CRISTOFOUXAI
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▸  Cristofo - UXAI · Product Design · Charlotte, NC

Complex systems in.
Clear products out.
Numbers to prove it.

Self-taught. Support desk → UX lead on four enterprise programs, three countries. I ship transactional UX — configure, quote, price, order, fulfill — agile, AI-accelerated, KPI-measured. No going back.

View Case Files → Character Sheet
14yrs
Support desk → design lead
+40%
YoY deliverable hit-rate — design-system governance
+10–15%
YoY dealer conversion at lead handoff — Build & Price
16
Go / No-Go launch reviews at Ford Pro

01 — Operating Principles

How I operate

Five rules. Every sprint, every review, every ship call.

P—01

Agile

Ship the prototype, not the deck. It ends arguments, starts decisions. Days, not quarters.

P—02

Dedicated

Own it end to end. Designer drops mid-flight? I absorb the program before the gap becomes a delay.

P—03

Results-Driven

Every screen answers to a number: conversion, hit rate, cycle time. Unmeasured? Instrument it.

P—04

Forward-Looking

Design for the next market, platform, capability — not the last one.

P—05

AI-Literate

AI in the workflow, always. Judgment human, speed machine.

02 — Selected Work

Case files

One-sentence brief. The problem. The result. The numbers it moved.

Case File 001 — Build & Price Ford ProCommerceNorth America · UK

Build & Price — POC to Production

Prove Ford Pro could own vehicle configuration in-house — then ship it to production.

▲ The Problem

  • Vendor-owned configuration UX — slow iteration, no control, dependency in the roadmap.
  • Dealer lead handoff — the revenue moment — underperformed.
  • No internal proof Ford Pro could build this itself.

▲ The Result

  • Originated the in-house POC on BPQO foundations — fast.
  • Reusable patterns: line pages, showroom, configure, cart, review, dealer quote.
  • Shipped to production: Canada Aug 2026 · North America Sep 2026 · UK targeted Q4 2026.
  • Ford Recognition+ (May 2025) — feasibility, proven fast.
+10–15%
YoY dealer conversion at lead handoff
Weeks → Days
Prototype cycle compression
3 markets
Canada + North America live · UK targeted Q4 2026
Case File 002 — Design Systems Ford ProGovernanceFDS · FPDS · Hydro

Design-System Governance Rebuild

Rebuild governance across four design systems. Every team ships faster, misses less.

▲ The Problem

  • Four systems — FDS, FPDS, Hydro Interim, Hydro DSM — drifting apart, no shared discipline.
  • Inconsistent components: teams rebuilt basics, deliverables missed.
  • Visible on fordpro.com: inconsistent nav, CTAs, adherence.

▲ The Result

  • Rebuilt governance, component architecture, templates, standards across all four systems.
  • Audited consistency, navigation, CTA usage, adherence.
  • Mentored designers in Figma component architecture — a team skill, not a specialty.
+40%
YoY deliverable hit-rate lift
4 systems
FDS · FPDS · Hydro Interim · Hydro DSM — one governance model
Weeks → Days
Template-driven delivery cycle
Case File 003 — Portfolio DRI Ford ProGlobal DeliveryNA · UK · DE

Four Programs. Three Markets. One Quarter.

Hold UX continuity as DRI across four simultaneous programs — through a capacity gap, drop none.

▲ The Problem

  • A design-capacity gap hit mid-quarter: VSO and FOSSY lost UX ownership.
  • SOS was mid-flight to dealer roadshows; TracLease / Pro Estimator hadn't started.
  • Four programs, three countries, different stakeholders — one designer holding continuity.

▲ The Result

  • SOS (NA) — rapid POCs clarified scope → advanced to a 2.0 build.
  • VSO (NA & UK), FOSSY (Germany) — absorbed mid-flight, delivery never stopped → MVP.
  • TracLease / Pro Estimator (NA) — kicked off mid-quarter, direction set → MVP.
  • Mentored a junior designer on FOSSY — AI literacy, systems thinking, not just tasks.
3 MVPs + 1 2.0
Shipped in one quarter — Jun–Sep 2026
4 programs
Run simultaneously as UX DRI
3 markets
North America · United Kingdom · Germany

03 — Trajectory

Self-taught. Self-made.

No pedigree, no shortcuts. Fourteen years: support desk to portfolio UX leadership, every layer learned by working in it.

