Leonardo De La Rocha

CEO

San Francisco, CA, United States25 yrs 6 mos experience
Most Likely To SwitchHighly Stable

Key Highlights

  • Led design teams at top tech companies.
  • Expert in design culture and user experience.
  • Innovative problem-solver in tech spaces.
Stackforce AI infers this person is a Design Leader in the Tech industry with a focus on User Experience and Product Development.

Contact

Skills

Core Skills

Design LeadershipUser ExperienceCommunication DesignCreative DirectionAdvertising DesignDesign ManagementBusiness MarketingProduct DesignPublishing Tools

Other Skills

People ManagementB2B SoftwareStrategyPresentationsArtificial Intelligence (AI)Design ThinkingA/B TestingCommunicationPrototypingInteraction DesignUser Experience DesignUser InterfaceWeb DesignSEOContent Strategy

About

I've built my career in tech across renowned companies including Intuit, Facebook, Spotify, and Yahoo!, as well as innovative startups. My focus has been developing and leading Design, User Experience, and User Research teams in both B2B and complex B2C environments. I bring structured creativity to problem-solving with a passion for innovating in under-served technology spaces. I excel at strengthening design culture and driving meaningful customer impact through design-led product development. My superpower is creating energy around big ideas and empowering teams to navigate ambiguity—combining hands-on UX work with effective coaching from the sidelines.

Experience

Simplepractice

Vice President, Design

Mar 2023Present · 3 yrs · San Jose, California, United States · Remote

  • SimplePractice is an all-in-one practice management solution that simplifies the health and wellness experience for practitioners and patients. With SimplePractice’s EHR software, practitioners can manage patient care in one central platform, including services like telehealth, online booking, customizable documentation and autopay. Over 225,000 practitioners use SimplePractice to provide quality, HIPAA-compliant care and grow their practices.
Creative DirectionPeople ManagementDesign ManagementB2B SoftwareDesign LeadershipStrategy+5

Spotify

Global Head of Design (Sr.Director), Advertising

Aug 2021Mar 2023 · 1 yr 7 mos · San Jose, California, United States

Creative DirectionDesign ManagementB2B SoftwareCommunicationPresentationsArtificial Intelligence (AI)+4

Neo.tax

Strategic Advisor

Nov 2019Present · 6 yrs 4 mos · Mountain View, California, United States

  • Advisory role focused on customer experience and communication design for Silicon Valley based fintech startup.
CommunicationPresentationsDesign ThinkingUser ExperienceCommunication Design

Intuit

Director, Intuit Design

Sep 2019Aug 2021 · 1 yr 11 mos · Mountain View, CA

  • Working across Intuit to create and ensure a One Intuit Design System. Leonardo is currently driving a company-wide design system strategy, has defined the vision and developed an action plan that delivers on a One Intuit Design System for all of our cornerstone brands including TurboTax, QuickBooks, ProConnect, and Mint.
Creative DirectionDesign ManagementB2B SoftwareCommunicationPresentationsDesign Thinking+3

Facebook

3 roles

Creative Director, Facebook Art Dept.

Promoted

Aug 2017Mar 2019 · 1 yr 7 mos

Creative DirectionDesign ManagementCommunicationPresentationsDesign ThinkingPrototyping

Creative Lead, Facebook Business Marketing

Feb 2016Jul 2017 · 1 yr 5 mos

  • As a creative lead for Business Marketing at Facebook, Leonardo managed a team of designers and copywriters who help craft compelling narratives around Facebook's family of apps and services to marketers and advertisers, big and small.
  • Focused on Facebook's digital marketing surfaces, Leonardo has helped impact Facebook's Ad Product traffic and revenue metrics through forward thinking creative rooted in data.
  • facebook.com/business
Creative DirectionDesign ManagementCommunicationPresentationsPrototypingBusiness Marketing

Product Design Manager, Facebook Business Products

Oct 2014Dec 2016 · 2 yrs 2 mos

  • Leonardo began his stint at Facebook leading multiple product design teams that helped power Facebook's rapidly evolving advertising platform. Dubbed the "Outcomes" team, Leonardo drove efforts to bring clarity to Facebook's more complex tools -- from ad targeting and ad delivery mechanisms to campaign Reporting and Measurement. His organization also inherited the oversight of Facebook's Business Design standards, evolving what was at first a skunkworks effort to drive better, more consistent experiences to a full-blown XFN team with engineering support that helped scale design standards globally.
Design ManagementB2B SoftwareCommunicationPresentationsDesign ThinkingPrototyping+2

Yahoo! inc.

