I’m a people-oriented product design leader with 13+ years of experience building, coaching and leading top design teams across four continents (Asia, EU, North America, and Australia). My unique leadership experience is enriched by background in video games design and founded my startup early in my career.
Focus: Human-centric design for AI/ML, Product strategy & design leadership, and DesignOps.
Language spoken: English (Native), French, Mandarin
Experience
Breville | Sage • Sydney, Australia
AI Product Strategy Lead | Former Global Head of UX
2018 - Present
As Breville's first dedicated AI/ML Product Leader, I drive strategic initiatives that enhance product performance and optimise user experiences through AI-driven innovation. I work across Breville's global portfolio, including Sage, ChefSteps, Beanz, and Breville Commercial (formerly Polyscience), delivering data-informed solutions to improve customer value. Previously, I led and scaled global digital design teams across Sydney, Seattle, and London, focusing on New Product Development (NPD), Direct-to-Consumer strategies, and mobile app (Breville+), serving consumers in over 74 countries.
Some XFT leadership contribution and impact since joined Breville that goes above and beyond my role:
Drove the design strategy to build Breville CoffeeOS (utilising AI/ML) for our next-gen Automatic espresso lineups and provided coffee aficionados with direct access to Beanz Marketplace, thus offering a 360º connected coffee ecosystem.
Successfully launched Breville’s 1st smart product for domestic consumers (Joule App + Breville Joule Oven) and commercial kitchen users (HydroPro SousVide and its companion Data Logging App)
Drove the UX strategy to launch the MVP for Beanz.com (Breville coffee marketplace) for the US market in less than 180 days during the height of COVID-19 — generating nearly a quarter of a million dollars in revenue in the first 90 days since launch.
Fasten Breville product development by up to 40% by building a unified Design System, allowing faster launch to market and scalable workflow while minimising wasted efforts.
Reduced employees turnover by leading the strategic initiative to develop and launched Career Development Path in less than eight months (deployed on Cornerstone Platform) — Increased work satisfaction rating in Global Product Division from an average of 6.5 to 7.9 scale (OfficeVibe survey)
As part of this initiative, I assisted in piloting an internal leadership program for first-time managers
Led the experience design to build Breville Coffee Journey Hub — allowing our US-based consumers to get better at brewing cafe-quality coffee at home, thus reducing product returns due lack of knowledge about coffee.
Improved company-wide collaboration and access to information by championing transparency through digital platform adoption; Atlassian product suites, Trello, Slack, Miro.
200% adoption rate for Confluence as a documentation hub, from less than 10 users to 200+ active users in the first 60-days since the rollout
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Boomworks • Sydney, Australia
Head of Experience Design
2014 - 2018
Led the strategic effort to create a new revenue source for the agency by developing its own product (utilising NLP engine to build proprietary LLM for various commercial and government clients)
Scaled the UX Dept. from 3 to 12 incl. leads, senior ICs; expanded the agency service competency to include Chatbot and VR design
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Atlassian • Sydney, Australia
Senior UX Designer, Cross-Platform
2013 - 2014
Streamlined the purchase XP across Confluence, Jira, and Bitbucket by designing flow that allows users to sign-up and use the product in under 3-minutes
Simplified the billing experience by improving the front-end UX through better information hierarchy and call-to-actions
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frog Design • Munich, Germany
Asc. Creative Director
2012 - 2013
Led UX strategy for Reliance Gio’s First-use Experience across mobile, desktop, TV; deployed on India’s 1st 4G network
Launched Vocalink’s Zapp Payment App across the UK in less than 18- months by applying the Lean Startup approach
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Trigger XR • Shanghai, China + Los Angeles, USA
VP, Creative Director
2007 - 2012
Scaled Trigger China from 8 to 50+ people in less than 18 months. Under my leadership, the Shanghai office was the best- performed studio in the network with less than 2% turnover rate
Drove strategic partnership with Apple, Disneyland (Magic Band), Lego, & Nike by starting Trigger’s first Rapid Innovation division
Executed six movie campaigns (including games) in collaboration with various Hollywood studios, accounting for US$500b in global revenue with three #1 domestic (US) release :District 9, Amazing Spider-Man, Wolverine, Toy Story 3, Tintin
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Various Startups • Tokyo | Shanghai | Sydney
Founder, Head of Design, Game Designer
2023 - present
Co-founder at sörzero, a Sydney-based biotech startup on a mission to redefine the energy-intensive brewing industry and transforming it into a sustainable and circular ecosystem. #BioBrew360
We crafted sörzero’s recipe from the molecule up, and we went from lab to market in under 150 days; industry avg. is two years. sörzero was profitable in the first 120 days since launched to market Australia-wide in July 2023.
2006 - 2016
Design Sans Frontiers (Video Game) - Paris | Shanghai
Bootstrapped Design Sans Frontieres (video game); acquired by Trigger XR after 20-months in operation
Gamewheel (formerly Toywheel) - Berlin
Led Gamewheel pivot, and raised half a million Euros via Seedcamp Europe 2015
Academia
University of New South Wales, Australia | Adjunct Associate Lecturer • 2023 - Present
School of Biotechnology & Biomolecular Sciences, Faculty of Science
Recent Education & Certifications
Entrepreneurial Studies (Stanford Graduate School of Business) - 2024
AI Product Management (Duke University, Pratt School of Engineering) - 2023
AI for Everyone (DeepLearning.ai) - 2023
Fellow at the RSA (Royal Society of Arts, Manufacturers, and Commerce) - 2022
MBA Creative Leadership (Steinbeis Hocschule, Germany) - 2018
Global scholarship winner in 2012
Master Thesis Title:
Das Aufkommen von KI-gesteuerten Anwendungen im Computerdesign bei denen Maschinenalgorithmen Erfolg beim Entwerfen für Erfahrung haben und die Rolle menschlicher Designer. — AI-Driven Algorithms in Experience Design
Environment Science (Macquarie University, Sydney) - 2016
Focus: Climate Change
B.A. Science, Technology, and Society (Stanford University, USA)
School of Humanities and Science (Focus: HCI)
Continuing Graduate Study: Creative Writing
Advocacy
Fellow at the RSA (The Royal Society for Arts, Manufactures and Commerce)
2022 - Present
The RSA is a unique global network of change-makers enabling people, places and the planet to flourish.
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ADP List • Global
2022 - Present
Coach and mentor emerging and future designers and design leaders at various stage in their career.
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UNSW Entrepreneurship • Sydney, Australia
2021 - Present
Volunteer Mentor for the Startup program at UNSW with focus on coaching teams to develop MVPs, getting them from Zero to One.
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IxDA• Sydney, Australia
2016 - Present
Regular mentor and coach for UX Designers at various stage in their career, from ICs to senior leadership.
Find me on LinkedIn, or drop me an email at vnsavitri@protonmail.ch.