Creating a Talent Pipeline and Elevating Industry Standards
Company: Conta Azul | Role: Product Design Manager and Programme Leader | Year: 2018
Conta Azul, a major fintech and the top CRM for small and medium-sized businesses in Brazil, faced challenges with recruiting talented and capable design professionals that met their company standards. As a result, they struggled to find individuals who were able to provide high-quality user experience design for their software products. The lack of skilled designers caused delays in product development and hindered the company's ability to compete in the market.
To address this problem, we created Lumos, a Design School by Conta Azul for people who were starting or wanted to start working in user experience. The school was free, and as one of the creators of this school, I was responsible for establishing the course content, structure, and selecting the teachers. The course was comprised of several modules that covered different aspects of user experience, such as user research, interaction design, and usability testing. The modules were taught by experienced
professionals from Conta Azul and other companies in the market who were recognized for their expertise.
The course was divided into three stages.The first stage was focused to level the basic knowledge about Design, develop skills on problem understanding and synthesis.
In the second stage, we developed abductive thinking (one that is provided with freedom), so that from what was previously collected we can identify opportunities and bring a hypothesis solution to the problem. And the third stage, was the moment to bring ideas to life, to leave the conceptual and transform the project into something real, like developing a high fidelity prototype of a solution and test it with users.
Over 300 individuals applied for the program, and we selected 20 participants based on their skill level, motivation, and passion for design. The program's graduates gained valuable experience and knowledge, which
they applied to their professional careers.
Of the 20 design professionals we formed, four of them were hired by Conta Azul. The school became a benchmark for the recruitment process, and the certificate awarded by the school became highly valued by other companies in the market.
Lumos proved to be a very good solution to the company's recruitment challenges. The school provided a rigorous training program for individuals who wanted to pursue a career in user experience design, which helped to improve the quality of the design talent pool in Brazil. The recruited professionals had a formidable carrer at Conta Azul, while also reducing costs at hunting talented designers in the market.
Students on their first day
Opening class
Teaching staff
Graduation day
Leadership team and course staff