ELVIN GARCIA · SENIOR DESIGN LEAD · EXPERIENCE DESIGN
I align stakeholders, coach designers, and hold a clear line on quality, so a small team can put out work that helps people decide faster.
A few you'll recognize.
I lead design teams, and the part of the job I care about most happens before anyone opens Figma. Somebody has to take a pile of competing requests, half formed ideas, and strong opinions, and turn it into a clear next step. That's usually me. At Tenarai I did it across eleven Microsoft brands, sitting between designers, product marketing, site managers, and directors, and translating until everyone was looking at the same picture.
I think the best work comes from teams where ownership is actually shared, so I build the structure that makes that possible. Templates, brand kits, and review habits mean designers spend their energy on the interesting problems instead of answering the same questions again. I also push. When someone says "this is how we've always done it," I want to hear why, and I'll usually ask what happens if we stop. That question is how a broken icon problem on Microsoft AI turned into a system every Microsoft brand ended up adopting.
What drives me is leaving things healthier than I found them. Quick wins are fine, but I'd rather hand back a team and a system that keep getting better after I've moved on. About ten designers came through my teams at Microsoft, and several are now leading teams of their own. That's the scoreboard I trust most.
