BIANCA PINEDO

biancajazminpinedo@gmail.com
Design Operation + Design Program Management
Strategic and communicative Sr. Design Program Manager partnering with Design teams to elevate user-centered experiences in consumer facing products. Highly skilled in waterfall and agile project management methodologies. Fosters a dialogue of trust to empower Designers and cross-functional partners, especially on challenging and time-pressured projects. Comfortable with ambiguity, and approaches problem solving pragmatically, partnering with leadership to bridge design and technology and implement solutions that scale as teams and business needs evolve.

EXPERIENCE

Design Operations + Design Program Management Consultant July 2023 - Present

• Established and scaled Program Management and Design Operations capabilities for start-up + enterprise clients.

  • Conducted process audits using stakeholder interviews, surveys, historical data to analyze and identify inefficiencies, delivering actionable recommendations that reduced design development by 25%

  • Established benchmarks for resources, budget, and schedule (sprint plans) based on project category, offering leaders insights to negotiate trade-offs and align business needs.

• Coordinated Reviews with C-level team for business critical projects, facilitating alignment + decision making resulting in quarter-over-quarter improvement of Design approvals and time-to-market

• Improved workflow optimization

  • Created brief templates based on project type, bringing clarity + specificity to historically broad scopes

  • Implemented intake + prioritization log for incoming projects to better capture workload and requests, providing key metrics to better understand resourcing gaps + capacity

  • Conducted retrospectives to capture learnings and document process improvements

  • Accelerated creation of icon + shared asset library, eliminating duplicative efforts across various design disciplines

• Organized remote / hybrid meetings with Designers, cross-functional partners, and leadership.

  • Led Opportunity Framing workshops with functional leaders to facilitate product roadmap alignment

  • Facilitated feedback sessions on improved process initiatives to ensure scalability and adoption

  • Coordinated weekly project team meetings and project reviews, surfacing team roadblocks, preparing presentation decks, documenting approvals and next steps.

Senior Design Program Manager November 2021 - November 2022
Design Program Manager August 2020 - November 2021
Logitech

• Managed highly visible Gaming portfolio’s Partnerships Program for Astro Gaming and Logitech G brands, partnering with Disney/LucasFilms, Xbox, Playstation, Riot Games, Playseat, Timbuk2, and Book Projects.

• Guided team of cross-discipline designers, engineers, and product managers through user-research, concepting, design, and prototype phases for consumer hardware products 

• Improved program efficiency and ensured operational excellence by developing and implementing streamlined tools and feedback processes for program assessments, design reviews and change control. 

• Built workstreams for project briefing and kickoff, product imagery development, and design for compliance

• Adopted new processes across the entire design operations organization.

• Developed and led ongoing training for a department of 12 total Program Managers as well as a combination of Lead, Senior, and Associate PMs.

• Facilitated collaborative virtual meetings with global cross-discipline partners and leadership to build trust, credibility, and maintain alignment. 

• Utilized tactful negotiation and mediation techniques when necessary to ensure successful program outcomes and stakeholder satisfaction.

• Ensured budget stability for the Gaming portfolio's packaging program by employing thoughtful roadmap planning, data analysis, risk assessment, and resource management. 

• Eliminated redundancies across business units, maximizing resource utilization and cost-effectiveness.

• Played a key role as Co-Lead for the global employee resource group, Rising Professionals. 

• Created and moderated quarterly engaging events focused on fostering career growth, diversity, equity, and inclusion, as well as providing coaching and development opportunities for employees at all career levels.

Project + Sourcing Manager November 2019 - April 2020
John Masters Organics

• Implemented workflow management tools, including Smartsheet and Microsoft Teams, resulting in a 50% reduction in meeting time, optimizing work hours while ensuring effective project coordination.

• Tracked and communicated project efforts, achievements, issues, and failures

• Assessed and de-escalated risks, partnered with executive team to remove roadblocks

• Successfully led 9-10-person cross-functional teams (Product, Marketing, Supply Chain) and collaborated with manufacturing partners in new product development, reformulations, and engineering change orders (ECOs). 

