"Design with purpose, Lead by example"
John Papadami
Full-Stack UI/UX Designer & Manager
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20 years of international industry experience in Product Design, UI/UX Design strategies, UCD and Design Thinking methodologies, UX Product Management, Accessibility expert (WCAG), User Research & Usability Testing, B2B products, with personal side interests in FinTech, SaaS, B2C, blockchain, and crypto.
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Advocate Product Design and UI/UX by:
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Building and leading teams at corporate companies through hiring, mentoring, defining OKRs, and motivating Interns, Contractors, and Product Designers to feel that they are part of one team with someone who has their best interests at heart.
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Define UI/UX use cases and prioritize PM use cases based on user's needs and goals.
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Defining Product Design Strategies to strategically position Product Designers in the development process as stakeholders and decision makers.
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Strong Product Design and UI/UX Product Management skills, including:
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​Driving and synchronizing UI/UX initiatives across cross functional teams.
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A proxy between Product Management, Front-End and Back-End engineering.
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​Demonstrated success working with Front-End Development, PM, and Principle Engineers in a multi-national environment to build world-class enterprise solutions.
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Talent for gathering and translating use cases and end user feedback into UI/UX requirements that meet user needs while prioritizing backlog of UI/UX use cases.
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Constant design iterations with stakeholders and internally with Product Design team to share ideas, innovate, and improve designs.
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Proven ability to incorporate customer requirements into user interface designs and improve user experience through usability testing.
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Product Standard Usability & Accessibility Expert.
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End 2 End story writing (Market, Customer, Technology, User, and Success stories) which captures all aspects of defining a true product journey.
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Evangelize and integrate UCD and Design Thinking processes in a development oriented environment.
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Proven track record of accepting responsibility inside and outside of my area of expertise, delivering results, and continuous professional growth through both technical and business-level due diligence
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Strong organizational and planning skills to manage and drive multiple projects in a fast pace environment
Portfolio
Coca-Cola Hellenic Bottling Company (Coca-Cola HBC) is a leading bottling partner of The Coca-Cola Company, operating in over 29 countries across Europe, Asia, and Africa. Headquartered in Switzerland, it produces and distributes a wide range of beverages, including Coca-Cola products, juices, energy drinks, and water. Coca-Cola HBC focuses on sustainable practices, innovation, and community engagement, aiming to deliver value to its stakeholders while promoting environmental and social responsibility. It serves a population of over 600 million people and is listed on the London and Athens stock exchanges.
Experience
04/2024 - PRESENT
Coca-Cola HBC
​Lead UI/UX Designer | UI/UX Design Manager (Remote)
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Support building a team from the ground up by defining a UI/UX team vision for establishing a collaborative, user-centered team of diverse skills in research, design, visual design, and project management to drive innovation, align with business goals, and work with cross-functional teams.
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Consultation for how to properly define, build and roll-out a Design System across the company.
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Define Usability Testing Plan templates and Usability Measurement Tool using a System Usability Scale (SUS) mechanism to use throughout the company when facilitating usability testing.
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Work with Customer Experience team and performed usability tests with internal and external customers on UI/UX user stories to prioritize backlog and improve B2B Customer Portal 2.0.
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Lead UI/UX initiatives and design E2E workflow UIs for B2B Customer Portal 2.0 Help & Inspire vertical, address UI/UX tech debt, and drive new business requirements.
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Design and build pixel perfect desktop, tablet and mobile reusable UI templates for digital marketing of Category and Branding pages to be used by partners to sell through the CCH Customer Porta while driving CX strategy requirements from UX perspective.
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Design tablet web app for Market Impact Team (MIT) to manage Business Developer support requests.
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Worked with CCH cross-functional teams (BAs, POs, CLMs) and Microsoft partnership to build workflow UIs for SCM web app using AI Copilot, real time analytics, and advanced alerting to predict and prevent supply chain disruptions.
10/2011 - 02/2020
VMware
Sr. Product / Lead Designer (On-Site)
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Interviewed, hired, and mentored a team of product designers, interns, and contractors which paved the way for VMware to grow the first UX team in Sofia Bulgaria.
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Research and define End-2-End workflows for VMware’s industry-leading server virtualization product vSphere H5 Client to run, manage, secure, and scale applications in a common operating environment across private and public clouds (Apps at Scale initiative).
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Work with 6 project leads and over 50+ developers to port vSphere from Flex to HTML5, while simultaneously filling UX gaps, porting a consistent look & feel, and improving overall user experience.
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Translate engineering requirements into UX design specifications and picture-perfect clickable mockups for all vertical domains in vSphere Next Gen Client (Licensing, Networking, Storage, Clusters, and VM provisioning). Works closely with Product Managers, UI developers, and Principal Engineers to create and maintain the product vision.
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Translate engineering requirements into UX design specifications and picture-perfect clickable mockups for all vertical domains in vSphere Next Gen Client (Licensing, Networking, Storage, Clusters, and VM provisioning). Worked closely with Product Managers, UI developers, and Principal Engineers to create and maintain the product vision. Pushed UX perspective and judgements to influence overall direction of the product.
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UX PM/Design Lead in vSphere licensing that identified user pain points in licensing workflows between vSphere and My VMware Licensing Portal, validate them with user interviews and propose new UX vision which radically improved vSphere’s licensing model.
