© Copyright 2026 | by david nguyen
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June 2025 – May 2026

As Product Design Manager at Root Inc., I led the consumer-facing design team for a technology-driven insurtech company. I was responsible for setting the overall design strategy and direction across the consumer website (quote-to-bind experience), agent portal, and embedded insurance experiences for business partners, while building and scaling the design organization and establishing foundational design systems and processes.

Company Brief

  • Root Inc. – Technology-driven insurtech company and licensed insurance carrier
  • Pioneered usage-based insurance using mobile telematics and behavioral data to deliver personalized, fair rates
  • Specializes in auto insurance for consumers
  • Powers embedded insurance solutions for major partners including Carvana
  • Publicly traded company (NASDAQ: ROOT)

Product Design

Responsible for Distribution experiences

  • Shopping & Distribution domain, including the direct-to-consumer quote-to-bind experience, independent agent portal, and embedded insurance experiences for business partners such as Carvana
  • Design system (Beacon) and component library
  • Org-wide DesignOps leadership, including process maturity, standards & governance, tooling, measurement frameworks, and team rituals
  • Led and mentored a team of UX designers, including two seniors, one mid-level designer, and a design systems contractor

Notable Design Challenges

  • Accelerating delivery on a legacy platform with significant technical and design debt
  • Building and scaling a design team while delivering immediate high-impact work in a fast-moving environment
  • Establishing a modern, scalable design system (Beacon) from the ground up using Figma Auto Layout, Tokens, and MUI
  • Rebuilding collaboration, trust, and alignment between Design, Engineering, and Product teams
  • Implementing DesignOps processes (Jira workflows, design reviews, unmoderated testing, and research centralization) in an Agile environment

Design Operations

Accomplishments

  • Rolled out Jira as the primary design workflow, improving cross-functional visibility and reducing ad-hoc requests
  • Established foundational Beacon design system components and governance using Figma Auto Layout, Tokens, and MUI
  • Led Project SWARM, a focused initiative that accelerated Quote & Checkout delivery while rebuilding trust between Design, Engineering, and Product
  • Contributed to Root’s AI strategy for product development alongside VP of Product and PM Director
  • Helped finalize Root’s Agile Product Design Process, including key checkpoints and critique rituals

Results

  • Created structured workflow visibility and alignment across designers, PMs, and engineers
  • Delivered scalable design system foundations that reduced redundant work and sped up prototyping
  • Rebuilt collaboration and trust between Design, Engineering, and Product during a major platform migration
  • Positioned the team to integrate AI tools into design workflows
  • Improved process clarity and accountability through defined stages and sign-off rituals

Project Highlight: Beacon Design System

Root’s rapid growth across web and native products had created fragmented UI patterns and inconsistent design-to-development handoff. To address this, I defined the vision and strategy for Beacon, Root’s foundational cross-functional design system, and established the governance and adoption model that guided the organization.

Accomplishments

  • Defined the overall strategy, architecture, and governance model
  • Oversaw design token frameworks, component standards, and contribution processes in partnership with Engineering and Product leadership
  • Directed a design systems designer while aligning cross-functional stakeholders on priorities, decision-making, and long-term system direction
  • Led the migration strategy from legacy component libraries (including MUI) to a unified token-based system in Figma and code
  • Managed the training, documentation, and support structures to drive team adoption and sustainable contribution

Results

  • Created a shared design language that significantly improved visual and interaction consistency across Root’s web and native products
  • Reduced design-to-development friction through standardized tokens, clear governance, and improved handoff processes
  • Increased component reuse and reduced duplication of effort across product teams
  • Established a scalable foundation with clear ownership and contribution models that enabled the organization to maintain and evolve the system over time

Design Excellence

DesignOps Foundations

  • UX Team Charter
    Led the creation of a one-page UX Team Charter through cross-team workshops, defining mission, values, design principles, and clear behavioral expectations.
  • Design Scrum Framework
    Proposed and implemented a tailored Scrum process for the design team, including Jira adoption, sprint ceremonies, story point estimation, and retrospectives.
  • Figma Standards & Templates
    Modernized Figma templates, file structure, and component usage guidelines to improve consistency and design-to-development handoff speed.
  • Design Quality Framework
    Collaborated with the design leadership team to define a 6-dimension Quality Framework now used in design reviews to raise the bar on strategic thinking, craft, and cross-functional alignment

Accomplishments

  • Design Scrum adopted across the team, resulting in ~180 committed story points across initial sprints and significantly improved workload visibility for leadership.
  • Stood up a shared Jira board that replaced manual status updates with real-time progress tracking and better sprint predictability.
  • Established recurring DesignOps rituals (monthly team meetings, retrospectives, and working groups) that reduced ad-hoc requests and increased time spent on deep, meaningful work.
  • Ratified the UX Team Charter with full team sign-off, creating a quarterly review cadence and shared accountability for team standards.
  • Built sustainable DesignOps practices that improved process clarity, cross-functional alignment, and the team’s ability to deliver high-quality work at scale.

Notable Hands-on Tools Utalized

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