• Proactively identified and dual-sourced primary and secondary packaging components for high-demand SKUs. Conducted thorough evaluations of materials, quality, lead times, and costs, enabling strategic contract negotiations and onboarding of new vendors, significantly reducing overall supply chain risks and enhanced product availability.

Project Manager, Product Development December 2018 - November 2019
Drop

• Planned and managed milestone schedules and budgets for cross-functional teams and vendors, overseeing end-to-end product development for both hardware and soft goods categories; consistently achieved or exceeded Gross Margin objectives for 20+ products by 4-6%.

• Collaborated with Product Managers to create short and long-term product development portfolio plans. 

• Conducted assessments of technical feasibility and resource availability, leading to successful negotiations for scope, budget, resources, and schedule adjustments.

• Oversaw in-depth analysis of program KPIs and regularly measured project performance on a quarterly basis. 

• Utilized data-driven insights to make strategic recommendations, reducing risks and capitalizing on opportunities.

• Pioneered the development of a Center of Excellence by identifying duplicated efforts across departments.

 Project Manager June 2017 - October 2018
The Linus Group

• Devised and executed project schedules and budgets, leading to a significant increase in average profitability for both overall projects (up to 67%) and 3rd party work (up to 71%).

• Spearheaded establishment of efficient protocols for sales, effort estimating, project kick-offs, project retrospectives, and project reporting, streamlining agency operations, resulting in improved efficiency and enhanced project outcomes.

• Managed contractors and in-house creative team in development of marketing campaigns for life science clients, including toolkit production, key visuals (photography, illustrations, and motion graphics), web content, campaign videos, and short documentary films.

• Prepped client-facing Statements of Work (SOWs), change orders, and presentations, while managing all related internal assets and documentation. 

• Ensured seamless communication and documentation throughout project lifecycles, contributing to a cohesive and professional client experience.

Project Manager November 2015 - May 2017
Casper

• Collaborated with sourcing team to facilitate supplier selection and onboarding processes. 

• Led price negotiations and conducted bid evaluations, achieving substantial cost savings of 25% - 35% for dual-sourced products.

• Prepared and delivered comprehensive project status reports, effectively communicating anticipated risks and trade-offs in a $1.25MM custom build of a 15,000 sqft R&D studio. 

• Ensured stakeholders were well-informed to make decisions and maintain project success.

Operations Manager January 2014 - August 2015
Naja

• Led successful relaunch of e-commerce website within an incredibly tight timeframe of under 48 hours, coordinating efforts and ensuring seamless execution for a national television spot. 

• Devised and implemented a comprehensive Launch Calendar to track and manage creative asset development for bi-quarterly collection launches consisting of 70-105 SKUs. 

• Fostered alignment and focus across cross-functional teams, resulting in efficient and well-coordinated launch campaigns.

Office Manager January 2012 - July 2013
Huddle

• Managed build-out of a 7,500 sqft office space with a $500K budget. 

• Led all aspects of the project, including conducting the real estate search, coordinating contractor bidding, and handling communications with landlords and San Francisco City officials.

• Developed and executed a comprehensive move plan to ensure a seamless transition to the new space.

EDUCATION
Bachelor of Arts (B.A.), Anthropology, Political Science
UCLA, Los Angeles, CA

Project Management Certificate
UC Berkeley Extension, Berkeley, CA

SKILLS
Technical / Software
MS Office (Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint), Google Suite, Oracle PLM, Workfront, Smartsheet, Asana, Trello, Notion, Slack, Adobe Creative Cloud, Figma, Mural
General
Program Management, Project Management, Design, UX/UI, Marketing, Branding, Stakeholder Management, Agile Methodology, Resource Allocation, Roadmap Planning, Risk Assessment and Mitigation, Scrum, Product Development, Cross-Functional Collaboration, Team Leadership, Budget Management, Quality Assurance (QA), Clients Relations, Product Lifecycle Management, Design Thinking, Communications
Languages
Bilingual in Spanish and English.