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From Start to Finish
Knowing business goals, mapping user’s needs, planning how to get to the best solution… I travel the journey from start to finish, from discovering insights to delivering real outcomes
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Better Together
Collaboration is the key, and communication is the driver. Building products is a cross-collaboration effort. As designer, I’m the connector between tech, business and people’s worlds.
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Curious Mind
Research is my foundation, a base camp to come back to. Understand people, business, data, technical possibilities and constraints, and test assumptions, hypothesis, and solutions.
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Fun at Heart
Enjoying the ride while being professional is how I roll, the cornerstone for my practice. Learn from each other and have a good time is the best stimulus to build successful products.
2023 -2024
→ Lead Product Designer @Vista
Design lead for the recommendations team, with over $90M annual bookings.
Built a holistic recommendations framework.
Led a multi-disciplinary design sprint.
Established the team’s design principles and mission.
Increased 500% user engagement (from 3% to 18%) in one week in carousels.
Contributed to the global design language.
2021 -2023
→ Senior Product Designer & Manager @Empathy.co
Led design innovation and a team of designers for a privacy-first B2B SaaS e-commerce search engine.
Founded the Futures innovation team with user-centered frameworks.
Reduced catalog onboarding from 6 months to 9 minutes.
Designed AI tools like a recommendations configurator and synonym generator.
Led and mentored a 6-designer team, implementing processes for success.
2018 -2021
→ Senior Product Designer @Telefónica Global Video
Designed B2C multi-device Pay TV services for millions of daily users across international markets.
Led AI-powered voice search in Telefónica’s mobile TV app.
Redesigned global menu architecture for the web service.
Developed a dual TV design system aligned with Telefónica’s global standards.
Covered full service lifecycle, from discovery to delivery, coordinating with multidisciplinar international teams.
About me
Zahira truly empathises with customers, understanding their needs, desires and challenges, while also understanding our complex product and business needs. An incredible collaborator, excelling in research, finding solutions to complex UX problems (utilizing customer feedback, data insights and her network of UX designers she built in a large organization), and presenting complex concepts to a broad audience. Besides her outstanding design skills and ability to connect deeply with customers, I very much enjoyed the positive energy and creativity that Zahira brought to the team, making a long-lasting impact.
– Pauline Fransen, Senior Product Manager at Vistaprint
I truly enjoyed working with Zahira and seeing her grow with great energy. She's a people-oriented designer, very focused on research and acquiring a deep understanding of the customer problem, that thrives on challenging her team members until finding the right solution. Above all, her constant curiosity and positive attitude are her two most remarkable personal qualities.
– Borja Santaolalla, Co-founder and CXO at Empathy.co