# Loretta Widen > Design director at Turo Location: Pleasant Hill, California, United States Profile: https://flows.cv/lorettawiden Principal Product Designer with 15+ years of experience driving high-impact work across complex systems, marketplaces, and user journeys. 
 I excel at bridging strategy and execution—aligning cross-functional teams, uncovering user needs, and delivering scalable solutions that move key business metrics. Recognized for leading vision work, mentoring designers, and shaping product direction across orgs. Whether mapping information architecture, optimizing marketplace incentives, or defining multi-year strategy, I bring a sharp focus on clarity, craft, and measurable impact. ## Work Experience ### Director of Product Design @ Turo Jan 2026 – Present | San Francisco Bay Area As Director of guest trip experience, I lead two designers in building confidence building and convenient trip experiences, which extends into moments when the guest needs customer support. In 2026 I have supported my designers in implementing a new strategy making AI the front door to all support contacts, and building new entry points into the product. ### Principal Product Designer @ Turo Jan 2023 – Present | San Francisco Bay Area As I lean into the principal role, I am focusing more of my attention on identifying new company problems and driving solutions. I still execute my own design work, but
I also consult on many projects from other teams, helping guide the beginning of the project, and helping designers generate divergent concepts and and converge on the best solution that aligns with user and company goals. KEY CONTRIBUTIONS: Most recently, I was placed temporarily on our brand new traffic team, and was asked to set the foundations for that team and hire and manage the permanent senior level designer for that team. I successfully onboarded a new senior designer, her boss, and their Product manager, handed off several ideas to include in their first roadmap, and teed up a first test that increased conversion by 10.3% and improved ROAS (return on Ad spend) for SEM landing pages by 12%. I then transitioned back into host where I spent my time contributing to a new airport leadership strategy team. ### Lead Product Designer @ Turo Jan 2019 – Jan 2023 | San Francisco Bay Area My focus as a lead was to lean into mentoring, and acting as a force multiplier to the team. This showed up as me taking on extra work, leading vision projects, acting as the connective tissue between teams, and championing our design process.

 KEY CONTRIBUTIONS: 
Improving host & Vehicle Quality: • Implemented the granular ratings capture flow for guests to give more specific feedback on what was great and what wasn't so great. • Launched a simplified and improved maintenance and safety flow to require all vehicles go through annual inspections 
Pricing: • Researched and designed pricing insights to help hosts price better to match demand • Built a fleet-level calendar that enabled hosts to set prices and availability across their cars in one view 
 

 Information architecture vision project: • Spent 2+ years leading a vision for splitting the app into two sides (modes) that are better optimized for host and guest. Shipped host mode and guest mode navigation in 2022. Mentoring & Leadership • Helped interview & onboard 13+ designers • Mentored designers through weekly 1:1s • Acted as a resource and go-to for historical knowledge and advice on working with x-functional partners • Lead an offsite for women designers ### Senior Product Designer @ Turo Jan 2016 – Jan 2019 | San Francsico During my tenure at Turo, I have collaborated with Product managers, engineers, research leads, and executive stakeholders to bring thoughtful user-centered solutions to metrics-driven problems.

As a senior designer, I stepped into a small and scrappy team with big talent and huge goals. We worked fast, went with our gut, and stayed flexible as we shifted priorities quickly. As a senior, I focused on executing sophisticated designs to complex company and user problems. KEY CONTRIBUTIONS:

 Pricing: • Simplified pricing settings for hosts and increased adoption of Turo's Automatic Pricing model (2018) • Improved display of discounts for guests (2018) • Created a north star vision for pricing transparency in the booking flow, which ultimately influenced other designers to execute on my ideas. Launched Turo Go: • The Host team launched a feature that allows hosts and guests to lock and unlock the car from the app, taking all the friction out of handoff. I worked on the Host view of the Turo go controls as well as a vital on boarding experience that set hosts up for success. Improved Host quality: • developed the All-Star host program, that incentivizes hosts to provide 5-star experiences to all guests. • Created a warning messaging system when host performance hit a bottom quality threshold and developed thoughtful banning rules to ensure hosts have a chance to improve. 
Mentoring & Leadership • Developed the first designer on-boarding docs


