Denmark

UX Design

Design Operations

Service Design

UX Testing

UX Research

Service Design Research

Master's degree

Bachelor of Fine Arts - BFA

Art Science Technician

Sandra Wdowiak

User Experience Designer (UX)

Usability Testing

Quantitative research

Public Speaking

Qualitative research

Communication

Collaboration

Problem-solving

Empathy

Presentation skills

Stakeholder management

Project management

Community management

User research

Trello

UserTesting

ChatGPT

Figma

Jira

Maze

Miro

Confluence

Introduce yourself, define mentoring expectations and goals. Learn and grow together.

General mentorship

Making remote and globally distributed teams work for you and your needs.

Working remotely

Learn essential burnout prevention techniques and replenish physical and emotional energy.

Managing burnout

Talk to people who have learned to manage their imposter syndrome.

Dealing with imposter syndrome

Understanding factors that lead to a motivated team - recognition, communication and more.

Keeping team members motivated

How to create a positive workplace culture that drives collaboration and productivity?

Fostering a good team culture

Steps to building and maintaining a strong, cohesive and effective team.

Building an effective team

Learn the tips to successfully manage a team in a remote environment.

Managing a remote team

Strategies for maximizing your design internship or co-op program.

Getting the most out of my internship

Tips for transitioning into a new role or company.

Changing roles

How to successfully prepare and position yourself for a job promotion?

How to get promoted

How to ask for a promotion and negotiate for salary raise?

Negotiating a job offer

How to think about design career paths and what progression looks like for designers?

Design career path

Get actionable feedback on your resume or portfolio.

Resume and portfolio review

Practice HR, technical and behavioural interviews with mentors.

Practice mock interviews

Best practices for running productive design critiques.

Running effective design critiques

Methods of prototyping and solution validation. When to use which kind of prototype (eg. Webflow, Notion, etc)

Prototyping methods and tips

Manage team expectations and get the most out of your meetings.

Running effective meetings

Identify and define potential product problems and generating possible solutions.

Identifying problems vs solutions

Learn how to properly present your work and share ideas and opinions.

Presenting your work with impact

Tips on how to work and collaborate with designers.

Working with designers

How to work with team members with different skill sets but towards a common goal?

Working cross-functionally

Methods and models of exploring, deciding and delivering design.

Building a design process

Explore different generative and evaluative research techniques. User research synthesis and presentation.

Conducting good user research

Ways and resources to improve your design skills.

Improving design skills

Navigating the working relationship with PM's and engineers as a designer.

Working with product and engineering

How to create personas, and leverage them in design.

Creating and leveraging user personas

Ways to provide constructive feedback to team members.

Giving effective feedback

How to define an ambitious product vision and how to best communicate it to stakeholders?

Creating a product vision

Tips on how to work and collaborate with engineers and developers.

Working with engineers

How to conduct interviews, what to ask, and how to analyze your results? (eg. user interview)

Conducting effective customer interviews

📌 I teach, mentor, and support students on their journey to learn User Experience Design.
📌 I collaborate with colleagues to co-create engaging learning materials.
📌 I actively seek out partnerships with companies to provide real-life case studies for students' practical application.

📌 I design innovative IT solutions that add significant value to healthcare providers.
📌 I serve as a role model for design thinking by moderating discussions with the leadership team and leading by example. So far, I: 
▪️ Successfully conducted the very first Innovation Sprint at Getinge.
▪️ Co-created research-based personas and integrated them into our product development process.
▪️ Introduced a tool that enables us to conduct rapid user tests, enhancing our ability to gather valuable user feedback and iterate quickly.
▪️ Created an internal UX testing panel that brings together individuals who are enthusiastic about making an impact on the design of our products.
▪️ Led the co-creation of the DesignOps process, driving collaboration and enhancing efficiency in the product development lifecycle.

📌 I led the user experience of Pandora's store omni platform, including:
▪️ Co-creating the information architecture of an app designed for store assistants.
▪️ Co-facilitating workshops with global stakeholders, with a focus on the US market.
▪️ Delivering multiple storyboards, wireframes, and interactive prototypes.
▪️ Planning and conducting user testing with store assistants using UserTesting app.

📌 I supported the team in sharing good practices, building strong design thinking capabilities, and creating design thinking awareness across Pandora. This involved:
▪️ Visualizing our ways of working using the double diamond methodology.
▪️ Creating an interactive design toolbox to facilitate collaboration and efficiency.
▪️ Running first design sprint ever done at Pandora which successfully initiated innovation and cross-functional collaboration that continued even after my departure.

📌 I actively contribute to the growth and development of other designers through mentoring.
📌 I provide guidance and support throughout their professional journeys, including:
▪️ Offering feedback on design portfolios and CVs to highlight their unique value proposition.
▪️ Assisting mentees in navigating workplace challenges and finding effective solutions.
▪️ Sharing expertise and insights to support mentees in advancing their careers and developing their skills.