2012
Graphic Designer → Voice EngineerUMD · Aston Technologies

Design degree, engineering contract — the eye and the systems brain, trained in parallel.

2014
Support EngineerAceyus

Front line of a B2B reporting platform. Learned the product through its users — the best UX education there is.

2014–2019
Consultant → Application & Design SpecialistAceyus

Learned design by shipping it: configured reporting apps to client workflows, then designed them outright.

2019–2021
Design Manager → Product Design ManagerAceyus

Full rebrand and UX/UI modernization: fragmented legacy UI unified, dashboards rebuilt for clarity and self-service.

2022–2023
Product Designer → UX & Product DesignerKforce → Ford Pro (FTE)

Contracted in, converted full-time, compounded: commerce foundations, EV enablement, design-system operations.

2026
UX DRI — Four Programs, Three MarketsFord Pro

Portfolio-scale: SOS, VSO, TracLease / Pro Estimator, FOSSY — plus Build & Price, live in production.

04 — Method

AI in the workflow.
No going back.

Not novelty: AI compresses ambiguity into testable direction — more alternatives early, before engineering commits. Judgment, validation, accessibility stay human. Non-negotiable.

The model: prototype-led alignment. Working models clarify scope, expose gaps, speed decisions. Weeks → Days.

It compounds: I mentor designers in AI literacy — when to use it, how to judge output, how to integrate it into systems UX. The team's ceiling rises.

▸ Active Toolchain
  • Figma · Figma Make Design · AI Prototyping
  • Claude · Claude Code LLM · Agentic
  • ChatGPT · Gemini Pro Exploration
  • Ford Mach1 LLM Enterprise AI
  • Agentic Workflows Automation
  • Miro · Design Systems Alignment · Scale

★ BONUS STAGE — ABOUT THE PLAYER ★

Character Sheet
Cristofo, Lv. 14 Designer

16-bit pixel-art portrait of Cristofo: dark brown mustache and short boxed beard, black snapback cap with a white Ford script logo, olive drab hoodie

▶ CRISTOFO — PLAYER 1

You pressed START. Bold move. I'm Cristofo — here's how to reach the human behind the pixels.

EMAILcristofo1989@gmail.com
PHONE(612) 384-5142
LINKEDINlinkedin.com/in/cristofo-romani
16-bit pixel-art landscape: a knight and a black-and-white tuxedo cat gaze across green hills toward a castle, floating islands, and a rocket launching into a starry sky

◆ PLAYER DATA

NAMECRISTOFO ROMANI
CLASSPRODUCT DESIGNER
TITLETHE SELF-TAUGHT
LEVEL14 (14 YRS XP)
GUILDFORD PRO
BASECHARLOTTE, NC
HP — SHIPPING ENERGY920/999
MP — AI MANAMAX

◆ INTEREST STATS

LORE
(Fantasy)
94
HIST
(History)
88
PLAY
(Gaming)
91
GOLD
(Finance)
76
ORBIT
(Aerospace)
85
CAT
(Cats)
99

Off the clock: campaign settings, history rabbit holes, market charts, launch windows. Supervisor: one cat.

▶ CRISTOFO

ORIGIN: Self-taught. Support desk → PRODUCT DESIGN MANAGER, one XP grind at a time.

1 / 7
Pixel-art companions: a content black-and-white tuxedo cat beside a glowing spellbook, a small rocket, gold coins, and a castle tower

PARTY MEMBERS: 1 CAT (SUPERVISOR CLASS) · 1 SPELLBOOK OF LORE · 1 ROCKET · POCKET-SIZED DREAMS

★ SIDE QUEST — DESCEND ★

The Sunken Crypt

◆ SIDE QUEST — THE SUNKEN CRYPT

Health: 5 of 5 heartsCRYPT LV.1SLAIN 0 / 5

Clear the skeletons. Take the portal down. Level up. Repeat — until you die.

THE SUNKEN CRYPT

Diablo-style dungeon. Slay the floor, take the portal, pick a boon, descend. Meaner bones every floor. It ends when you do.

WASD / ARROWS — MOVE · SPACE — SWORD. Skeletons bite: one heart per hit. Keep moving.

05 — Open Channel

Let's build
what's next.

Senior product-design roles: aerospace, fintech, AI. Enterprise platforms, complex configurators, design systems. Ambitious mission, real metrics? I'm in.

cristofo1989@gmail.com LinkedIn ↗