Messaging Vision project • Lead a team of four through a vision exercise on the vision of our messaging features. ### Senior UX/UI Designer @ BabyCenter Jan 2014 – Jan 2016 | San Francisco Bay Area At Babycenter I worked on the mobile team, designing features for native IOS and Android pregnancy apps that help women all over the world learn more about how to have safe pregnancies and care for their babies after birth. KEY CONTRIBUTIONS AND GOALS Grow Engagement in the apps • Designed useful tools for users - Contraction timer tool - Birth Preferences tool - "Is it safe?" tool - Baby Feeding Guide - Baby memories tool • Increase User LTV (Life time value) - Increased the life span of users by combining the pregnancy and baby apps - Collaborated with the Art Director on modernizing the look and feel of the app - Re-designed the tools tab and implemented a new visual iconography into the app - Defined the transition from pregnancy to parent experience user flow in the app - Improved the multiple children experience by designing a useful "my profile" that showcases all child profiles and allows the user to choose which profiles they want to see content for. • Contributibuted to the brand with delightful illustrations - Illustrated Bumpie photo stickers - Illustrated Baby memories photo stickers - Illustrated delightful milestone badges • Increased engagement in the community forums - Improved the community milestone badge conversion with a new opt-in flow - Re-designed the UX and UI of the community in-app experience implemented with react native ### UX Designer @ Coco App Jan 2014 – Jan 2014 As the second designer at an early-stage chat app startup, I partnered closely with the lead designer and cross-functional stakeholders to support product development and feature growth in a fast-paced, resource-light environment. - Designed end-to-end UX/UI for core app features, from concept through implementation - Created and refined user flows to support evolving product requirements - Produced developer-ready specs to streamline handoff and accelerate build cycles - Collaborated on ideation and prototyping of new feature concepts - Designed marketing assets and in-app promos to support feature launches and user acquisition ### Visual Designer @ Sears Holdings Corporation Jan 2012 – Jan 2014 | Chicago Worked within SearsStyle, a brand and content initiative focused on increasing brand relevance among younger female shoppers. Collaborated with marketing, editorial, and design leads to elevate the fashion identity of Sears across digital and campaign channels. - Developed mood boards, design concepts, and visual assets for the SearsStyle weekly editorial series and SearsStyle 2.0 fashion blog redesign - Art directed and produced original fashion photography to support seasonal content and product storytelling - Designed and tested a new email template for the Kardashian Kollection, aligning brand tone with mobile-friendly performance goals - Conducted and compiled a competitive analysis of retail e-commerce experiences to inform internal UX and content strategy decisions ### Visual Designer @ GA Communication Jan 2012 – Jan 2012 | Chicago, Il Designed a few large Web Campaigns for one of GA Communication's clients in the medical industry. ### Designer @ Charlotte Russe Jan 2012 – Jan 2012 | San Francisco Designed weekly marketing emails and homepage promotions to support product launches and seasonal campaigns Collaborated with senior designers to develop in-store signage and visual merchandising concepts, including window displays Partnered with the Creative Director to create the 2012 Brand Color Styleguide, establishing cohesive visual standards across digital and physical channels ### Associate Volunteer Coordinator @ AIGA San Francisco Jan 2011 – Jan 2012 | San Francisco Volunteered as a student liason with AIGA-SF. I attended board meetings, helped promote AIGA memberships to students, and assisted the volunteer coordinator during events. After graduation, I became the Associate Volunteer Coordinator. I helped set up and manage the volunteers during events. ### Graphic Designer @ Benefit Cosmetics Jan 2011 – Jan 2011 | San Francisco Worked as a print designer in the Creative Services department Carried out production for: POP displays In-store signage Event banners Concepted and Designed: A company curated cook book Print collateral for new product launches and special events. A 30 second Animation for a product release event Worked closely with project manager and printing vendors ### Jr. Designer @ Sephora Jan 2011 – Jan 2011 | San Francisco Production artist for the digital marketing team. Designed beauty deals and promotions on the sephora website. Designed graphics and ads for the Sephora facebook page. ### Freelance Designer @ TreeRing Jan 2010 – Jan 2011 | San Francisco I created backgrounds for their online year book templates. Template styles ranged from painterly backgrounds to sketchy note book doodles. I also designed icons for the site. ### Tutor @ The Art Institute of California - San Francisco Jan 2010 – Jan 2010 I served as an in class tutor for beginning photoshop as well as outside one on one tutor for Photoshop, indesign, or illustrator. ### Peer Mentor for Graphic Design @ The Art Institute of California - San Francisco Jan 2010 – Jan 2010 • Orient new students to the school • Mentor continuing students on issues related to academics and campus services • Plan and implement school events ### Graphic Design Intern @ theBalm Cosmetics Jan 2010 – Jan 2010 As the design intern, I did a lot of technical jobs such as taking product shots, editing photos, optimizing images for web, updating the website, making press sheets as well as researching and concepting for new products. ## Education ### Bachelor of Science in Graphic Design Art Institute of California - San Francisco ### General Education in General Education Courses San Francisco State University ## Contact & Social - LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/lorettarobinson - Portfolio: http://www.lorettamaydesign.com - Portfolio: http://www.creatively-daring.com - Portfolio: https://www.facebook.com/creativelydaring/ --- Source: https://flows.cv/lorettawiden JSON Resume: https://flows.cv/lorettawiden/resume.json Last updated: 2026-04-13