About & leadership
Design leadership is a craft. I practice it like one.
I’m Nico — an Associate Director by title, doing Principal-level IC work by scope. I’ve spent my career designing complex, data-heavy products, leading designers, and figuring out how to do both without losing touch with the details.
Over time, I’ve come to see building a great team and building a great product as the same design problem. Both depend on the conditions you create — the rituals a team keeps, the partnerships it builds, the evidence it has access to — and those conditions shape the product as surely as any wireframe.
That’s the work I care about: making the product better, making the team better, and staying close enough to the details to do both.
Outside of work: I’m a Queens kid, now raising a family in Astoria with my partner, our two kids, and our cat, Bodega. I run when I can. I also root for the Knicks, Arsenal, the Mets, and the Giants — mostly for the suffering.
How I lead
Six principles I hold myself to.
- 01
Trust is built in the small moments
Consistent 1:1s, honest feedback delivered early, and following through on unglamorous commitments. I start by listening — to the team, partners, and the work itself — and make my expectations explicit so nobody has to guess. Teams take creative risks when they know their leader is predictable in the ways that matter.
- 02
Coach the designer, not the file
Redlining someone's work teaches them to wait for redlines. I ask questions that build judgment instead. Every designer on my team has a growth thesis we've written together — the skill or muscle this year's work should build — with my direction moving up a level (from screens to flows to strategy) as their ownership grows.
- 03
Critique is a gift culture
I design critique rituals with clear stages, roles, and a lightweight decision log — what we heard, what we chose, why — so feedback targets the work's goals, not the designer. The result is faster convergence, braver early-stage work, and a compounding record of judgment instead of a taste contest.
- 04
Partnership over handoff
Product, Engineering, and Research aren't audiences for design — they're co-authors. With Product, I co-own the problem definition. With Engineering, I trade early access for early constraints. With Research, I make sure findings land as decisions, not decks.
- 05
Evidence settles what seniority shouldn't
Data tells you where; research tells you why. I pair behavioral signals with qualitative depth and hold the team — and myself — to a standard: every major design decision should be traceable to something we learned, not something we assumed.
- 06
Raise the floor, not just the ceiling
Design maturity means the whole org makes better product decisions — through shared artifacts like journey maps, principles, and metrics definitions that let people outside design see what design sees, and rituals that outlive any single project or leader.
In their words
From people I’ve managed and worked with.
“Nico is the rare manager who led with both sharp design instinct and real humanity. He drove some of our company's largest 0-1 launches, including the migration that moved our users off a legacy product entirely and onto a new experience in the company's biggest revenue-driving domain. He made fast, confident design bets that enabled his team to ship and iterate quickly, exactly what drove the steady growth of users migrating from the old experience to the new. Nico's journalist background showed up in the way he asked the hard, clarifying questions that got teams to the real problem, all while making the conversation feel easy and down to earth. He led with humor, empathy, and genuine care, looking out not just for his direct reports but for everyone on our UX team. He is deeply missed, and any team would be lucky to have him.”
Claudia Kuo
Direct Report · FactSet
“While working together at FactSet, Nico and his team partnered closely with me and the PM Hub product team to navigate internal UX design standards and translate complex product ideas into high-fidelity wireframes and lightweight prototypes. His contributions enabled us to have deeper client conversations and secure key contracts. Nico is not only a skilled designer but also a collaborative partner with a constructive, solution-oriented mindset.”
Aashish Saxena
Product Partner · FactSet
“Nico is an exceptional manager who creates an environment where people feel supported, trusted, and at ease. He has a unique leadership style that is laid back but present, approachable but knowledgeable, and always grounded in genuine care for the people on his team. I learned so much from him, not just about the work we do at Factset but how to give useful and constructive feedback in a way a person will happily receive and implement. What stands out most is the culture he fosters…. Nico cares about who people are beyond the work, and that makes him someone people genuinely enjoy working with and learning from.”
Daniel Lee
Direct Report · FactSet
“I've had the pleasure of working with Nico during his time at FactSet and witnessed his impact on the design team. What sets him apart isn't just his expertise, but also his generosity as a thinker. He asks the right questions, creates space for different perspectives, and genuinely invests in helping people grow their craft. He has a natural ability to foster a sense of camaraderie, while investing in processes and conversations that made us more effective as a team. Nico brings both design craft and strategic thinking, and cares deeply about the quality of the work and the people behind it. If you're looking for a design leader who can navigate strategy and elevate both the discipline and the culture, he's exactly who you want.”
Ada Huang
Design Peer · FactSet
Let's work together
Want the stories behind the principles?
Every principle above maps to real projects, decisions, and outcomes. I'm glad to walk through them.