Laura Sessona

Empowering teams and companies to achieve business goals through design and user-centered approaches

As part of the adidas family, Runtastic aims to change the lives of our 165+ million users through sports, especially through the adidas Running and adidas Training apps. As the second (out of 2) Principal UX Researcher within the team, I ensured the adidas Running & adidas Training apps evolve according to people*'s real needs and expectations. This included planning, leading and executing a variety of research activities, from discovery studies to usability tests, often in collaboration with external parties. Also, I enabled different teams (from management to specific squads) to implement UX insights into their work and empowered them to take the right decisions. Often this required to apply some service design best practices to foster collaborations within the different company tribes and squads. I also took care of establishing/nurturing collaborations with key stakeholders and teams. Finally, together with my colleague, I supported 2 junior team members' growth - which I loved doing. People*= everyone who uses the apps and interacts with the brand ecosystem

Talent Garden is Europe’s leading innovation platform and coworking network for digital innovation. My role is to empower tomorrow's professionals (working in IT, design, HR, marketing, etc) with design research, analysis, mapping and strategic thinking skills to use in their day-to-day activities. To do this, I prepare and lead tailored-made theoretical lectures and collaborative learning workshops.

Sketchin is a strategic design studio helping companies develop and formalise their innovation strategies, turn them into solutions that humanise the relationship people have with technology. These solutions are imperfect, incomplete and impermanent, and evolve in time to stay relevant. My responsibilities: - Lead, plan and conduct research & synthesis activities - Lead, plan, coordinate and facilitate collaborative workshops with stakeholders from multiple departments and end-users. - Turn the insights gathered into design strategies that guide companies on how to best proceed - Translate these into conceptual solutions that are agreed upon by all stakeholders involved (service blueprints and concepts) - Lead design reviews with client stakeholder to consolidate solutions - Ensure that the design strategy and concepts are well represented in the high/low fidelity prototypes, also by designing user flows and screens with my UX design colleagues - Plan, lead and analyse test activities to validate solutions and inform next iteration phases - Nurture and coach junior colleagues within their growth paths - Ensure the team's wellbeing - Enable the team to adopt an agile mindset

Providing Management and Operative teams with theoretical knowledge and practical skills related to the customer experience management and digital marketing areas. Activities included leading theoretical lectures and coaching collaborative workshops to help the stakeholders translate theory into practice.

I helped organisations tackle complex challenges by: - planning, leading and conducting UX and service design research activities, - building the design thinking capacity of internal teams, - facilitating collaborative and creative-thinking environments among internal stakeholders - contributing to design multi-touchpoint solutions that satisfy the requirements identified

NOYO is a stakeholders engagement consultancy. During a project with a leading European International School, I played the roles of design researcher and service designer. Tasks included: - Design research planning and execution (stakeholders' interviews, focused sessions) - Research analysis and sense-making - Crafting of recommendations and storytelling - Facilitation of alignment workshop with the client leadership team - Crafting of final deliverables

Airbnb is an online hospitality service/platform. CPM is one of the partners they collaborate with to provide assistance to their customers/users. Tasks within CPM: - Providing assistance with anything related to the users’ interaction with the Airbnb services, via telephone and email: investigation and problem solving of each case, direct communication with end customers based on a deep understanding of the Airbnb UX/UI and its process/system design. Self-initiatives within CPM: - Helping create a more human-centred working environment and processes - Helping increase the quality of work and the internal work processes

Claro Partners is a business innovation consultancy helping Fortune 500 clients and startups surf disrupting changes happening in society. Tasks: - Proposals development, design of client-facing presentations and reading documents - Co-leading of a 5-days Design Sprint to help an established social innovation start-up test a business question and set the first steps towards the development of a new service/platform. - Development of a 8-weeks project to help an USA-based public health consultancy re-define their role within the ongoing digital transformation affecting the ecosystem. Activities included desk research, stakeholder interviews, qualitative survey design & analysis, information synthesis and design of a final roadmap for the client’s new internal technology centre to be launched. - Leading a three-person team to plan, prepare and run the Barcelona Service Jam 2017, a recognised weekend global event.

Dreaming Future is a baby startup, born from a vision of the founder to improve the employment situation globally. Tasks: - Facilitation of the team‘s definition of their core business mission and vision, by creating alignment among the team members. The remote collaboration included the plan, execution, and analysis of a brief market research in Europe and Brazil via a quantitative and qualitative online survey for the design of future service propositions.

Rabobank is a leading multinational banking and financial services company. A business challenge was designed in collaboration with TUDelft, Erasmus Rotterdam University and the Flow Foundation, to help the institution spot and leverage new business opportunities with current and prospect clients that have been challenged to meet sustainability requirements. Tasks: - Analysis of the current ecosystem of the Rabobank's prospect client Thermae 2000, including consumer, trend and competitor analyses. Conceptualisation of a 10-year strategy to lower their energy expenses and play a proactive role for the sustainability of the local area. Rabobank’s envisioned role was to partner with Thermae 2000, fund their investments and accompany them towards the achievement of their vision.

TUDelft is a leading technology university in the Netherlands and in the world. In order to maintain their leadership position and surf the disruptive wave brought by the open learning communities (MOOCs), they needed to update their current website structure. Tasks: - Co-development of the new website, transferring and reorganising existing page content into a new architecture that allows the university to offer courses in a more personal and flexible way to its users.

STBY is a consultancy specialised in design research for service innovation. Tasks: - Design and development of a strategic tool to support the STBY team to strengthen the co-creation of value with their large client organisations across multiple projects. The tool was developed using an agile approach, involving iterations of research, design, and testing. Project developed as thesis of my MSc studies in Strategic Product Design at TUDelft.

Lucitalia Milano is a manufacturing firm specialised in the design and production of lighting systems. Tasks: - Design existing and new products components using 3d model and render software for the new catalogue release.

H8 Snc is a family-owned B2B manufacturing firm specialised in metal treatment. Among their business units, Colors&Glamours designs and produces coloured jewels. Tasks: - Warehouse management, by coordinating incoming and outcoming goods and communicating with suppliers and partners - Clients’ orders management, by leading the production processes, packaging the manufactured goods and assisting customers before & after their purchase.