Marcelo Somers
Design leader with expertise in product strategy, design systems, and UI engineering who is currently the Dallas Practice Lead for Slalom, a $1.5 billion consulting firm. Driven to create environments where teams can love their work and life and scaling the power of design across organizations.
Demonstrated experience delivering reimagined products, services, and design systems for Fortune 500 and mid-market firms in both a hands on and leadership role. Partners closely with product and engineering teams to co-create solutions.
Hands on skills include research, product strategy, design thinking, front end engineering, and design systems.
Regular speaker, previously featured at CSS Dev Conf, Big Design Conference, The Responsive Web Design Summit, The University of Texas at Dallas, and firms in the Dallas/Ft. Worth metroplex.
Skills
- Product Strategy
- DesignOps
- Design Systems
- Coded Prototypes
- Service Design
- Research
Tools
- Mural
- PowerPoint
- Sketch
- InVision
- Photoshop
- Illustrator
Technologies
- HTML
- CSS
- JavaScript (plain)
- NPM
Experience
Slalom Consulting
Practice Area Lead, 2018-Present
As the Experience Design practice lead, I am focused on defining how our team operates, mentoring designers at all stages of their career, building partnerships with other disciplines, and partnering with clients to lead and deliver projects.
- Grew revenue 48% in 2 years
- Defined team operating model and delivery methodology
- Developed design team career model
- Led the development and delivery of a design thinking innovation program for a Fortune 10 firm
- Led the creation and execution of a design system strategy for multiple Fortune 500 firms
Solution Principal, 2016-2018
Solution Architect, 2015-2016
Consultant, 2013-2015
I deliver and lead cross-disciplinary projects, with design experience in all ends of the design process from research and strategy to engineering. I specialize in Design Systems, Prototyping, and bridging the gap between designers and developers.
I lead and mentor a team of User Experience Designers and Developers who specialize in UI Prototyping & Front End Development. Within the User Experience practice, I am responsible for formalizing the sales and delivery process for new solutions, career mentoring and development, and sales.
- Led a team of designers to launch a ground up redesign, rewrite, and design system for a medical inventory platform at a Fortune 10 platform
- Led a team of designers through the redesign of a telecommunication platform for law enforcement
- Created a design system and led the UI engineering efforts for the ground up redesign & rewrite of a worldwide financial services platform
- Developed Slalom's point of view on Design Systems & UI Engineering
- Created tooling for design teams to ship code more efficiently, including PatternPack for design systems and a framework for designers to create coded prototypes
Credera
User Experience Consultant, 2012-2013
- Developed the information architecture for a redesign of a home builder
- Defined the product strategy & information architecture for a national accreditation agency
- Researched, designed, and built HTML and CSS for an accounting portal for a regional bank
- Led the design for a new eCommerce site in the telecommunications space
- Designed the Information Architecture for a national home maintenance firm
The Syndicate
Founder, 2011-2012
- Founded a blog sponsorship network that reached over 87,000 readers
- Ran sales and operations for weekly sponsorships
- Exited with a sale to BuySellAds, who has continued running the platform to present
Sabre
Media Product Manager, 2009-2012
- Developed new media and advertising products to reach 280,000 travel agents
- Led the launch and product management of Sabre Deals & Travel Extras
- Managed Sabre’s email marketing portfolio which reached 40,000 travel agents and 500,000 travelers
- Held leadership roles in the Young Professionals Council and BringIt
- Mentored new employees in the New Grad Leadership Program
Ericsson
Business Analyst, 2008-2009
- Compiled financial reports in Excel from data in SAP
- Inputted journal entries to move costs between groups
Education
The University of Texas at Dallas
Bachelor's of Science, Finance
- Received an Academic Excellence Full Scholarship
- Received the Ericsson Academic Scholarship
- Member of the Management Honors Program
- Member of the Collegium V Honors Program
- One of three School of Management representatives to visit India which ultimately led to a $50 million donation and Naveen Jindal having the school of management named after him