ABOUT

Hello! I'm a charismatic leader, user-centered designer and entrepreneur, passionate making a positive impact in people's life through purposeful and scalable multi-channel experiences that will deepen their relationships with brands and drive business growth.

With 16 years of experience working for top design consultancies (i.e.: Ideo, Continuum, Smart Design) and Fortune 500 corporations (i.e.: Google, MetLife, Sallie Mae, Whole Foods, Novo Nordisk, Lululemon, Chicago Tribune, Allstate, CME, Macy's, Nestle, Barilla, Godrej, Tetrapak) in Europe, Asia and North America, I thrive in leading multi-disciplinary teams, pushing the envelope for what should be done and elevating the role of design to drive competitive advantage. I have partnered with clients that were looking to disrupt their category, enter a new category or create a new one.

I’m an empathetic person with a creative bend and an business oriented mind. I take pride in my visionary leadership, ability to instil strong work ethic, drive for performance excellence and client engagement through persuasive storytelling and relationship building.

WORK EXPERIENCE

Smart Design |  Head of Service Design           
New York, NY 10.2018 - present

Parson School of Design | Adjunct Professor of Entrepreneurial Design            
New York, NY 08.2019 - present

Guide senior students on a journey to develop a deep understanding of what it takes to start a business and what the necessary steps are to make it happen. Through a series of lectures augmented by hands-on experiments and real life experiences from the startup community, students envision innovative solutions to solve for wicked problems, define business model scenarios, and develop market entry strategies to actualize their projects.

Co: Collective |  Head of Service/Experience Design            
New York, NY 06.2016 - 09.2018

Responsible for establishing a new practice within the company, developing service design capabilities, and offering. I oversaw a team made of service designers, business strategist, UX, UI, creative technologists, visual designers and copy writers. 
My duties included delivering excellent design standards across the work; educating the organization about Design; further developing our talent pool, growing the clients relationship and securing new business, creating brand awareness in selected colleges and building a design culture and its best practices. Together with my business partner, I grew MetLife, our very first account, to become the company’s biggest one generating $8m revenues in 18 months. 

Farmhouse @ Leo Burnett |  Director of Innovation     
Chicago, IL  05.2012 - 04.2016

Key  player in building the Innovation Practice within the Leo Burnett group and shaping the vision and approach. I wore many hats, including leading front end innovation projects, building new key capabilities for the division, involvement in pitches, authoring thought leadership white papers and driving business development opportunities. The clients roster included major brands such as Allstate, CME, Mc Donald’s, Whole Foods, Lollapalooza, Art Institute of Chicago.

Godrej & Boyce Mfg. Co. Ltd |  Design Lead, freelancer  
Mumbai, India  12.2011 - 04.2012

Worked with a cross functional and cultural team to introduce Design Thinking to the executive team and execute the first disruptive design program within the biggest Indian privately held CPG corporation.

Barilla |  Innovation Manager
Parma, Italy; Chicago, IL 06.2005 - 06.2010

One of the first six employees who opened the Design Center within Barilla America. Worked with a multi-disciplinary team to integrate business, brand and design strategy to build a five year innovation pipeline to help the company double their revenues and reach $1b sales in the U.S. market. Guided the creation of holistic user experiences that transformed people eating and shopping behavioural models and opened the doors to the brand to play in a whole new set of categories.

IDEO | Human Factor Specialist
London, UK + San Francisco, CA 11.2004 - 05.2005

Planned, recruited and led user research across a range of innovation programs for Nestle, Danone Numico and Scavolini that resulted in the launch of a pizza experience for at-home consumption; a structural packaging redesign for a line of medical supplements for PKU teens; a cooking and eating experience that reimagined the role of traditional kitchen design and layout.

Continuum | Design Strategist
Milano, Italy +Boston, MA 06.2003 - 10.2004

Mostly involved in a global innovation project for Tetra Pak to define the brand growth strategy for the U.S. and China and transform the drinking experience on-the-go. Conducted design research to identify physical, emotional and sociocultural needs around the ideal drinking experience. Facilitated the analysis phase and generated actionable insights that inspired the development of the new generation of beverage packaging.

EDUCATION

Illinois Institute of Design
Chicago, IL 09.2010 - 04.2012
Master of Design (GPA 4.0) 

Politecnico di Milano
Milan, Italy 09.1997 - 04.2003
B.S - M.S Business Engineering (GPA 4.0) 

PATENTS

Microwaveable Nested Trays
US 8226999

Flexible Wristband Key Holder
US 61723731

Francesca.passoni@gmail.com