Susana Chinchilla

Summary

Senior Lead Product Designer with 6+ years designing enterprise platforms and internal tools across web and mobile at IBM. Strengths include workflow simplification, design systems, accessibility, and high-craft interaction and visual design. Experienced leading complex initiatives end to end, aligning cross-functional teams through design thinking workshops, and scaling repeatable patterns that improve how people get work done.

Skills

Enterprise product design AI/ML product design Design systems Interaction design Visual design Information architecture User research Usability testing Workshop facilitation Design thinking PLG strategy Accessibility Dashboards & data visualization Cross-functional leadership Roadmap & strategy Agile & scrum Stakeholder alignment Mentorship & design leadership Figma Adobe Creative Cloud Mural Claude (Anthropic) Cursor Lovable Google Stitch Framer Notion Pendo GitHub

Experience

Senior Lead Product Designer March 2022 – November 2025

IBM · Austin, TX

Led design initiatives to create product vision, re-imagine current products for new customer experiences, and shorten time to value. Promoted alignment and cooperation across global teams.

Product-Led Growth (PLG) Sales initiative to allow potential customers to experience products first-hand, converting users to buyers by demonstrating value and better UX. Contributed to 10% revenue increase for IBM Software division.

Created roadmaps for PLG changes for approximately 40 products. Defined 100+ best practices to optimize user experiences and trial-to-conversion.
Facilitated biweekly PLG Design Guild strategy calls and identified product synergy opportunities.
Selected to attend IBM Product Academy for Teams workshop, receiving gold-standard training on the entire product lifecycle.

Carbon Design System Open source code, design resources, and human interface guidelines for products and digital experiences.

Aligned global teams by leading demonstrations of brand-new product features for 40+ designers and engineers.
Developed onboarding resources, including end-to-end onboarding experience for security product used as a model across IBM.
Helped redesign the Carbon Design System website, improving usability. Projected to serve 450,000+ monthly visitors.

Content Services Software-as-a-service that helps organize and control content security across cloud platforms and applications.

Led a 4-person design team and headed redesign of AWS cloud content services, contributing to $400M ROI.

Organized Familia@IBM outreach events, including Code2Code EDT workshop for 50+ young people under-represented in STEM.
Earned IBM Culture Catalyst Award (2023) for leading cross-functional critiques, vision sessions, and return-to-office workshop.

UX Designer January 2021 – March 2022

IBM · Austin, TX and London, UK

Led teams of 3 to 9 designers and mentored new hires and interns.

watsonx Orchestrate Software-as-a-service that allows enterprises to create AI agents that interact with 80+ applications.

Led the chat interface workstream for watsonx Orchestrate (enterprise SaaS), partnering with four global design leads. Facilitated workshops, aligned stakeholders on tradeoffs, and drove design from flows to high-fidelity UI to deliver the MVP.
Selected as the sole U.S. representative in the United Kingdom. Led Enterprise Design Thinking workshops with 40+ participants and produced artifacts adopted by 140+ collaborators across product, design, and engineering teams.
Awarded IBM Equity Grant from CEO Arvind Krishna in 2022 for outstanding contributions and leadership in hybrid cloud and AI.
Awarded the IBM Standout Newcomer Award as Problem Solver Extraordinaire in 2021.

Sr. UX Research Intern and UX Design Co-op Summer 2020 – January 2021

IBM · Remote

Developed user experiences for new products. Became sole intern selected for Patterns Design Program, joining approximately 40 new hires.
Created user personas for three product platforms merged into one experience and conducted competitive analysis for a new product concept.
For Patterns' five-week incubator project, co-created tool for iX Consulting designers to find internal consulting opportunities.

Recognition

IBM Equity Award · CEO Recognition · 2022

Awarded by CEO Arvind Krishna for outstanding contributions and leadership in hybrid cloud and AI.

IBM Culture Catalyst Award · May 2023

Led the way to rebuild culture and collaboration in the Austin Studio for the Business Automation team. Organized regular Design Share reviews, critique sessions, and a return-to-office workshop. Arranged teammates to run 3-in-a-box meetings and design playbacks. Organized community events including with the local YWCA.

Promotion to Advisory Designer · March 2022

Recognized as a rising star on the Business Automation team. Promoted for leading the Studio/Build design team, building relationships between development and PM stakeholders, and performing well above band level. Championed team culture through onboarding support and team-building initiatives.

IBM Standout Newcomer Award · Problem Solver Extraordinaire · May 2021

Recognized for excelling in a complex project space, breaking down complex requirements into compelling user experiences, and building collaborative relationships that drive the highest quality UX. "There has yet to be a challenge that Susana hasn't conquered."

UX Advisor · Harvard Business School Foundry

UX feedback, experience audits, and improvement recommendations for HBS Foundry product.

2025 IBMer watsonx Challenge

Recognized for AI innovation and prompting excellence within IBM's watsonx program.

Education

New York Institute of Technology

M.A. UX/UI Design and Development

4.0 GPA · Summa Cum Laude · Honor's Student

Graduated May 2021

Purchase College, State University of New York

B.F.A. Graphic Design

Magna Cum Laude · GCSF and ADP Aspire Scholarships

Graduated December 2018

Certifications

Enterprise Design Thinking Coach · IBM Product-Led Growth · Pendo IBM Product Academy IBM Agile Explorer Gen AI Fundamentals AI Assistants L1 Trustworthy AI AI Associate Leader AI Maturity Framework

Community

Board Member · The Latina Foundation · Regional Community Leader · Poderistas (4 states) · Lead · FoundHERs entrepreneurial community · Mentor · McCombs School of Business, UT Austin RISE and ALPFA · AI Advisory Committee Member · Austin Community College

Led Enterprise Design Thinking workshops globally, in-person and remotely, through IBM and independently at organizations including YWCA Greater Austin, Code2College, The Latina Foundation, UT Austin, McCombs School of Business, and others across the U.S. and internationally.