Silvia Alexandra Petcu
Verified Expert in Design
Designer
London, United Kingdom
Toptal member since September 11, 2019
Silvia is a dynamic and results-oriented lead product designer with a demonstrated history of guiding design teams to deliver outstanding products. She blends extensive research proficiency and strong leadership skills to foster innovation and drive excellence in product design. Silvia is eager to apply her expertise to enhance the success of a progressive organization, leveraging a pragmatic approach and a commitment to human-centered design principles to inform strategic business decisions.
Work Experience
Lead Product Designer
Expian
- Designed the homepage of the Reservations platform into a "Day Ahead Dashboard" that offers our customers a clear view of the current bookings, add-ons required, time slot, and group management, as well as estimate and plan the operational needs.
- Extended our product offering to cater to ferry operators as customers, being able to handle more advanced capacity management, inventory management, and complex ticketing requirements.
- Worked on a powerful feature that offers customers visibility to all their existing pricing for products, time slot pricing, add-ons, promotions they have active, and any applicable pricing rules.
Lead Product Designer
CMC Markets
- Led the design function at CMC Markets' tech innovation hub, responsible for future products that drive the company's exponential growth and competitive differentiation. Redesigned the trading platform from first principles.
- Led design decisions within the product team, managing the work between other senior designers to ensure cohesive and innovative design outputs.
- Facilitated design workshops and exercises to quickly iterate ideas and test potential hypotheses with user research, promoting a collaborative and user-centered design process.
- Worked closely with the technical product manager and technical lead to align product strategy with agile delivery, conducting user research to ensure the product met market needs and user expectations.
- Built a new trading platform to help traders transition from committed to professional traders in a shorter time, identified through an IDEO 2-month sprint.
- Collaborated closely with engineers during implementation, providing design specifications, assets, and guidance to ensure the fidelity and integrity of the design vision. Used Figma files and Confluence pages to ensure proper layout and structure.
- Learned to find product market fit, iterated quickly, and tested different value propositions, crucial for identifying the target audience and ensuring the product's success.
UX Designer
SITA
- Enhanced the overall ecosystem of internal tools, providing a seamless experience for employees and supporting the product portfolio through the development and optimization of user interfaces and workflows.
- Planned and facilitated stakeholder workshops, engaging over 200 stakeholders to secure buy-in, overcome corporate challenges, and establish a governance model for UX initiatives.
- Conducted extensive quantitative and qualitative user research, creating detailed personas, user journeys, task analyses, and delivery models. Simplified complex processes through flow diagrams, wireframes, and interactive prototypes.
- Established a governance model for UX processes, managed external UI design resources, and ensured effective collaboration with internal and external development teams.
- Assessed the company's UX maturity, successfully educated stakeholders on the importance of UX, and positioned UX work as a critical component of new projects, enhancing its role within the organization.
- Researched and implemented industry best practices in UX design, challenging existing business processes to drive innovation, improve usability, and enhance overall user experience.
UX Designer
Oracle
- Participated in the pre-sales process by working closely with the sales team to understand customer needs and bespoke requirements for multiple Oracle product verticals,.
- Aided the Opportunity team in better identifying each customer's needs.
- Ran fast prototyping of personalization ideas to present to clients.
UX Designer
UXProject Agency
- Designed a customizer tool for a luxury kitchen online business.
- Designed an internal tool for the Mondelez group to visualize sales data analytics better.
- Completed support for a digital transformation project for E.ON to launch go-to-market products, such as heat as a service and charging stations for electric cars.
- Facilitated UX training for various subjects like intro to design thinking, user research, and service design.
- Developed industry best practices as one of the few UX-dedicated agencies in the country.
Education
Master's Degree in Spatial and Regional Planning
Ion Mincu University - Bucharest, Romania
Bachelor's Degree in Architecture and Urban Planning
Ion Mincu University - Bucharest, Romania
Certifications
UX Management: Strategy and Tactics
Interaction Design Foundation
Human Computer Interaction
Interaction Design Foundation
Nielsan and Norman Group UX Certificate
NN Group
Skills
Tools
Sketch, InVision, Adobe Photoshop, Marvel, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe InDesign, Jira
Platforms
Web, Mobile, Desktop, Figma
Industry Expertise
Luxury Goods, Marketing, Insurance, Human Resources (HR), Fashion, Fashion & Beauty
Other
User Testing, User Research, User Onboarding, Workshop Facilitation, Design Sprints, Design Thinking, Human Capital Management, Ethnographic Studies, Service Design, Graphic Design, Data Visualization, HR Tools, Service Blueprints, Enterprise SaaS, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), eCommerce, Digital Transformation, Agile UX, Energy, Utilities, Electric Cars, Business Model Canvas, Design Workshops, Agile, Agile Sprints, UX Design, UI Design, Design Systems, Wireframing, eCommerce Design, Furniture Design, Customization, Interior Design, Web Presentation, Commerce, Checkout, Intranets, Mobile Intranet, Internal Systems, Information Architecture (IA), Remote User Testing, Workshops, Internal Apps, Card Sorting, Tree Testing, Information Design, Content Strategy, Content Creation, Mobile Design, Workflow, Document Databases, Digital Filters, Personas, Prototyping, Dashboards, Charts, Graphs, Campaign Design, Email Campaigns, Digital Campaigns, Newsletters, Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), Tablet Design, Employee Engagement, Mobile UI, Rewards, Mobile UX Design, Human-centered Design (HCD), Human Resource Management Systems (HRMS), Gamification, Notification Center, Profile Design, User Profiles, Shift Planning, Mental Model, UX Management, Human-computer Interaction (HCI), User Experience (UX), Application Design for Web and Desktop, Engaging Stakeholders to Build Buy-In, The One-Person UX Team Tool Box, UX Deliverables, How to write compelling digital copy, ResearchOps
Experience
- User Research - 8 years
- Service Design - 8 years
- Design Thinking - 7 years
- Ethnographic Studies - 7 years
- Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) - 6 years
- User Testing - 6 years
- Workshop Facilitation - 5 years
- Design Sprints - 3 years
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