Curriculum Vitae
Hello, I’m Fabio.
I see things differently.
As a result, I have a high capacity to innovate and anticipate.
I care deeply about human connections, with colleagues, clients and end-users.
I value flexibility and what I mean by “flexibility” is trying new things.
Doing things in the same way over and over again isn’t innovation.
I live to innovate.
My relationship with risk and adaptability isn’t just a corporate stance; it’s deeply personal. Early in my journey, while working as an underpaid architecture intern in Turin and before even graduating, my partner told me she was pregnant. I felt absolute, paralyzing fear. Yet, leaning into that vulnerability changed everything. Fast forward 15 years: I am now a father of three, and together with my family, we have crossed borders from Italy to France, relocating across five different cities. This life journey taught me that fear is a compass: if you don’t feel it, you are stuck in your comfort zone, and the comfort zone is the ultimate enemy of innovation.
Currently, I serve as the director of product design at Symphony in Sophia Antipolis, France. Having joined in 2018 as a Senior Designer, I co-established and operated the Sophia Antipolis branch from its inception, organically progressing to Lead before taking on executive design leadership. Over these years, Symphony underwent massive transformations, evolving from an agile startup through intense phases of mergers and acquisitions (M&A)—including Cloud9. Operating with absolute transparency, I navigate change and uncertainty with ease. During these turbulent shifts, I took ownership of the situation, anchoring and protecting the design team so we could not only endure but thrive. Crucially, I spearheaded the consolidation of our design operations, successfully transitioning our footprint from a distributed global model (spanning SF, London, and NY) into a centralized, high-performing hub here in Sophia Antipolis.
Today, I lead a highly aligned team capable of shipping incredibly complex products. A core pillar of my leadership has been fostering a future-proof mindset: I have consistently pushed my team to embrace emerging technologies, including AI, driving a profound transition in our workflow. We are actively evolving into what can best be defined as creative technologists—a hybrid breed of designers who seamlessly blend advanced design logic with technical execution.
This current chapter is backed by a long track record of diverse experience crafting digital products and systems across wildly different sectors—from high-stakes global sports industries (delivering systems for the FIFA World Cup and Olympic Games) and complex fintech/banking channels, to agile creative agencies. This background has made me a true “Jack of most trades” in the digital space: I am entirely capable of executing the work solo, yet equally comfortable scaling and handing it off to high-performing teams. I approach product design not as isolated interfaces, but as part of a larger, interconnected ecosystem. My unique strength lies at the intersection of design, business strategy, and technology, giving me a keen ability to identify the subtle gaps in the user experience that others miss.
With this foundation, my day-to-day focus centers on high-level strategy, setting the global product design vision and orchestrating a seamless, inclusive, and secure UX across all platforms. This role is deeply managerial and human: I manage the full spectrum of talent acquisition and team restructuring, making the tough performance decisions when necessary, while passionately mentoring interns into flourishing senior designers.
My impact extends well beyond product containers. I collaborate with marketing teams and brand designers to overhaul our overall corporate brand identity. Furthermore, within our design system infrastructure, I personally drove the technical architecture to solve our scalable color system—a framework so innovative it was leveraged as core research to secure national grants, bridging the gap between design logic and engineering implementation. I now partner directly with C-level executives to scope new strategic initiatives, telling stories that enroll team members in the product vision, while working with external agencies to pioneer and deliver both software ecosystem developments and hardware products.
Design philosophy and leadership principles
- Informed design: I believe design is a science of patterns, not a matter of personal opinion. Every structural decision my team makes is anchored in objective criteria, business metrics, and rigorous user insights—ensuring aesthetic appeal never compromises accessibility compliance.
- Constructive friction over diplomacy: I am deliberately non-diplomatic, because in enterprise structures, diplomacy is often just a cog for politics and bureaucracy. I actively seek contrasts and challenge ideas because I know the best design sparks from disagreement. However, my number one value is absolute respect for people; non-diplomatic leadership means pushing for excellence through radical candor, never at the expense of human connection.
- The four pillars: when orchestrating product experiences, I hold my teams to four non-negotiable standards: optimal workflow efficiency, friction-free usability, strict adherence to brand aesthetics, and a deep respect for technological constraints.
- Early stage integration: design is not a cosmetic layer applied at the end of a cycle; it is an efficiency engine. By embedding design leadership at the very inception of the product roadmapping process, we anticipate operational bottlenecks, align cross-functional workflows, and ultimately save organizations significant time and capital.
