what we were making made sense. When sections of work were finished it underwent rigorous internal user testing, until all flows were as intuitive and accurate as possible before releases.

I’VE WORKED WITH

  • You are one of the most valuable and skilled people I have had the pleasure to work with at IBM.

    Bob Lukasik, Executive Creative Director

  • Ewa, you are an authentic, kind and passionate leader. Never do you say no to a challenge and you have the ability to have top talent gravitate toward you. You manage both up and down extraordinarily well and can be trusted to lead blended teams. I am SO lucky to be a part of your team and I learn from you each and everyday. Thank you for your leadership.

    Kerri Delbene, Account Partner

  • Your thoughtfulness and empathy stand out in every aspect of your work. You consistently show genuine concern for your team, creating a positive and supportive environment that makes a significant difference. Your guidance and assistance have been invaluable and I genuinely feel that I have grown both professionally and personally under your leadership.

    Dieges Lima da Silva, Team Member

  • Ewa, it's impossible to say how much you've meant to this team. You're truly the heart of this group, and I'm absolutely going to miss working together with you everyday.

    Nicole Crimmi, Account Partner

  • I am thankful for the trust you gave me upfront to work with my team and reach out when I saw problems. This allowed me to think for myself and I am a better professional for it.

    Lyubomir Grigorov, Team Member

  • Thank you for your remarkable leadership, guidance, mentorship and collaboration to enable design enterprise wide. Your commitment demonstrates your unwavering passion and high standards of partnership and work quality. You rock!

    Joyce Dy-Scott, Client

  • You were a present and attentive leader. Your behavior as a professional shows the human being you are outside of work. In times of crisis you showed empathy, resilience and active listening. This made a difference to me personally.

    Vanessa Sousa, Team Member

  • I am so proud of what you have accomplished, not simply from a work perspective. You have created the best culture and environment for our people and our client.

    Kerri Delbene, Partner

  • Thank you for all you do for the Patent Process. You are one of the decision makers who have the keys to IBM's future patent portfolio and its value.

    Council for Innovation Leadership

  • I would like to thank you for all the support you gave me during these months. It was amazing to work with someone so experienced and always kind. I have learned a lot from you and hope we can work together sometime soon.

    Alexandra Allatorre Plascencia, Team Member

  • Ewa, I'd like to take this moment to thank you for taking the initiative to come to Brazil to meet our team and the kind and professional ways you supported everyone.

    Thiago Albertin Mendez, Project Manager

  • I'm working with some designers on my current project and the lead is not anywhere close to how good you were. I still use the best practices I learned from you. Missing you extra and thinking fondly about our designing days.

    Courtney Wu-Troxell, Managing Consultant

  • I cannot highlight enough how dedicated Ewa is to the ongoing success of our project and to the people of our team. In addition to being a fearless leader, she also goes out of her way to champion her team when she believes they need to be recognized for their accomplishments. I have been able to witness Ewa grow throughout a few short months of this project and I'm so excited to keep seeing her push her passion for UX and never-ending commitment to success.

    Nanxi Yang, Managing UX Consutant

  • Ewa's support has been crucial through my first year. She helped and supported me when I ran into sticky situations with my team and client co-workers. Her advice helped me build better relationships. Ewa is always available to lend a listening ear, a helping hand and advice. She always responds in time and gets back with answers and solutions to my questions. Her vast UX knowledge is impressive and I know I can rely on her for any professional and procedural help. It has been excellent having her as my coach.

    Juhi Bharat, Direct Report

  • Ewa, it has been a delight working with you. I love seeing you work with teams researching, strategizing and designing entire experiences from discovery to launch. You always maintain a "we can do it" positive attitude, even under high pressure and tight timelines.

    Jen Hatfield, Manager | Design Proncipal | Master Inventor

  • Ewa, one of the great things of working with you is your analytical mind and the perspective you bring into any design process. You are a UX SME. a caring and thorough leader and also open to feedback which is key to a growth mindset. The client loves your work!

    Rania Svoronou, Design Principal and Associate Partner, Inventor

  • Ewa possesses a rare combination of excellent creative and analytical skills that allows her to truly understand a client problem and then devise an experience that wins around it. She is a great mentor to junior staff and does well in leadership meetings.

    Johan van der Walt, Managing Director

Awards