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Primary accessibility lead responsible for assuring that vSphere was able to pass Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT) tests to achieve government compliance.
10/2004 - 04/2011
SAP
UX Designer (On-site)
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Interviewed, hired, and mentored a team of product designers which paved the way for SAP to grow the first UX team in Sofia Bulgaria.
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Single UX designer responsible for defining UI architectural framework, designing UIs, and approving external integration into SAP’s web-based NetWeaver Administrator.
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Drove UI initiatives and design work for Integration and Orchestration solution to seamlessly integrate and administrate SAP systems, define, and monitor business process to achieve optimization for our customer’s line of business.
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Conduct usability tests with corporate clients at ASUG and SAP TechEd to collect and incorporate end-user feedback.
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Facilitate numerous UI reviews and consultation for developers in U.S., Germany, India, Israel, and Bulgaria.
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Worked on a joint web-based Central Print Management Project (CPM) with HP.
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Project lead and Author of Pragmatic Guidelines for Administration and Monitoring Solutions which contained a set of design floor-plans and patterns to guide UI developers and junior UX designers to design usable and consistent world class applications.
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Primary accessibility lead responsible in setting up test environments, writing accessibility test cases and testing products for accessibility gaps and WCAG compliance which paved the way to allowed sales to government agencies.
03/2020 - 02/2024
Mirantis
Product Design Manager & Lead Product Designer (Remote)​
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Manage a team of Product Designers and UI Dev Engineers by strategically positioning them to show value proposition of their effectiveness to define End-2-End user stories, define well thought out use cases, implement product features based on use cases, and validate designs.
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Provide UX leadership and support Product Designers through a difficult period of disruption and attrition caused by post acquisition. Work with designers to raise morale, engagement, and motivation. Identify priorities and drive alignment around core UX principles within development. Lead hiring efforts to replenish and grow the team.
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Rejuvenate rebranding efforts by proposing new company logo (Hackathon 2nd place winner) with a cultural & values story behind it.
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Define use cases and UI component specifications for the Mirantis Design System, define UI guidelines and patterns, and integrate MDS across all products to achieve a product identity with a consistent look and feel.
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Product Design Lead who works closely with cross function teams (i.e Product Managers, UI Dev Managers, UI Architects, and Directors) to define use cases and UI requirements that address user pain points. Make decisive decisions based on telemetry data, competitive analysis, and user research/testing (internally and externally). Think “outside of the box” approach to offer unique UIs for a heavy technical driven industry.
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Drive UI/UX design initiatives horizontally across company-wide products and teams. Define UI/UX strategies during feature integration while prioritizing them based on user needs.
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Advocate and integrate User Centered Design (UCD) process, Design Thinking methodologies, and involve stakeholders in constant UI design iterations within a development driven company.
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Drove design and implementation of Mirantis Documentation Portal.
Education
2003
Bachelor's Degree
Human Computer Interaction
DePaul University - Chicago,IL - U.S
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GPA: 3.55/4.00
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Graduated with High Honors
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Member of Phi Theta Kappa International Honor Society
2001
Associates Degree
Morton College - Cicero, IL - U.S
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GPA: 3.95/4.00
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On President's list throughout studies
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Member of Phi Theta Kappa International Honor Society
About Me
As an individual who moved from the US to the EU, I am always looking for new adventures, meeting new people to create new emotions, and work in new domains to enhance and challenge my Product Design skills. Most importantly, I am looking for a a company that matches my DNA values where I can utilize my full potential and gain gratification and acknowledgement to the both of our benefits.
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I have a vast experience in the UI/UX Product Design field, have had numerous success stories in making positive contributions and impacts to the organizations/departments that I have worked for, and successful in growing and mentoring UI/UX teams. I take pride in myself and my work, building teams to watch them succeed, and derive considerable satisfaction from doing an assignment well. I cope well with high-stress situations and can manage a variety of projects simultaneously.
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My passion for UI/UX has always fueled my pride in:
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Creating intuitive End-2-End UI design workflows that address user pain points and meets their needs.
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Growing and mentoring Product Design teams and watching them succeed.
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Striving for perfection by doing an assignment for a company as if it was my own.
My DNA that sets me apart from other designers are:
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We are one team and we support each other to achieve mutual success.
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Build bridges across product teams through transparency, trust, productive discussion, and consensus.
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Give recognition where recognition is due to help others advance. Everyone deserves reinforcement.
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Lead by example.
Top 5 Soft Skills
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Communication
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Thinking outside of the box
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Collaboration Team work
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Problem Solving
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Receptiveness to Feedback
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Favorite quote
Hard times create strong men
Strong men create good times
Good times create weak men
Weak men create hard times
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G. Michael Hopf
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Top 5 Hard Skills
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User Centered Design (UCD)
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UI Product Design
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User Research and Usability
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Information Architecture
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Accessibility
Contacts
Ping Me
Feel free to get a hold of me. I am always interested to get acquainted with fellow designers, people in the I.T. industry, and outgoing individuals. If you're seeking advice on how to start your career as a UX Product Designer or in need of UX consultation, I'd be happy to help.
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Email: jpapadami@outlook.com
GSM (Viber & WhatsApp): +359-886-313-382
Skype: janitoismypapa