2 roles

Head of Design, Yahoo Advertising & Data

Jan 2013Oct 2014 · 1 yr 9 mos

  • I started in the Advertising and Data organization as the primary UX resource for the ground-up development of Yahoo's first self-serve, native advertising platform (Gemini).
  • After a successful 45-day war room for launch and numerous wins thereafter, I built a core team of designers to maintain the Gemini product and transitioned to oversee UX for all of Yahoo's ads and data products. There, I built and led a remarkable team of 20 design and dev resources to:
  • · Redefine a disparate pattern library, creating the perception of a modern and unified product suite
  • · Develop standards and principles for ongoing iteration and innovation against our design language
  • · Create venues for global design sharing and critiques to better connect Yahoo designers, de-duping efforts, and create overt accountability for high-quality design
  • · Advocate for better/faster deployment through a centralized design system by way of Ember app kit + Bootstrap theme
  • · Strengthen research-guided design process through close collaboration with Yahoo researchers
  • In addition to my primary charter, I served on Yahoo's global design council. Our aim: provide the best resources for design success, and create environments where stellar design thinking thrives. Most recently, this service extended into helping my design leadership cohorts pull together our strongest designers to create a single, consistent (yet flexible) design system that raised the bar of excellence across Yahoo products.
Design ManagementB2B SoftwareCommunicationPresentationsDesign ThinkingPrototyping+2

Director of UX, Yahoo Publishing

May 2010Jan 2013 · 2 yrs 8 mos

  • As Director of User Experience Design for Publishing at Yahoo! I oversaw UI & Interaction Design, front-end development, and all aspects of user experience for Yahoo!'s global suite of publishing tools.
  • My charter was to design, build, and maintain tools that allow Yahoo!'s international team of editors to quickly program content across myriad O&O destinations and create amazing content experiences for a daily audience of over 700 million.
  • My approach to Yahoo!'s large scale publishing was to create editorial processes that leverage metrics to inform more effective content programming -- where revenue, shelf-life, and audience reach are maximized. I also constantly strive to combine beautiful aesthetics with intuitive functionality to ensure both internal and consumer facing publishing experiences are as delightful as they are easy.
  • My skills have matured over 12 years while creating intuitive design experiences around content creation, aggregation, and consumption on both enterprise level publishing platforms and niche, home-grown content management systems which I've architected from the ground up. At Yahoo!, this experience -- coupled with my passion for effective visual and interaction design -- has helped me create and lead a cross-disciplined team to redesign and rebuild Yahoo!'s disparate, siloed, legacy publishing tools into a single, scaleable publishing platform.
  • On top of our many publishing specific wins, I also led my team across boundaries to deliver amazing design solutions outside of our wheelhouse. Recent examples include contributions to Yahoo!'s global design language and future-thinking global navigation system, Yahoo!'s Fantasy Football applications for iPhone, iPad and Android, the Yahoo! Local experience, and interactive, content-rich ad units delivered across the Y! network.
Design ManagementB2B SoftwareCommunicationDesign ThinkingPrototypingUser Experience+1

Art institute of colorado alumni board

Advisor

May 2009Sep 2011 · 2 yrs 4 mos · Denver, CO

  • Services included organizing projects and events that aimed to enrich the lives of AiC Alumni and promotes The Art Institutes’ mission of being the leading educator in the creative arts through our recognition of alumni success and career focused approach.
  • Responsibilities also included advisement around strengthening curriculum with cutting edge design technologies and modern design practices.
  • I continue to assist alumni by attending portfolio reviews and industry consulting sessions.
Prototyping

Denver botanic gardens

Advisor

Aug 2007Sep 2009 · 2 yrs 1 mo · Denver, CO

  • One of the original seven volunteers for Denver Botanic Gardens Technology Task Force. Completed the first roadmap of the website overhaul for the organization in 2007, which resulted in being one of the top five most visited websites for the botanic gardens industry today with over 3 million page views annually. Worked on the virtual herbarium project with the horticultural staff on virtualizing the herbarium to an online database through an IMLS grant. Helped with design efforts on the new science pyramid building to show off an interactive display of the steppe climate regions around the world. Contributed over 1,000 volunteer hours since 2007.