Past work experiences
Lead product designer
Travelaer (now PROS), 2017–2018, Sophia Antipolis, France
- End-to-end product design: designed a comprehensive, responsive booking engine from scratch for airlines, successfully navigating complex airline regulations and legacy technology infrastructures.
- UX research and facilitation: conducted client-facing workshops directly with stakeholders to build user personas, target scenarios, and end-to-end user journey maps.
- Design systems: collaborated with engineering teams to build a robust, compliant, and highly responsive design system framework.
Senior UX and digital channels manager
Veneto Banca, 2015–2017, Montebelluna (Treviso), Italy
- Omnichannel product management: managed the bank’s entire digital ecosystem, wearing multiple hats to oversee internet banking, ATMs, POS systems, and mobile applications.
- UX research and mobile design: spearheaded the complete UX research, data analysis, and end-to-end redesign of the BankUp mobile banking application across iOS, WatchOS, Android, and Windows.
- Business alignment and compliance: successfully integrated strict banking security and compliance frameworks with marketing goals, resulting in a 220% increase in total transaction volume (scaling from €34.5M to over €107.3M within a single year).
Senior UX designer
Accenture, 2014–2015, Milan, Italy
- UX strategy and discovery: directed requirements gathering, business/content strategy, and layout architecture for Zain, a leading telecom and data services operator in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
- Information architecture and wireframing: designed highly scaled information architecture, sitemaps, blueprints, interactive prototypes, and wireframes for responsive websites and software interfaces.
- Usability testing and stakeholder management: facilitated rigorous usability testing sessions and successfully aligned internal media agency workflows with client-facing leadership.
Principal interaction designer
Deltatre — 2009–2014 | Torino, Italy
- High-traffic multi-platform experiences: orchestrated the product design, interaction architecture, and comprehensive content strategies for high-traffic responsive websites and multi-platform applications, optimizing real-time data consumption for global audiences.
- Cross-functional event leadership: partnered directly with engineering, editorial, and marketing teams under AGILE methodologies to deliver immersive digital systems for premier international events, acting as a core design pillar for the FIFA World Cup 2014, London 2012 Olympic Games, and UEFA Euro 2012.
- Strategic UX/UI/IA and client ownership: led high-stakes, client-facing UX/UI/IA workshops and requirement-gathering sessions for top-tier broadcasters and international federations, translating complex live-sports data streams into intuitive blueprints, wireframes, and interactive software user interfaces.
- Award-winning digital ecosystems: designed and scaled flagship digital sports properties that earned prestigious international industry recognition, including The Webby Awards for digital excellence and cutting-edge video player innovation.
UX lead and project manager
Domino — 2006–2009 | Torino, Italy
- End-to-end product design lifecycle: bridged product strategy with hands-on execution, owning the entire UX lifecycle from initial requirement gathering and business analysis to information architecture, interactive prototyping, and wireframing.
- Cross-functional team and project leadership: managed full project lifecycles and directed creative teams to deliver complex e-commerce infrastructures, custom content management systems (CMS), and large-scale corporate identity initiatives.
- High-profile client management: strategized and deployed digital environments and advertising campaigns for premier global and national brands spanning automotive, fashion, sports, telecom, and education.
- Award-winning delivery: part of a high-performing agency team recognized with national industry accolades, including the Mediastars and Key Interactive Awards for project excellence.
Selected agency clients during this tenure:
Core competencies
- Leadership: design direction, design operations (DesOps), strategic team scaling, talent development, organizational restructuring, change management (M&A).
- Strategy: C-level stakeholder alignment, capital markets, trading desk communications, cross-functional governance, enterprise product vision, software ecosystems.
- Technology: AI workflow integration, hybrid design-engineering processes, technical design system architecture (scalable color tokens), digital accessibility standards.
- Systemic UX: compliance-driven fintech workflows, micro-frontends, encrypted data infrastructures, complex process optimization, strategic discovery, gap analysis.
- Ecosystems: Figma enterprise infrastructure, AI-augmented tooling, Agile/Scrum methodologies.
Education
- University Degree in Architecture — Polytechnic of Turin, Italy (2006)
- Faculté des Sciences Appliquées — Université Catholique de Louvain, Belgium (2002–2003)
Languages
- Italian: Native
- English: Professional Working Proficiency
- French: Professional Working Proficiency