Samtastic | UX Lead Product Designer | Service Designer | Researcher | Facilitator
  • Resumé
  • Case Studies
    • Elephant Pants
    • Early Bird Foods
    • Merz Selling Tool
    • Patient Builder
  • Contact

Design Manager, Capital One
​Lead Organizer, Brooklyn Product Design Meetup

Happy design manager at Capital One. Full stack – user research, iterations, facilitation, service design, design thinking, strategy, design leadership, building teams, design ops, agile things, design instruction, event management, public speaking, and storytelling. Has worked across New York, San Francisco, Chicago, Atlanta at agencies, in house shops, and startup environments. My driven attitude, efficient hands, and quirky personality brings fresh perspective to any team collaboration.​ Let's chat!
​

​currently

Capital One, New York
Design Lead: Aug 2016 - Current 
(Woopwoop!)
​Fullstack UX Product Design, User Research, Visual UI, Strategy, Service Design, Design Thinking, Design Ops and Storytelling within Scaled Agile teams – brewing up products, tools, and services to improve our customers' everyday processes to make their jobs easier & smoother in the Commercial Banking B2B industry. Design lead in the Login & Authentication space, previously Mobile design lead on the Intellix Mobile app. Connector of people, culture creator, team builder, mentor, and collaborator – hired in to help grow out the design team from an original 3, now scaled out to a team of 20+ passionate, driven, and hungry humans... not kidding about the hungry part – we sure do love us some free lunch and cupcakes! :)

Brooklyn Product Design Meetup
Lead Organizer: 2017 - Current

My latest joy? Proud lead organizer of the Brooklyn Product Design meetup group – spearheaded initiatives for my local design communities and provided a platform for 2.3k+ curious minds to have a voice, teach, learn and connect with each other through speaker talks, design hackathons, and social mingling events in Brooklyn. Check us out! #BKProductDesign

consulting

Fluid, New York
Senior UI/UX Designer: May 2016 - June 2016 
(1 month)
​UI design and UX prototype work on an iOS mobile app.
Organic Inc, San Francisco
Senior Product/Experience Designer: January 2016 - May 2016 (5 months)
Product design from the ground up on an iOS & Android mobile app.
  • Worked off Agile sprints and iterated accordingly based on user testing sessions via prototypes.
  • Lead visual UI direction while working in tandem in a core team of UX and Copy to whiteboard ideas with project leads.
Wells Fargo
Symphony Commerce, San Francisco
Principal UI/UX Lead, eCommerce Storefront: September 2015 - January 2016 (5 months)
​Symphony is a startup with its own SaaS product platform that ties in responsive websites > backend inventory > fulfillment & shipping services all in one cohesive shopper experience – whether in D2C retail or B2B wholesale.
  • Lead numerous responsive website redesign launches for newly onboarded clients via initial site audit & discovery.
  • Created wireframe direction for design vendors to ensure client sites were well-translated for ecommerce UX best practices and scalability.
  • Pushed backend product platform limitations to suggest new features and functionalities in order to drive up customer conversion rates.
Luxury Fashion & Apparel: JBrand | Peter Millar | Neff Headwear | The Elephant Pants | Pura Vida
Consumables: Gatorade | Early Bird Foods
Home Goods: Nature's Shea | Cuppow

fulltime

Giant Creative Strategy, San Francisco
Senior UI/UX Designer: April 2013–September 2015 (2 years, 6 months)
Transplanting out to the tech mecca of San Francisco to embark on a new chapter in my career doing fully interactive experience design work, wearing multiple hats in UX, UI, Dev, and Tech for multiple client requests.
  • Seeded meaningful UX via discovery whiteboard sessions, sitemapping, and wireframes.
  • Spit out countless iterations of UI designs that serve purposeful functionalities with intuitive best practice uses and trends.
  • Performed light Github pushes for html/css/json code fixes and perform back-end Salesforce sandbox migrations by setting up login permission settings on their Veeva iRep CRM tablet platform.
Genentech | NovoNordisk | Actelion | Astellas/Medivation | Merz Aesthetics | Shire
CDM World Agency, New York
Senior Art Director: January 2011–April 2013 
(2 years, 2 months)
Art Director: March 2009–December 2010 (2 years)
Snagged my first Art Director job in healthcare advertising to bring my hybrid print and digital skillsets to full bloom.
  • Created full campaign launches, branding redesigns, print collateral, website facelifts, traffic drivers, tradeshow displays and outdoors concepts.
  • Spearheaded multiple Amgen and Pfizer brands where I directly advised, partnered, and sold ideas to clients right across the street from us.
  • Lead, managed, and tagteammed with designers, illustrators, and freelancers to launch the first ever Viagra iPad selling tool app.
Abbott Dermatology | Amgen Nephrology | Pfizer Viagra

foot in the door

Fashion Institute of Technology: Packaging Design BFA
Presidential Scholars Honors Program // Club President of Creative Showcase ICON Magazine Publication
​

