Julian Gaviria

Product Design Leader & UX Engineer

Summary

As a product design leader with over 11 years of experience and a UX engineering background, I solve intricate product problems with mobile-first user experiences backed by original user research and experimentation. I build, mentor, and lead autonomous teams with outcome-focused frameworks and user-centric design principles. My superpower is bridging the gap between design, development, and business.

Experience

Thomasnet.com, New York, NY (Acquired by Xometry on December 2021)

  • Senior Director, Product Design / January 2022 - June 2022
    VP, Product & Design / December 2020 - January 2022

    • Led and scaled product and design for Thomasnet.com, the leading industrial sourcing platform with a monthly active user base of over 1.7 million buyers and suppliers; managed and mentored a cross-functional product and design team of six.
    • Introduced a multi-sided platform strategy focused on growing core transactions and increasing match value between buyers and suppliers; architected, generated consensus, and executed on a feature roadmap that brought this strategy to fruition.
    • Partnered with data science to build a reporting dashboard for our monetized user base with the objective of demonstrating ROI and upselling to paid subscriptions; currently the leading upsell feature.
    • Automated the company claiming process of the platform by designing and partnering with engineering to build a self-service user experience for suppliers to claim their company and upgrade to a paid subscription; led to the claiming of 4,938 company profiles in the first two months of release.
    • Proposed, defined, and led design efforts to bring communications between buyers and suppliers onto the platform through real-time messaging and project creation with the purpose of quoting; in the process of being released.
  • Director, UX & Experimentation / July 2017 - December 2020

    • Standardized and scaled design for Thomasnet.com and its family of products; led, mentored, and hired a cross-functional team of product designers and UX engineers.
    • Led the mobile-first redesign and brand unification of Thomasnet.com and its family of products.
    • Established an experimentation framework and growth process that led to the launch of 300+ A/B tests; a process that brought monthly active users from an average of 760k to 1.7 million — an increase of 123.7% over the course of the program.
    • Set the foundational design process for Thomasnet.com, including the architecture and implementation of a scalable design system, Thomas Blueprint, actively serving as the foundation for all Thomasnet.com and its family of products.
    • Proposed, designed, and worked with engineering to create a COVID-19 Response System connecting manufacturers of PPE with front-line organizations; a system which Congress recommended as a critical resource to the Manufacturing Caucus (second to FEMA).

Thomas Marketing Services, New York, NY

Director, Design & Development / June 2015 - July 2017

Manager, Design & Development / August 2014 - June 2015

    • Led the design, development, and optimization of over 200+ conversion-focused marketing websites for Thomas Marketing Services, an award-winning full-service marketing agency for the industrial manufacturing industry and subsidiary of Thomasnet.com.
    • Hired, led, and mentored a ten-person cross-functional team of designers, developers, and managers.
    • Introduced a service and new subdivision to the organization focused on growth, experimentation, and A/B testing; generating over 500k in revenue within the first 6 months.
    • Onboarded an offshore development team to manage website maintenance and overflow.
    • Introduced a WordPress, Git, and WP Engine based tech stack as the replacement for our proprietary CMS and in-house hosting services; a tech stack powering 600+ client websites today.
    • Optimized our design and development process by standardizing a library of common reusable design patterns and baseline design system.
  • Lead Front-End Developer / June 2013 - August 2014

    • Worked closely with marketing strategists, writers, and designers to bring a new marketing agency division from zero to a $1.5 million-dollar subsidiary.
    • Built a front-end framework to automate the website development and production process.
    • Designed and developed 25+ conversion-focused marketing websites.
  • Web Designer / June 2011 - June 2013

    • Designed 60+ custom marketing websites for the industrial manufacturing industry.
    • Introduced responsive web design to the business and manufacturing industry at large.
    • Work featured in The Mobile Web Designer's Idea Book.

Skills

  • Design Leadership
  • Multi-Sided Platforms
  • UI Design
  • Mobile-First
  • Design Strategy
  • A/B Testing
  • Growth & Engagement
  • Stakeholder Management
  • Information Architecture
  • Design Systems
  • Typography
  • User Research
  • Front-End Development
  • Design Process
  • UX Writing

Highlights

Education

Bachelor's Degree Graphic Design
2007 - 2011
Bloomfield College - Bloomfield, NJ