# Frances Liddell-Rodriguez > Principal Product Designer • Design Systems, Internal Tools & Design Strategy Location: San Francisco, California, United States Profile: https://flows.cv/francesliddellrodriguez Principal Product Designer with 10+ years of experience driving mobile and web products and scaling design systems at Meta, Twitter, and beyond. I bring clarity, structure, and empathy to teams—balancing big-picture strategy with attention to detail, grounding decisions in data and user feedback, and ensuring projects move forward with clear direction and impact. Known for direct, thoughtful feedback and collaborative leadership, I strengthen both products and team culture. ## Work Experience ### Principal Product Designer @ Zscaler Jan 2026 – Present | San Francisco Bay Area Driving the evolution of Zscaler’s design systems to enable scalable, consistent, and accessible experiences across enterprise products. I define reusable components, patterns, and documentation in partnership with product and engineering, ensuring alignment with technical architecture and business goals. I steer cross-team adoption through mentorship, collaboration, and continuous system improvement. ### Lead Product Designer — Design Systems @ Meta Jan 2024 – Jan 2025 | San Francisco, California, United States Leading the application of Meta's business design system with emphasis on system effectiveness and quality, I defined strategies to enhance the system, evolving patterns and documentation with changing user needs and technology. Responsibilities: • Inform team roadmap through strategies that align design and product priorities. • Establish governance, principles, and frameworks to accelerate design system team velocity and make it easier to use, maintain, and contribute towards. • Guide system evolutions through short and long-term engagements with feature teams. • Lead system-wide initiatives across Geodesic to enhance clarity, consistency, and impact. • Develop scalable adoption and rollout strategies to ensure smooth transitions during major updates. • Leverage qual/quant data to inform decisions and continuous refinement. • An authoritative voice for guidance through 1:1s, support channels and office hours. • Alignment and shared ownership through cross-functional collaborations. • Share strategy, progress and impact to leaders through proposals, product requirement docs, presentations. Outcomes: • Launched a unified design system health tracker and cross-team audit model, identifying major discrepancies, and strategizing a 10% reduction in parity gaps by targeting high-use components. • Led collaborative engineering and design efforts to optimize component search with 100% keyword coverage across Figma and Geodesic website; automated a 6-12 hour manual process to 45 seconds (~99% efficiency gain). • Rebuilt Geodesic Design System site IA simplifying navigation and improving discoverability, projecting a 10-20% boost in usability, contribution, and efficiency. • Standardized documentation practices by establishing playbooks, principles, and templates, reducing inconsistencies and support escalations while accelerating adoption of design system standards across documentation platforms. ### Lead Product Designer — Design Systems (Platform UX) @ Lacework Jan 2023 – Jan 2024 | Mountain View, California, United States Acquired by Fortinet in Aug 2024 – As UX Lead, I drove initiatives to ensure system maturity and scalability. I designed efficient tokens and components with comprehensive documentation, guided feature teams towards best practices, and identified opportunities to enhance their understanding of design systems. Responsibilities: • Defined the product vision for the Trellis Design System and aligned with the Sr. Design Manager on the prioritization of feature team needs. • Evaluated site-wide heuristics (accessibility, usability), measured effectiveness of design system and processes. • Developed success metrics, goals and initiatives that were captured on roadmap and aligned with company OKRs. • Drove strategies for adopting system updates and processes to increase team velocity. • Secured stakeholder buy-in and collaborated with product, engineering, and design on pattern implementation, ongoing work and planning. • Organized and facilitated UX design reviews and design system office hours. • Defined visual design language during the product redesign and managed transitions between libraries. • Designed flexible components, considering complex use cases, accessibility, and responsiveness. • Wrote documentation, composed specs and guidelines • Partnered with Trellis Eng Lead to bridge the gap between the React and Figma libraries. • Communicated design system updates, planned team workshops to enhance internal knowledge. Outcomes: • Partnered with engineering to introduce keyboard accessibility to Lacework UI, achieving ~70% coverage across all pages. • Achieved 89% compliance rate with level AA WCAG across product. • Led the migration to a new component library, reaching 94% compliance. • Implemented the component contribution process, reducing design debt by 62% and ensuring consistent use of design system office hours. • Library management initiatives resulted in a 4.5/5.0 rating for component ease of use and a 5.0/5.0 rating for documentation helpfulness. ### Senior Product Designer — Internal Tools (Redbird) @ Twitter Jan 2021 – Jan 2023 | San Francisco, California, United States Acquired by Elon Musk in Nov 2023 — As UX Design Lead for Revenue Productivity and Observability Experience teams, I enhanced internal user experiences, influenced product roadmaps, and streamlined internal processes. Collaborating closely with PMs, engineers, and executive stakeholders, I planned, designed, tested, and shipped research-driven solutions. Responsibilities: • Drove internal processes to enhance collaboration and knowledge sharing, such as bi-weekly UX + Observability Experience leadership meetings, monthly design + engineering reviews, working sessions, and 1:1s with product and engineering teams. • Conducted user interviews and audits to identify opportunities for improvements. • Refined requirements through iterative design and user validation processes. • Developed user studies, reporting results to cross-functional partners. • Established design thinking workshops to foster innovation. • Engaged weekly with the Feather Design Systems Core Team to discuss guidelines, propose solutions, and contribute to the development of internal tool components. • Promoted the adoption of the Feather Design System within Observability Experience and Revenue Productivity through proof of concept proposals and driving system integration. • Collaborated with the Accessibility Team as a "Nightingale Designer" to provide design support for accessibility initiatives. • Assisted with team member onboarding and participated as an interviewer in hiring processes. Outcomes: • Reduced time to create alerts by 99.8% (from 7 days to 5 mins) and increased feature adoption by 15% with launch of new alerting dashboard • 55% increased Observability Eng team velocity • Achieved level AA WCAG compliance across most components. • 100% of new features planned or built using the new design system. • 90% of components migrated to the design system. ### Lead Product Designer — Customer Adoption Platform @ New Relic, Inc. Jan 2019 – Jan 2021 | San Francisco, California Drove e-commerce UX that enabled customers to navigate subscriptions, plans, and pricing, empowering them to select, purchase, and manage their plans effectively while helping them understand how system usage impacts plan costs. Responsibilities: • Drove every step of the design process from kick-off thru launch with an emphasis on user-centric experiences. • Developed user testing plans, conducted customer calls, moderated usability tests and synthesized research findings. • Conducted accessibility and usability assessments, identified gaps in user experience and created new components or variations of existing components to support e-commerce use cases. • Close collaboration with engineering to ensure the quality of shipped product. • Worked with product on success metrics, refined requirements as we learned new information from user data and aligned on job stories and wire framing solutions to test. • Regularly met with various key stakeholders throughout the process of moving from the subscription-based pricing model to usage based pricing model. • Coordinated with contractors on the execution of design and refinements to hi-fidelity mocks. • As part of internal design mentorship initiative, I worked with the mentee to establish expectations of the sessions (measurable goals, meeting cadence, etc.), identified mentee's strengths and growth areas • Critiqued design work, noting progress and areas needing improvement. • Gave guidance for managing conflict and getting buy-in with cross functional partners Outcomes: • Achieved a significant improvement in ease of use, with a user rating of 4.25 out of 5 for the new design compared to 2.25 for the previous UI. • Boosted task completion rates by over 25% compared to the existing interface. • Earned unanimous preference from all study participants over the current UI. Notable Work: • Subscriptions & Plan Management UX • Cart & Checkout UX • Plan Cost and Usage UX ### Senior Product Designer — Cloud Security @ Cisco Jan 2017 – Jan 2019 | San Francisco, California Designed experiences for Cisco Umbrella that empower network and security administrators with tools to efficiently manage and maintain secure systems for their organizations in the cloud. Additionally, I played a key role in redesigning the Umbrella Design System (UDS). Responsibilities: • Developed user experiences for the Cloud-delivered Firewall and Tunnel Management UX, leveraging user research, iterative mockups, and prototype testing. • Facilitated workshops, user studies, customer calls, and synthesized qualitative data to inform design decisions. • Established processes and checkpoints between engineering, design, and product teams, including 1:1s, hand-offs, and pixel reviews. • Built trust with the software engineering team, enhancing their collaboration with design. • A design lead for the Umbrella Design System (UDS), directing and mentoring other designers, organizing critiques, check-ins, and delegating work. • Organized design system workshops, conducted audits, updated components, composed UX guidelines, and maintained the UDS website on Frontify. • Created and managed a quarterly engagement and satisfaction survey, implemented Google Analytics for the UDS website, and tracked projects via JIRA. • Established regular retrospectives, planning meetings, and sync-ups within the design system team. • Coordinated onsite Frontify product demos, released UDS monthly notes, managed UDS WebEx Teams chatrooms, and developed new hire onboarding materials. • Collaborated bi-monthly with other design system leads within the Security Business Group to standardize patterns and components across platforms. Outcomes: • Achieved 100% design system adoption by feature teams within the first year of redesign. • Increased frontend development contributions to the library by over 23%. • The design system website was referenced on average twice per week. • Feature teams reported a 4 out of 5 overall satisfaction rating. ### Senior Product Designer — eCommerce @ BigCommerce Jan 2015 – Jan 2017 | San Francisco, California I developed intuitive interaction and visual design that empower customers to create online stores on a robust, feature-rich e-commerce platform. Responsibilities: • Managed multiple focus areas, including channel and product listing management, payments, checkout, promotions, shipping, order management, and conversion rate optimization. • Shaped the user experience through an iterative design process, informed by user research and business insights, and refined through collaborative critiques with design peers. • Conducted user studies, gathered feedback through customer calls, and synthesized data from usability studies into actionable insights. • Collaborated closely with a distributed team of product managers and software engineers in brainstorming sessions, weekly 1:1s, and workshops. • Mentored students through partnerships with BigCommerce and General Assembly. Outcomes: Designed a new discounting structure that achieved 100% task success rates for creating BOGO discounts and a 91% overall net promoter score among study participants. ### Product Designer — Mobile @ Workday Jan 2012 – Jan 2015 | San Francisco, California Created engaging, user-centered designs that allows workers to easily manage day-to-day business processes (human resources, finance and analytics) from their tablet or mobile phone. Responsibilities: • Multitasker on numerous projects on Workday Mobile and responsive web experiences for Workday Careers • Applied a "mobile first approach" to my design work that led to seamlessly consistent experience as users move from phone to tablet. • Defined interactive mobile workflows through adherence to standards set by the mobile design system, proposing new components as necessary. • Supported the mobile redesign effort by developing design proposals, icons and design system components. • Used a combination of storyboarding and animation techniques to communicate how components and screens would animate. Worked with iOS developers to fine tune and polish animations and make sure that they didn't negatively impact performance and load times. • Worked with Android developers on refining Workday Mobile for Android users. • Open collaboration with a team of product designers, design researchers, developers and product managers to achieve goals while maintaining the highest standards in product design. • Acted as Interim Product Design Manager for Workday Mobile while the formal Product Design Manager was on an extended leave. This was a crucial period in the mobile redesign project that depended on the team to provide iOS developers with complete sets of redesigned workflows. • Worked with the product manager to identify tasks • Held sessions with the junior designers to ensure that tasks were on-track and that the deadline was met. Notable Works: • Mobile Recruiting • Mobile Worker Profile • Mobile Student • Mobile Notebooks • Mobile Directory • Mobile Employee Reviews • Mobile Calendar ### Graphic Designer/Artist @ Crystal Dynamics Jan 2012 – Jan 2012 | Redwood City, California Provided designs and developed concepts for packaging, print promotions and web banners, graphic print