Design Partner Program

Co-creating solutions with customers through real collaboration

When I moved from the Baggage portfolio to the Operations portfolio, I stepped into a completely new space. I was replacing another designer who had decided to move on, and I had little context of how the operational side of airports actually worked.

Interacting directly with customers while still learning the domain was challenging. In the beginning, it wasn’t just about looking at wireframes and figuring things out, it was also about building my knowledge through KT sessions and understanding what to communicate with customers and how.

It wasn’t just about sharing polished designs but opening up the process, listening deeply, and shaping solutions together in real time.

The Design Partner Program (DPP) is a collaborative initiative where product teams work directly with customers to solve real operational problems together. Instead of working in isolation, teams share ideas early, gather hands-on feedback, and co-create solutions that reflect actual workflows and needs.

For designers, it’s a chance to step out of internal cycles and design side-by-side with the people who actually use the systems daily.

Since I was new to operations, I began with knowledge transfer (KT) sessions with product managers and business analysts.

My goal was to understand how apron control, stand management, and flight routing worked — not just on paper but in daily operations.

To prepare for workshops with Zurich Airport, I reviewed existing wireframes, past meeting notes, and previous iterations of the product. During early sessions, I focused on listening and observing, understanding how customers described their challenges and what they prioritized.

I collaborated closely with the PO, PM, and developers to identify which parts of the design could be shown to customers for early validation, and which areas needed internal refinement first.

My role was to bridge design intent and operational context.

Represent the design perspective in customer calls and workshops.
Translate feedback into concrete design updates.
Help prioritize what could be implemented in the short term vs. what needed deeper design exploration.
Document insights from each session and shared them with other teams to align understanding.

To summarize some key learnings -

1. Customers respond best when they see how designs connect to their actual daily workflows not just standalone screens.

2. Co-creating in sessions helped uncover hidden dependencies and reduced rework later in the design cycle.

3. Sometimes, what customers ask for isn’t exactly what they need learning to read between the lines was crucial.

4. Establishing trust early made conversations smoother and feedback more honest.

Being part of DPP during my transition phase was both challenging and transformative. It gave me real exposure to customer-facing collaboration, sharpened my listening and facilitation skills, and deepened my understanding of how airports operate behind the scenes.

It wasn’t just about validating screens it was about learning the language of customers and designing with them, not for them.

Working directly with customers taught me how powerful collaboration can be when handled with clarity and empathy. I learned to prepare better for customer sessions, anticipate their questions, and communicate the “why” behind every design decision.

It also showed me the importance of cross-team communication balancing product vision, business expectations, and technical feasibility while ensuring customer needs remained central.

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