SHARE A RIDE WITH

Amanda Schwartz

Staff Design Program Manager, Illustration and Content Design, Sausalito CA

Share a ride with Amanda

What makes Lyft Design so special? Hands down, it’s our people. We’re a team of passionate, talented, empathetic folks committed to making a positive impact.

Spend some time with Amanda, one of our Design Program Managers in Sausalito CA.

What do you love most about being a design program manager?

I love that I get to be a strategic and creative guide for my teams–my days range from creating processes for teams to receive and prioritize work, devising weird and amazing warmups to bring our people together, creating and facilitating retrospectives on projects, and running synthesis insights from chaos. I get to work with almost every design discipline at Lyft, and that is such a joy. You know that feeling when you throw a really good dinner party? Everyone showed up, there was chemistry between your attendees, the food was perfect, and everyone made new friends? The days I feel successful as a DPM are just like that, and it’s awesome.

What made you choose design operations as a career?

I kind of fell into it to be honest! I’ve spent most of my career in the nonprofit and financial inclusion sector, but joined a social sector design studio a few years ago where I managed a program that brought design to the forefront of my program management skillset. I became really interested in the design process and the idea that nothing around us is self-evident; everything is designed! The impacts of those designs are what makes (or breaks) justice, equity, accessibility, climate health…the list goes on. Systems are designed, programs are designed, products are designed…and I wanted to facilitate intentional, positive experiences. To me, that’s the design ops field in a nutshell.

“I became really interested in the design process and the idea that nothing around us is self-evident; everything is designed! The impacts of those designs are what makes (or breaks) justice, equity, accessibility, climate health…the list goes on.”

— Amanda Schwartz, Design Program Manager

What inspires you?

I love to see the creative workarounds that people do in their day to day lives to make things work for them. When I worked in financial inclusion, I interviewed women around the world who did not have literacy or numeracy skills, but needed to use a cell phone to transact or to call their family or friends. One woman had a friend save her sister’s contact as ****, so even though she couldn’t read or dial her number, she knew how to call her. This happens all the time, and more than you might think! Can you think of something you do in your day-to-day that works around an issue? Maybe it’s putting books under your laptop to make it taller? Anyways, it’s these little ingenuities that inspire me and that remind me that design matters (but mostly that people are amazing and resourceful).

Any advice on how to get started in design operations?

My biggest advice I think would be to be open-minded in how you think about the skillset needed to be a DPM. It’s probably broader than you think–you don’t need to be a whiz at excel or super insanely organized by nature. I certainly am not. It’s mostly about understanding people. And it can be as creative as it is process oriented! If you have experience facilitating experiences, navigating relationships, or gaining consensus, those are all extremely relevant skillsets to this role.