tee shirts, and other materials for the release of the award-winning Tomb Raider video game. Collaborated with the Sr. Brand Producer and Sr. Art Director to ensure adherence to brand guidelines and consistency of look/feel. ### Graphic Designer @ Ustream, an IBM company Jan 2012 – Jan 2012 | San Francisco, California Developed concepts for various web visuals such as ads, banners and promos and assisted in web production. ### Graphic Designer @ Duarte, Inc. Jan 2011 – Jan 2012 | Mountain View, California A lead designer or support role on a team to design logos, icons, information graphics, presentations / keynotes, web design (UX/UI), and storyboards for motion graphics. This role required that the designer participate in brainstorming sessions and develop visual concepts to accompany client narratives. Displayed the ability to present ideas and concepts to internal team as well as clients. Notable Works_ Duff Research, AlauMe ### Graphic Designer @ 1185 Jan 2011 – Jan 2011 | Palo Alto, California Provided designs and developed concepts for ad campaign, brochures, logo design and web design (UX/UI). This role required that the designer self-manage time between multiple assignments, active collaboration with fellow designers, art directors and creative director, face-to-face meetings with clients, the ability to present ideas and concepts and give and receive critique. Notable Works_ Sequent, Prologis, SuccessFactors, LaBaracca ### Graphic Designer @ Cohn & Wolfe Jan 2010 – Jan 2011 | San Francisco, California Provide design support for the sales/pr/marketing team. Majority of projects were marketing materials such as presentations and proposals. ### Directed Study Advisor @ Academy of Art University Jan 2010 – Jan 2010 | San Francisco, California One-on-one class for a graphic design student undergoing an MFA thesis project at the Academy of Art. ### Graphic Designer @ VIZ Media Jan 2008 – Jan 2010 | San Francisco, California Provided designs and developed concepts for logos, packaging, books and covers, promotions, and other materials under the direction of the Director of Product and the VP of Creative. Gathered research from and collaborated with other internal partners (editors, licensing coordinators, home video associates, marketing associates, etc.) to assure that creative objectives were in line with brand and licensor expectations. This role required that the designer self-manage time between multiple assignments, including time-sensitive materials. Organized and prepared files for printing and checked blue-lines for proper color, etc. Directed the work of freelance designers, touch-up artists, and colorists. Notable Works_ VIZ Media Product Catalog, What a Wonderful World, Pokemon DVD Box Sets, NihonGO ### ARC Tutor @ Academy of Art University Jan 2008 – Jan 2009 | San Francisco, California One-on-one assistance for graphic design students. ### Graphic Designer @ Gizmo Art Production, Inc. Jan 2006 – Jan 2008 | San Francisco, California Provided designs and developed concepts for proposals, presentations, signage, exhibition and trade show graphics and other materials under the direction of the Owner/President. Collaborated with other internal partners (draftsmen, marketing director, design contractors, etc.) to assure that creative objectives were in line with the client needs. Communication with clients and vendors. Organized and prepared files for printing and checked blue-lines for proper color, etc. Some light CADD work and rendering. Notable Works_ Gap Individuals Exhibition ### Senior Graphic Designer @ McElroy, Ward & Associates Jan 2001 – Jan 2003 | Jackson, Mississippi Provided designs and developed concepts for proposals, presentations, brochures, business system, advertisements and other materials under the direction of the Marketing Director and the Principal Architects. Organized and prepared files for printing. Gathered content from other internal partners for proposals. ### Graphic Design Intern @ City of Jackson, Mississippi Department of Human and Cultural Services Jan 1998 – Jan 2000 | Jackson, Mississippi Provided designs and developed concepts for ads, posters, brochures, rack cards and proposals under the direction of the internship supervisor. This role required that the designer self-manage time between multiple assignments. Organized and prepared files for printing. Award_ Mayoral Commendation for Graphic Design ## Education ### MFA in Graphic Design Academy of Art University ### Certificate in Mobile UX/UI Design San Francisco State University ### BA in Art, Graphic Design Jackson State University ## Contact & Social - LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/francesliddell - Portfolio: https://www.francesliddell.com --- Source: https://flows.cv/francesliddellrodriguez JSON Resume: https://flows.cv/francesliddellrodriguez/resume.json Last updated: 2026-04-13