Service Design

How I was the User All Along

How can someone without formal design education, industry connections, or access to typical tech pathways transition into UX and product roles—while managing full-time work, resource limitations, and leadership responsibilities?

Problem Statement

The traditional path into tech often assumes access: access to tools, mentors, portfolio-worthy projects, or even the time and money to explore.

But what happens when you're starting from a completely different world—retail, banking, warehouse ops—and still know you’re meant to make an impact in design?

I set out to answer this not only for myself, but for others who find themselves in the same gap.

Goal

To demonstrate how user-centered design principles can be applied to real-life, non-linear career pathways—especially for individuals navigating barriers to access, visibility, and opportunity in tech.

By framing my own journey as the “user,” this case study aims to:

Showcase how service design can improve career systems, not just products
Inspire alternative paths into UX and product strategy
Emphasize the role of collaboration, resource-seeking, and self-advocacy in navigating ambiguous spaces
Position lived experience as legitimate research and insight in design practice

Team

While the journey is mine, the wins were never mine alone.

I learned how to ask:

For mentorship (cold-emailing professionals I admired)
For tools (lobbying my Schneider manager for Figma access)
For feedback (from classmates, mentors, and stakeholders)
For guidance (“Who else should I talk to?” became my golden question)

This wasn’t just about gaining knowledge. It was about building a support network, a professional village. I was never afraid to say “I don’t know yet”—but I always followed it with “Can you help me figure it out?”

"I didn’t come from a design school or a network of mentors in the industry. I came from mixed media art, managing warehouses, and solving customer issues behind bank counters. What I did have was an eye for improvement and a heart for people.

I noticed broken systems before I knew what a “service blueprint” was. I created better ways to onboard coworkers before I knew what UX even stood for. What I needed was visibility, mentorship, and a roadmap into tech—something to transform my intuition into intentional design."

01. Research & Observations

Informal ethnographic insight:
While waitressing, managing at Amazon, and working in banking, I consistently:
- Created on-the-fly solutions for customers and coworkers
- Mentored or supported others based on empathy and people-first leadership
- Observed recurring user pain points (confusing processes, underserved communities, system inefficiencies)

Secondary research (from design literature, UX communities, case studies):
- 70% of new UX professionals transition from unrelated fields (source: NN/g)
- Diverse teams are 35% more likely to outperform non-diverse teams (McKinsey)
- Users trust systems more when they feel seen and supported (IDEO reports on inclusive design)

Self-analysis as user research:
I mapped my own career as a user journey:
- Pain points: Limited access, job burnout, lack of creative fulfillment
- Goals: Impactful work, creativity, better user experiences
- Actions: Took initiative (Guild program, networking, cold emails, portfolio building)

User Journey

This is not just a career timeline.
It’s a service blueprint of what it’s like to design your way through invisible systems—with empathy, feedback loops, and the courage to ask for help.

Stage	Actions	Pain Points	Needs	Opportunities
Artist	Creating art based on identity & emotion	Limited income, isolation from tech pathways	Creative outlet, stability	Portfolio creation, community
Amazon Leader	Managing operations in a warehouse	Lack of empathy in leadership	Better culture, impact	Human-centered leadership
Banker at JPMC	Supporting clients, streamlining tasks	Repetitive flows, underserved populations	Career path, challenge	Design education, mentorship
UX Student & Intern	Self-taught and SNHU student through Guild Education Program at JPMC	Tool access, lack of clarity in workflows	Structure, visibility	Apply UX to service systems

Methods That Guided My Journey

The insights I gathered—from both self-reflection and external research—weren’t just data points.

They became design prompts. Each realization pushed me to explore methods from the UX and service design toolbox that mirrored what I was already doing instinctively. What started as survival turned into strategy. And through that lens, I began to reverse-engineer my own transformation—mapping, analyzing, and redesigning the very systems that shaped me.

Method	How I Designed My Way Forward
Journey Mapping	Tracked personal growth & pivot points
Service Blueprinting	Identified breakdowns in workflows across roles
Empathy Mapping	Practiced people-first leadership at Amazon and JPMC
Systems Thinking	Connected dots between service gaps & design solutions
Stakeholder Discovery	Cold-emailed mentors, managers, and program leaders
Self-Guided Learning	UX coursework, internships, and cross-functional exposure

To evaluate the success of my transition and UX journey, I analyzed key milestones, relationship-building outcomes, and tool adoption initiatives.

