Hi! I'm Leandro, and I've spent the last decade falling in love with the messy, wonderful challenge of making complex things simple and meaningful. My path to service design has been anything but linear—starting in hospitality management in Guatemala, I discovered my fascination with creating meaningful experiences for people. This curiosity led me to Italy for Service Design studies, then to Norway for Systems Design, and now to leading design transformation at Cognits, where we're making strategic design accessible to US small and medium enterprises.

The thread connecting all my work—from redesigning health insurance processes that were failing entire industries, to co-founding an eco-sustainable community called Riovi, to teaching the first Service Design course in Guatemala—is this simple belief: good design should solve real problems for real people. I get energized by helping teams move from "this is how we've always done it" to "what if we tried something completely different?" Whether it's through research, workshops, or just good conversations, I love seeing those lightbulb moments when complex challenges suddenly feel manageable.

I'm particularly passionate about bridging that notorious gap between brilliant design insights and actual implementation—you know, that place where so many good ideas go to die! At Cognits, we've developed approaches like our Unified Vision Process to help cross-functional teams actually bring user-centered solutions to life. As we support SDGC Dallas 2025 as an in-kind sponsor, I'm excited about the possibility of facilitating a workshop that tackles this very challenge. Whether you're wrestling with organizational transformation, trying to get buy-in from technical teams, or simply looking to make service design more actionable, I'd love to connect and share experiences!

Let's connect!