ANA DIEZ
EXPERIENCE
My journey
My career began with a passion for creating thoughtful, user-centered experiences and a curiosity for understanding how design can solve real problems. Over the past 25 years, that passion has evolved from designing digital experiences to leading and building high-performing teams that shape products, processes, and organizational strategy. Along the way, I've learned that great design is never just about the final product—it's about empowering people, bringing diverse perspectives together, and creating solutions that make a meaningful impact for both customers and businesses.
What I do
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Build and transform UX organizations
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Create scalable design practices
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Foster high-performing teams
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Drive digital transformation
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Lead AI adoption
How I do it
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People first
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Lead with empathy
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Simplify complexity
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Build together
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Experiment and learn
CURRENT ROLE
TRAVEL AND LEISURE, CO.
Director of User Experience, Product Design and AI Transformation
September 2024 - Present
People
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Lead and evolve the UX organization by aligning people, processes, and strategy to deliver impactful experiences and business outcomes.
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Create a culture where creativity, trust, joy, and collaboration come naturally—making it easy for ideas to grow and for teams to thrive together.
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Encourage an inclusive, open environment that makes space for different perspectives and work styles.
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Inspire, lead, and engage the team by providing mentorship through constructive feedback and guidance, fostering design excellence in every aspect of our work.
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Build the career development strategy, flow, and resources to support managers and designers grow and succeed.
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Keep the team engaged by providing strategic clarity, direction and focus while identifying and unblocking barriers to success.
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Introduce user-centered methodologies, frameworks and thought leadership to help the team facilitate strategic alignment across the organization.
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Manage the team’s annual budget, including operational and capital allocations, and oversee the procurement of design tools to maximize efficiency.
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Team up with Product, Engineering, and business stakeholders to align business goals with product roadmaps, while making sure broader company initiatives come together in a way that feels connected and collaborative.
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Foster strong cross-functional collaboration by translating complex ideas—from technical constraints to data insights—into clear, compelling narratives.
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Collaborate with Product and Engineering to define strategic priorities and craft OKRs that drive alignment, focus, and measurable impact.
Experiences
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Lead multiple complex B2B and B2C large scale cross-platform design initiatives from concept to launch, setting and achieving key success metrics.
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Experience designing for AI-native or AI-augmented products, with an understanding of the unique UX challenges they present.
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Oversee the creation, implementation and governance of the design system, ensuring alignment, accessibility, and consistency across brands.
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Drive user research to foster understanding and empathy for user needs by guiding the definition, planning, execution, and synthesis of qualitative and quantitative research.
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Map out user journeys, create personas, and break down tasks to shape the experience strategy.
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Focus on understanding users, challenging assumptions, and coming up with creative solutions through design thinking.
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Ensure our products and features are valuable for our members, easy to use, and of the highest level of craft and execution.
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Advocate for design’s impact on business success through data-driven storytelling. ​​
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Champion accessibility and inclusive design, ensuring compliance with WCAG standards.
Innovation
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Embody a growth mindset and a deep curiosity for the business, emerging technologies and human behavior to identify product opportunities.
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Contribute to strategic decisions around the future direction of our products, establishing a long-term vision while ensuring near-term product features ladder up to a holistic user experience that delivers on the user’s needs and business goals.
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Lead product direction and strategic thinking by articulating a product vision, and goals, identifying opportunities, and making decisions based on the impact on people and the company.
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Build an AI-first learning culture by promoting continuous experimentation, professional development, and responsible adoption of emerging AI technologies, preparing teams to lead the future of product design and user experience.
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Accelerate design iteration and prototyping through championing AI tools that streamline repetitive tasks, generate design suggestions, assist in wireframing and create functional prototypes from sketches, freeing up designers for complex, creative problem-solving.
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Automate UX Research and Data Analysis by directing the use of AI to analyze vast amounts of user interaction data, synthesize qualitative research, perform sentiment analysis, and identify patterns and insights that would be time-consuming for associates to do manually.
AREAS OF EXPERTISE
Education
ART INSTITUTE
Bachelor of Science in Multimedia and Web Design
Fort Lauderdale, FL
MARIAN COURT COLLEGE
Associate of Science in Travel, Tourism and Hotel Management
Swampscott, MA
CELA
Technical Degree in Advertising and Marketing
Mexico
Training
COURSES
An Introduction to Accessibility and Inclusive Design
University of Illinois
Human Computer Interaction
Stanford University
Inspiring Leadership Through Emotional Intelligence
Case Western Reserve University
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Situational Leadership
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Coach and Develop Others
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Accelerate Team Productivity
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Emotional Intelligence
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Design Thinking
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Agile and Scrum for Teams
CONFERENCES
Neuro Leadership
Neuro Leadership Institute
Content Strategy
CONFAB
Unleashed UX+DEV Summit
Digital Growth
Conversion Rate Optimization
Site Tuners​
Skills
PEOPLE
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Mentoring and coaching
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Emotional intelligence
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Leading by example
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Design Operations
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Budget planning
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Collaboration
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Networking
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Negotiation and conflict resolution
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Communication and presentation
EXPERIENCE
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Business strategy
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UX strategy
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Content strategy
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User experience
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User research
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Information architecture
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Wireframing and prototyping
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Design Thinking
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User centric design
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Content and mobile-first approach
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Brand and corporate identity
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Design systems
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Product design
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Accessibility
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Conversion and optimization
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A/B testing
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Personalization
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Agile and Scrum
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Digital governance
INNOVATION
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AI integration, adoption and governance
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AI-enabled prototyping
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AI-assisted research
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AI-assisted ideation
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AI-supported content creation
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AI-powered workflows
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Prompt engineering
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AI experimentation
CONTACT
Creating with purpose
I'd love to connect with leaders, organizations, and teams looking to build exceptional digital experiences, empower people, and drive innovation through AI.