Associated content, inc. (purchased by yahoo!)

Head of User Experience

Jun 2007May 2010 · 2 yrs 11 mos · Denver, CO

  • Oversee Associated Content's creative vision and all aspects of print and web design projects relating to the brand. This includes AC’s front-end website designs, (associatedcotnent.com, partner.associatedcontent.com, etc.) UI/UX designs, B2B decks, conference signage, marketing/PR materials, etc.
  • As AC’s creative lead, I’ve helped developed relationships with many agencies representing tier 1 brands and have successfully managed my creative resources from concept to completion of the projects demonstrating strong leadership.

Csia

Member

Feb 2006May 2010 · 4 yrs 3 mos

  • Founded in 1994, the Colorado Technology Association is a 501(c)(6) not-for-profit organization dedicated to advancing the technology industry. Our mission is to foster growth and opportunity for the technology industry by:
  • Engaging and unifying stakeholders to build a strong collective voice to policy makers
  • Driving influential leadership in critical areas: job creation, economic development, innovation
  • Leveraging insights and trends to help businesses optimally perform in a global marketplace
  • Ensuring Colorado’s technology companies are recognized for their leadership and innovation

Associated content, inc.

Co-founder / Design+Dev lead

Nov 2004Jun 2007 · 2 yrs 7 mos

  • Managed product roll-outs, software versioning, platform migration and developed solid business partnerships that assisted the launch of AssociatedContent.com. Continually acquired critical experience and skills that allowed for the following key accomplishments:
  • Developed a custom publishing platform allowing for web and wireless publication of user-generated content.
  • Assisted in the development of Associated Content's Yield Management System - a homegrown analytic tool used to automatically (1) select optimal ad partners; (2) predict content shelf life; (3) estimate ROI on any content acquisitions; (4) dynamically generate optimal "meta" data for published web content and (5) organize and publish seasonal content. (Patent pending)
  • Emerging technology analysis: For finding innovate ways to deliver content via web and wireless devices.
  • Viral marketing techniques: For boosting page views, content submissions and user registrations.
  • Effective SEO on text, image, audio and video content for increased discoverability on the web and effectively monetizing content libraries.
  • Advanced functionality analysis of online products: Allowing for the roll-out of "sticky" user interfaces leading to effectively increasing click-through rates on both advertisements and related inventory.
  • Content syndication: Used to maximize web presence with custom feeds for both third-party sites and vertical domains.

Scripps howard news service

Application Architect

Jan 2004Nov 2004 · 10 mos

  • My work included the design and implementation of a “calendar application”. The framework built is now used by all 18 Scripps Howard Newspaper sites as well as FineLiving.com, FoodNetwork.com and HGTV.com. My responsibilities also included the construction and maintenance of a content management system using TCL/TK (Oracle DB), and the design of a GUI using Vignette, Flash MX, Perl and JavaScript.

Rocky mountain news

Web Developer/Designer

Mar 2000Jan 2004 · 3 yrs 10 mos

  • “Leonardo is central to the maintenance and development of the Rocky’s Web site. He has met every challenge we’ve given him. He has been quick to pick up on journalism style and practice. He juggles several different projects at any given time. He is always cooperative with the staff. And he is always abreast of the latest industry trends and eager to learn new technology. Leonardo has taken the lead in maintaining and improving our site’s interactive applications. Most notably over the past two years, Leonardo has helped in the development of our election, Rocky Preps, Nightlife and census applications.” – Mike Noe, Internet News Editor

Education

Art Institute of Colorado

BA

Jan 2007Jan 2009

University of Colorado Boulder

Design Management

Jan 1996Jan 2000

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