About Sal

I’m a product design leader who makes complex financial experiences feel simple, trustworthy and increasingly intelligent.

I lead Product UX and Design at TransUnion across consumer credit, identity protection and financial wellness, spanning a $100M+ direct-to-consumer business, our B2B2C hosted platform, and UX and Research consulting for a $300M+ API customer ecosystem. My teams have helped grow a $21M-a-year hosted platform serving 20M+ consumers, cut partner launches from six months to four weeks, and redesign account recovery to save more than $5M annually. Across these businesses, I partner with Product, Analytics and Revenue to connect design decisions to activation, conversion, engagement, retention and growth.

I didn’t start in fintech. I spent nearly a decade in the agency world as an award-winning creative and design director, leading work for global brands that earned Effie Gold and Webby recognition. Agency life taught me to tell a story quickly, move at speed, and design experiences that get people to act. But I wanted to go beyond launching the work. I wanted to own the experience, live with the results, and keep making it better. That led me in-house, where I helped build TransUnion’s design practice from scratch and have continued evolving the team, the work and the role design plays in the business.

Today, I’m championing a code-first design strategy, moving from static mockups toward a model where the design is the build. Our design system is becoming shared product infrastructure, with AI helping us move faster and scale across brands and experiences. But one belief hasn’t changed: AI can accelerate the build, but it can’t replace understanding the customer. In credit and identity, trust is the product.

Outside of work, I’m a husband, dad, lifelong creative, and active monkey bar partner to two very energetic little girls.

View some of my recent work

01

Designing at the Speed of Code

Code-first design, shared design systems, and faster paths from idea to production with AI.

View work

02

Rethinking Consumer Experiences

Simplifying credit and identity for millions of consumers, while building the foundation for more intelligent, AI-enabled experiences.
 

View work

03

Building Design Teams

Building TransUnion’s design practice from zero inside a legacy enterprise, tying design to business outcomes, and growing it into a strategic partner to Product, Engineering and the business.

.

Workshops, written pieces & podcasts

2024: Fire Side Chat – Guest speaker at Chicago Experience Assembly covering “Experience strategies that will shape your industry for 2025 and beyond.

2024: Presenter & Speaker – Guest speaker at Finovate in San Francisco. 

2023: The ROI of User Testing – Behind close door event on the ROI of testing your ideas, hypothesis and more. 

2022: Fail Faster Podcast – (Episode 241) What is this UX research stuff. (Listen)

2021: Fail Faster Podcast – (Episode 198) A collaborative culture leads to great products that are inclusive (Listen)

2021: MEDIUM – Long Distance UX Relationships During The Pandemic

2018: PRINT MAG – Strategic Implications from Walmart.com’s Redesign

2018: MEDIUM – Thank You Experience

2013: lux and concord – featured Photography for ABC’s Bachelor feature

2018: MEDIUM – CX & Shopper Marketing Experience Mapping

2015: Pluralsight – Developing UX for an iOS Social Media App

Active Side Projects
START IT UP – Business publication on Medium – Writer & Contributor
UX Collective – The largest Design publication on Medium – Writer & Contributor
Dribble – Design Mentor and Coach

Awards

2019 WEBBY Honoree CX (Series & Campaigns) Creative Director – Mirum (WPP) “Unilever AXE Start His Journey”

2019 EFFIE Gold Award Single-Retailer Program Mass Merchants Creative Director – Mirum (WPP) “Unilever AXE Start His Journey”

2018 Inductee InVision APP Design Leadership Forum: A global community 500+ for design leaders with the mission to to advance the practice of design leadership by fostering a community where the world’s best can learn from one another.

2018 WPP JWT High Potential Award Recipient (only 50 selected RECIPIENTS from over 12,000 employees)

2017 Shopper Marketing EFFIE Silver Award – OMNI-CHANNEL SHOPPER EXPERIENCE Mirum: (Digital ACD) – “Unilever Hellmann’s “Strangewich Challenge”

2016 – Shopper Marketing EFFIE Gold Award – SHOPPER EXPERIENCE
LunchBox: (Digital Art director) – “CVS Love Your Skin Platform”

2015 – HBA Vendor of the Year LunchBox: ACD (Art) – “Dollar General” All Access Beauty Hub”

2011 – Top Designers of Chicago – The Creative Group Inc.

Let’s talk about shaping future experiences

Phone: (219) 781 5256

Email: chavab4228@gmail.com

Connect or Follow: Linkedin, Twitter, or Instagram.