A bit about me…
I’m a product designer, photographer, and illustrator out of the San Francisco, Bay area. I’ve spent most of my career as an in-house designer for various companies in the fashion, beauty, and tech spaces.
A few companies i’ve worked with
I love leading and mentoring
SF Design week
Here I am in 2019 speaking on a panel with other fellow designers and researchers at a Turo-hosted SF design week event. We shared our perspectives about working in a dual sided marketplace.
Panelists:
Pantelis Corovillas (Senior Director) - MC
Nathan Mandreza (Brand designer)
Ansaria Mohammad (Researcher)
Loretta Widen (Lead Product Designer)
Carlos Baez (Lead systems designer)
Ladies Behind the Wheel Group
In 2019, I co-founded a group at Turo with a fellow designer, Aekta Shah, dedicated to providing a supportive space for women employees. We called it Ladies Behind the Wheel The first meeting was an offsite with our small brand and product design team. Our goal was to initiate conversations and ask questions that help us create topics for further discussions. The event was so successful, we decided to open the group up to more women in the company and start a committee of event planning for this group.
My core strenghts
Strategic & visionary thinking
I am a big picture thinker. One of my design super powers is the ability to take in a lot of different inputs and see how they all fit together or relate to one another. This serves me well when advocating for more holistic solutions or influencing the high-level direction of any given problem.
Highly collaborative
Because I love seeing the product at the 10,000 mile view, I make a point to know and keep track of what every team works on. This helps me identify overlaps between projects and help facilitate conversations around collaborating and finding alignment toward one common vision.
What is it like to work with me?
Read my user manual
This medium post gives you some details about how I work best with others, my ideal working environment, and much more.
Kind words from colleagues
"Loretta is an incredible thought partner in all parts of the host experience. For both pricing insights and the fleet calendar, we worked through many different directions and rounds of research together and Loretta's leadership was invaluable in determining product & design strategy and project direction. While Loretta is a strategic thinker, she's also not afraid to dive deep into tactical design decisions. For example, on the fleet calendar she worked through many visual design challenges to ensure we represented all states and built for the future while ensuring the experience was simplified, intuitive, and accessible. Loretta is always proactive - I can count on her to jump in to any question or gap, whether asked or not. She is exceptional at driving clarity around unclear constraints or requirements.
Without fail, Loretta always has a host-first mindset. I feel lucky to work with Loretta everyday!
"
— Emily Tucker, Turo (2022)
"Overall, her kindness and helpfulness have helped me onboard, and she continues to guide me with my current projects - I could not imagine work without Loretta. She's been a true guardian angel when it comes to supporting the team and me, and you can see how her support has built a strong and robust team like ours."
— Anonymous Peer review, Turo (2019)
“Lastly, and probably most importantly, she is a genuine advocate for our users. She knows them, she cares about their experience and very much succeeds at being an egoless conduit for them.”
— Anonymous Peer review, Turo (2019)
“She is a keen observer during usability tests, identifying main points but also coming up with creative and elegant solutions.”
— Amanda Wu, Babycenter (2016)
“…Loretta works with a high level of curiosity and determination to get to the root of the problem”
— Shemoel Recalde, Turo (2018)
..She’s talented, hungry to learn, open to sharing, experienced in leading projects, and skilled at maintaining her positive personality under pressure.”
— Marek Szeszycki, Coco (2014)
“…She methodically approaches each project with careful thought and asks all the right questions assuring a good understanding of the goal...”
— Michelle Hierzer, Sears (2013)