Summary — MARJAN ZAMANIAN

Hi, I’m Marjan!

I began my career journey at several design firms, where I helped brands evolve and create a positive impact. Later, I transitioned into product design and gained experience in various areas, including B2C, B2B, B2B2C, E-Commerce, Enterprise, SaaS, Service design, and CX strategy.

I believe a highly effective product strategy requires understanding the intersection of design, business, and technology. I excel in defining the product vision, crafting compelling stories, and designing seamless, human-centered experiences across complex ecosystems. Building and mentoring multi-disciplinary teams is something that I am passionate about.

In my free time, I enjoy painting, practicing yoga & meditation, traveling, cycling, and more...

emzeedesign@gmail.com

916.743.7099 | LinkedIn

My design approach starts with understanding the "why" and "who" behind the problem. My design principles are centered on inclusivity, purposefulness (designing with empathy), and delivering value across all touchpoints of a digital or physical experience with an ultimate goal to inspire, empower, and motivate end-users throughout their journey. I prioritize team alignment and shared vision to ensure successful business outcomes and meet user needs.

Recognizing the importance of design, business, and technology intersections, I believe delivering value in digital product strategies requires a comprehensive understanding of these areas. I strongly advocate for the end user and emphasize the importance of high-quality design and development to avoid design debt while balancing the goals of stakeholders and leadership.

As a leader, I foster team success by creating a collaborative, safe, inclusive, and diverse environment that increases engagement and empowers individuals in my team to excel and grow their craft. My management style is empathetic, trustworthy, and coaching-oriented. I guide and inspire my team by focusing on the purpose and unlocking their creativity by empowering them to meet the highest quality standards for user experience design, including content. To shift mindsets towards next-gen experience for the product and ensure that all voices are heard, I prioritize inclusivity and diversity, believing that high-performing teams require different viewpoints to drive innovation and transform the future.

In my previous roles as a Design Leader, I created a culture of frequent feedback to unlock difficult conversations through the art of asking. I employed curiosity to resolve conflicts and gain a deeper understanding of differing viewpoints. Used coaching to maximize the growth of each individual and planned career development during annual performance reviews for near-term steps toward their long-term vision. I practiced SMART goals-based performance, OKRs, and 360 for assessments and reviews to provide recommendations. I’ve Led design reviews, workshops, critiques, and brainstorming sessions to raise the bar and promote collaboration. I prioritized celebrating milestones and sharing our experiences during retrospective sessions as part of my approach.

To overcome challenges with low-performing individuals, I Identified the root cause of the performance issue, provided feedback and support, set clear goals and expectations, and provided training and development.

In addition to team management, I also participated in organizational and administrative management, including prioritization, planning, budgeting, design documentation, team engagement, vendor management, tools assessment, talent strategy, creating job descriptions, defining interview processes, recruiting, hiring, onboarding, partnering with product and engineering leaders to build a product roadmap, and participating in PI planning. I also worked closely with design agencies and contractors to drive projects successfully.