Pedone, New York

Studio Intern: July 2005–June 2006 
(1 year)
Spent a year silhouetting out hair strands and retouching wrinkles. Mastered the Xacto knife for comp finishes while running on 4 hours of sleep a night finishing up on projects for school! Clients reached: Disney on Ice | Sweet N Low | Sugar in the Raw | Matrix Biolage | Sawgrass Mills

FCB, New York
Interactive/Digital Intern, Summer 2006 (3 months)
Concepted, executed, and pitched on how to revamp Draft FCB's recruitment program in a group of 15 interns. And we won! The in-house coffee/beer bar was the bomb. Clients reached: Wisk Dual Action | Snuggle | Verizon | Draftfcb Recruitment Revamp

spoon+fork, New York
Art/Web Intern, Winter 2006 (2 months)
Worked on an AIDS awareness initiative featuring Alicia Keys as an ambassador. Sipped Sagatiba rum for the first time. Clients reached: Keep A Child Alive | Sagatiba Rum

DDB, Chicago
Interactive/Digital Intern, Summer 2007 (3 months)
Got into the 4A's MAIP intern program and was flown to Chicago with 15 other interns living and working for multiple agencies... it was like the Real World, but for Ad students. Ate a lot of deep dish, drank a lot of Pepsi (they were our clients) and plastered a 4 walled room with all the route maps for Celebrity Cruises. Clients reached: Pepsi Tava | Quaker Oatmeal Simple Harvest | Celebrity Cruises | Element 79 Film Festival

Ceradini Design, New York
Packaging Design Intern, Spring 2008 
(3 months)
Showed multiple renderings of the Jose Cuervo margarita mix lady 10 different ways before clients were happy with the way she looked. Made lots of mood boards and played with boxes and labels. Clients reached: Jose Cuervo | Heineken | Amstel Light | Koleston

Matlock Advertising + PR, Atlanta
Art Direction Intern, Summer 2008 
(3 months)
Flew down to Atlanta for the summer and went on a photoshoot for a new Publix campaign where food designers molded okras, spinach and eggplants into a full on tropical bird. Also went to an audio recording and heard lots of stories about Keisha Cole. Learned a lot about black hair products but never got to try them on myself. Clients reached: Publix | Luster's | BMW

skills

Weapons of Choice
Sketch, InVision, Mural, Adobe Suite, Keynotes, Post its, Design Thinking Frameworks, Service Design Facilitation, Storytelling and Education, Agile Sprints, JIRA workflows, Confluence, Airtable... and cookies – they always change the mood of all meetings :)

fueled & inspired by my peers​

  • Lead organizer of the Brooklyn Product Design meetup group – spearheaded initiatives for my local design communities and provided a platform for 2.3k+ curious minds to have a voice, teach, learn and connect with each other through speaker talks, design hackathons, and social mingling events in Brooklyn. Check us out! #BKProductDesign
  • Public speaker, Instructor and Workshop facilitator for affiliated orgs such as WIT, Pratt, FIT, UXCamp, Global Service Jam, Impact Hub Network, Steam On Conference, and C1 Coders. Additional pro bono work: Start Small Think Big and Green City Force projects
  • 4A’s Multicultural Advertising Intern Program (MAIP) Alumni, Advocate, and Mentor

icing on the cake

Currently absorbing the magic of cast iron pan cooking – hence potlucks, selfies, and antics in the office. Flight catcher, risk taker, self-driven and community-based. Inspired by solo traveling and discoveries that connect the dots.

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See Case Studies
samanthalidesign@gmail.com
  • Resumé
  • Case Studies
    • Elephant Pants
    • Early Bird Foods
    • Merz Selling Tool
    • Patient Builder
  • Contact