Selective Program Acceptance
Out of over 9,000 applicants, I was 1 of ~350 selected for the Advancing Hispanics & Latinos Fellowship at JPMorgan Chase, showing my ability to stand out without a traditional UX degree.

Strong Internal Performance → Return Offer
My performance led to a return offer for the 2025 Summer Analyst internship, validating my growth and adaptability in a cross-functional setting.

Cross-Functional Collaboration at Scale
I connected with over 40+ professionals, including PMs, product designers, and strategists—building trust, gathering feedback, and developing mentorship relationships that influenced my career path.

Driving Real Change through Design Advocacy
At Schneider Electric, I independently promoted Figma—gaining approval and creating wireframes in a tool-limited environment. This enhanced collaboration and reduced friction across product and sales.

02. Designing With & Through People

Collaboration as a Design Method

In spaces where access isn’t guaranteed, collaboration becomes a tool of survival—and design. I learned to build coalitions, ask intentional questions, and co-create solutions even before I had the job title “designer.”

Whether I was leading warehouse teams at Amazon, supporting clients at JPMorgan Chase, or advocating for UX tools at Schneider Electric, I:

Initiated over 40+ conversations across design, product, strategy, and analytics to learn from others
Asked for feedback early and often—treating every teammate and mentor as a potential co-designer
Navigated ambiguity not alone but through shared problem-solving

This isn’t just teamwork. This is service design thinking in action—working across silos, roles, and hierarchies to build better systems.

Asking for Help is a UX Skill

In systems where you’re not “supposed” to be the user—or the designer—asking for help is both a form of resistance and a strategic approach.

I leaned into curiosity and humility:

“Would you be open to sharing how you got into product?”
“Can I walk you through a user journey I created?”
“Do you know someone else I should learn from?”

These questions helped me prototype relationships, build trust, and navigate invisible pathways into tech.

Cross-Functional by Nature, Not by Role

My background has always required me to understand both human and operational systems:

As a banker, I interpreted client needs and regulatory requirements.
As an Amazon supervisor, I aligned worker strengths with labor demands.
As a UX intern, I connected product intent with user context.

I bring a service design lens to every interaction—not just to improve products, but to improve processes, people, systems, and pathways.

03. Outcomes & Lessons Learned

Through every pivot in my journey—from visual artist to Amazon supervisor, to banker, to UX intern—I wasn’t just switching careers. I was reshaping broken processes, reframing user pain points, and repairing systems from the inside.

Design Lessons That Shaped Me:

Start with empathy—even when the “user” is yourself. I learned to treat my own frustration, curiosity, and ambition as signals worth prototyping around.
Process is the product. Whether reworking warehouse workflows, redesigning touchscreen flows, or building trust in financial services, I found that how we do things often matters more than what we build.
Every system can be redesigned. I used service design to navigate complex systems—immigration, education, tech pipelines—and showed that gaps can become gateways with the right support and perspective.

Outcomes That Continue to Unfold:

I built relationships that amplified opportunity—mentors, coworkers, and clients became part of my ecosystem of growth.
I turned low-access environments into spaces of innovation by bringing my own tools, voice, and intention.
I discovered that real change doesn’t always start with wireframes—it starts with understanding people.
I bring a service design lens to every interaction—not just to improve products, but to improve processes, people systems, and pathways.

Design School Didn’t Teach Me This

I used to think design was only about aesthetics—what looks good on the surface. But through this journey, I’ve learned it’s also about what’s missing, what’s broken, and what could be more human.

This case study isn’t just a reflection—it’s a working prototype of how design thinking can be lived. Not just applied to wireframes or interfaces, but to life paths, people systems, and real constraints. And I’m still iterating.

The tools have changed—from sketchpads to Figma, from customer service scripts to journey maps—but the goal hasn’t: to serve, to elevate, and to create better experiences for everyone involved.

So no, this isn’t just a reflection—it’s a preview of how I think, work, and lead as a designer. The journey continues. The tools may change, but the mission stays the same: serve people through design.