📌 I enhanced user satisfaction with Nordea’s products and services through the delivery of impactful solutions. This involved:
▪️ Creating responsive web and mobile designs aligned with customer needs.
▪️ Advocating for strong collaboration between business stakeholders, development teams, and design to ensure the alignment of goals and successful outcomes.

📌 I led the redesign of Nordea Finland's invoicing service for business banking customers. This involved:
▪️ Collaborating with Content Designer to reduce the financial jargon.
▪️ Establishing new information architecture.
▪️ Encompassing both mobile and desktop devices.
▪️ Facilitating collaboration and gathering input from stakeholders.
▪️ Establishing tracking system, enabling data-driven decision making and providing valuable insights for future improvements.

📌 I contributed in the Nordea’s design community consisting of over 50 designers  #NordeaLovesDesign, including:
▪️ Co-designing and co-facilitating data-driven design training, to promote a data-driven approach and empower designers with analytical skills.
▪️ Playing a role in aligning and enhancing the Design System, fostering collaboration and consistency across products.

📌 I led 5 and supported 2 ChangeLabs - customer-centric change initiatives in a sprint format. This included:
▪️ Planning, organizing, and driving collaborative innovation efforts across Nordea, selecting and applying appropriate Ways of Working to address specific challenges and opportunities.
▪️ Utilizing methodologies such as Agile (Scrum and Kanban), Design Thinking, Lean, and Operational Excellence, adapting them as necessary for optimal outcomes.
▪️ Conducting daily standups and providing coaching on agile and design thinking principles.
▪️ Mapping customer needs, end-to-end user journeys, value streams, processes, and identifying pain points and enhancement opportunities.
▪️ Facilitating activities such as establishing value propositions, sketching solution features, creating storyboards, and refining user stories.
▪️ Guiding teams in defining minimum viable products (MVPs) and performing gap analysis to identify areas for improvement.
▪️ Overseeing the creation of user stories for MVP and conducting proof of concept (PoC) exercises.

📌 I contributed to the team development, including:
▪️ Co-creating and embodying the team's value proposition “ChangeLab is a trusted and creative partner, that enables Nordea’s vision by bringing relevant people together and deliver benefits faster!”.
▪️ Co-creating the ChangeLab booklet, documenting our Ways of Working, phases, roles, responsibilities, and key outcomes.
▪️ Leading the redesign of the team's SharePoint website, focusing on the toolkit and digital ways of working.
▪️ Leading the communication chapter, publishing weekly SharePoint articles and Yammer posts, resulting in approximately 7,500 unique Nordea employee visits (about 25% of Nordea's total workforce) and a total of approximately 184,000 visits over two years.

📌 I lead efficiency and quality driven process innovation to improve the way the organization work.
📌 I drove human-centered initiatives, resulting in culture change, increased productivity, and reduced complexity.
📌 I supported the development of ways of working for the operational excellence transformation program, and acted as a coach and mentor for Team Leads during the implementation. I was focusing on the following elements:
▪️ Workforce planning and defining roles and responsibilities.
▪️ Implementing effective operations management practices.
▪️ Establishing standardization to ensure consistency.
▪️ Identifying and measuring operational key performance indicators (KPIs).
▪️ Creating visual management systems for enhanced transparency.
▪️ Fostering problem-solving and continuous improvement practices.
▪️ Cultivating strong leadership and promoting an operational excellence culture.

📌 I Utilized my passion for simplification, innovation, and change as a Lean trainer for new employees at Nordea Branch in Poland.
📌 I conducted training sessions focusing on four main introduction topics:
▪️ Improvements: Guided employees in identifying opportunities for improvement and implementing lean principles.
▪️ Flowcharts (mapping): Taught employees how to visually map processes to identify bottlenecks and areas for optimization.
▪️ Handbooks: Provided training on the use of standardized handbooks and procedures to ensure consistency and efficiency.
▪️ Structured Problem Solving: Equipped employees with problem-solving techniques to address challenges and drive continuous improvement.

📌 Contributed to efficient processes and services by initiating changes and simplification. 
▪️ My notable achievement was leading the automation of other corporate action events. This change replaced the time-consuming and paper-based processes with a fully digital and automated solution. As a result, we eliminated the need for printing hundreds of pieces of paper daily and significantly reduced processing time.
▪️ Promoting Lean Thinking both within and outside the team and department.

📌 Supported stakeholders in the value chain, ensuring smooth daily services and operations for Nordea's Capital Markets related products.

📌 I played a key role in two significant transition projects, one from Finland and one from Denmark. These projects involved:
▪️ Traveling to these countries to learn their processes and documenting them in detailed work instructions.
▪️ Identifying improvement ideas and executing on them once the processes were transferred to Poland.

📌 I enabled customers dreams by providing tailored consultations and loans.
📌 I was taking care of current customers and gaining new ones, as well as cooperation and acquisition of new brokers.

📌 I contributed to great customer experiences by meeting their needs with bank products & services.

📌 My main focus were Customers in the branch office. I was conducting initial sensing of their needs and making sure they felt welcome in GetinBank. 
📌 I was also responsible for taking care of the quality of service according to the standards prevailing in the Bank.

Sandra Wdowiak🇩🇰