
Mert Bagcilar
Verified Expert in Design
Designer
Rome, Metropolitan City of Rome Capital, Italy
Toptal member since March 22, 2021
Mert is an experienced service designer and digital product designer who worked at companies like Fjord and IBM iX. He collaborates with his clients to envision customer experiences and prepare blueprints to realize them. He also designs the UX outputs for the digital touchpoints. Mert has solid expertise in combining design thinking, Lean startup methodology, and Agile delivery to execute and deliver innovation for his clients.
Portfolio
Work Experience
Service Design Lead & Digital Product Designer
IBM
- Implemented design strategies that support the company's customer experience goals. Discussed corporate goals, user demands, and market trends with stakeholders to inform design decisions.
- Mentored a team of designers. Promoted creative problem-solving and collaboration.
- Utilized user research, customer insights, and data analysis to inform design solutions. Learned user habits, needs, and pain spots to employ surveys, interviews, usability testing, and journey mapping.
- Created multichannel, end-to-end experiences using service design principles. Created seamless, integrated services that fulfilled customer expectations, supported corporate goals, and optimized customer journeys.
- Made user-centered wireframes, prototypes, and interactive mock-ups. Designed usability, accessibility, and consistency across platforms and devices.
- Worked with product managers, developers, marketers, and other stakeholders to match design with business goals. Promoted customer-centric design and communicated design suggestions.
- Maintained design systems, style guides, and design principles to promote consistency and efficiency throughout design projects. Drove organizational design standards and best practices.
- Managed design projects from idea to completion, guaranteeing quality and timeliness. Balanced priorities, budgets, and timeframes.
- Followed customer experience, service design, and user experience design trends, tools, and methodologies. Promoted continued learning and growth in the design team and organization.
Senior UX/Service Designer for World Leader HVAC Company
Carrier
- Led generative research activities, including prototyping, user interviews, and comprehensive reporting, contributing to the testing and refining of the innovative service idea.
- Provided crucial support to the residential customer experience team, ensuring seamless business operations through monthly reporting and effective communication.
- Collaborated with various business units to conduct research activities and gather valuable insights to enhance the customer experience.
- Offered UX support to the carrier home app, contributing to the improvement of the app's user interface and overall user experience.
Service Design Lead
IBM
- Helped my clients transform their businesses by providing consultancy on strategic design, service design, and product-service experience by applying human-centered design process and Lean methodology.
- Led strategic and service design projects as the process owner with solid experience in Waterfall or Agile delivery.
- Educated and trained my clients in the field of design research and service design.
- Developed a new business strategy and led opportunities.
Service Design Lead
Wunder Innovation Studio
- Started up the company with the responsibilities of supporting business development, managing project delivery, and building the design team.
- Led the projects through all the phases for large companies and startup ventures, including two service design projects, a UX/UI design, and a design research-related project.
- Applied the Lean methodology to design and develop a product or service and initiated a Kickstarter campaign.
- Conducted experiments using technologies and tools such as VR, AR, blockchain, IoT, and chatbots and developing prototypes.
Senior Business Designer
Fjord
- Created the service blueprint for a home buying journey for various personas for the largest private bank in Turkey.
- Created the service blueprint for a personal finance management journey for multiple personas for the largest private bank in Turkey.
- Conducted design bootcamps to introduce design thinking methodologies to client teams and execute them together throughout the projects.
Digital Product Consultant
Accenture
- Conducted digital product management, optimization, and iteration.
- Contributed to design research, ideation workshops, service/product concept definition, and creation of service/product roadmaps, which helped my clients implement new services using their in-house development teams.
- Led training sessions on human-centered design and design thinking.
Digital Product Analyst
Accenture
- Delivered different digital products (four websites) by actively working on business and technical requirement analysis, competitor benchmarking, UX design, and detailed functional requirements documentation.
- Provided support to the development team for the front-end and back-end side and UAT execution.
- Managed pilot, launch, and support for four digital products.
Education
Master of Arts Degree in Interaction Design
Domus Academy - Milan, Italy
Bachelor of Science Degree in Computer Science and Engineering
Sabancı University - Istanbul, Turkey
Certifications
IBM Garage Advocate
IBM
UX Certification
Nielsen Norman Group
Banking Insights and Solutions (Silver Badge)
IBM
Financial Markets Industry Jumpstart
IBM
IBM Agile Explorer
IBM
Enterprise Design Thinking Co-creator
IBM
Design Thinking
Interaction Design Foundation
Skills
Tools
Sketch, Principle, Adobe Experience Design (XD), Qualtrics
Platforms
Figma, WordPress, UserZoom
Industry Expertise
Banking & Finance, Retail & Wholesale, Health & Wellness
Other
Interaction Design (IxD), UX Design, Service Design, Design Thinking, Design Research, Personas, Wireframing, User Flows, Digital Product Design, Rapid Interactive Prototyping, Experience Strategy, User Research, Service Blueprints, Journey Mapping, Mobile Apps, Rapid Prototyping, Usability Testing, Customer Interviews, Contextual Inquiry, Online Surveys, User Interviews, Diary Studies, Customer Journeys, User Validation Testing, Ideation Workshops, Product Benchmarking, Mobile UX, Mobile App UI, Web App UX, Web App UI, Enterprise Application Design, Product Design, Design Production, Interactive Dashboards, Financial Services, Research, Interviews, Web Design, Responsive Web Design (RWD), Agile Delivery, Waterfall Methodology, Animation, Design Systems, Digital Kiosks, Employee Experience, Agile Sprints, Health Insurance, Personal Finance Management, Product Roadmaps, Dashboard Design, SaaS Design, Cryptocurrency, Financial Markets, Testing, Apps, UX Workshops, eCommerce, Public Transportation, eCommerce UX, Travel, Microsoft Azure, Customer Experience, WEVO, Responsive Web Apps, User Interface (UI), Branding
Experience
- Design Research - 11 years
- Interaction Design (IxD) - 10 years
- Service Design - 10 years
- UX Design - 10 years
- Digital Product Design - 10 years
- Rapid Interactive Prototyping - 10 years
- Design Thinking - 10 years
- Design Systems - 5 years
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