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Introduce yourself and your role at SMG

I’m Marta Andreoni, Head of Design at SMG Automotive. I lead the design and UX writing team shaping AutoScout24 user experience. 

In my role, I wear many hats. My main focus is ensuring we stay true to our vision “simplifying people’s lives and connecting humans through innovative digital platforms” and our brand promise, “make it happen”. I challenge my team to think user-first, push for innovation, ease of use for our customers and make forward-thinking decisions, even within business and technological constraints.

As product designers, our job is to bring the product vision to life, validating and iterating on solutions while balancing the needs of users, partners, and internal stakeholders. To make this happen, I work on building strong alliances and shaping processes and operations (alongside other team leads) to ensure our team is both actively involved early on and delivering a seamless, high-quality customer experience. 

A big part of my role is supporting each designer’s growth, motivation, and career development. Through one-on-one coaching, mentoring, group work, and projects, I help my colleagues set and achieve their goals while fostering new learning opportunities.

What helps you feel empowered and confident in your role?

If I had to mention one thing I would say “being proactive” has been key to feeling more empowered. I enjoy solving problems, so when issues or opportunities arise, be it in the product, market or the team, I get curious and I proactively investigate the reasons and try to bring inputs to be discussed with others, this makes me feel I can be part of the process or solution and my point of view is going to be taken seriously. My optimism also plays a role, giving me confidence that even the most complex challenges can be solved. 

In my career, that brought me into a leading role, what surely helped to raise my confidence, was gradually expanding my field of knowledge and experiencing different types of leadership roles, in different types of companies (including funding my own) and team sizes. 

Besides, having trust from other managers and colleagues makes me feel in a safe environment where I can take ownership on topics I’m passionate about, like for instance, leveraging my facilitation skills and help leading OKR, business, product and UX strategy workshops.

What’s one thing SMG does well in fostering an inclusive workplace? What more can be done to amplify and support different perspectives in the workplace?

In my experience, despite SMG’s size and hierarchical structure, and although it takes energy, we strive for balancing top-down and bottom-up inputs, ensuring employees can influence product directions, processes, and culture. People are approachable, and our strong feedback culture helps voices be heard. In Automotive, at team level, retrospectives are taken pretty seriously as a way to improve and workshops, remote or hybrid, are a common form of collaboration. On a business unit level, we’ve recently invested great efforts to make our OKR process more inclusive for all departments, empowering employees as OKR champions for their teams, to foster more bottom-up inputs. Across SMG, initiatives like regular People & Culture Surveys, topic guilds, and events in our locations across the world foster open exchange and mutual learning.

That said, I’ve noticed that quieter voices sometimes get less space, or interacting with top management can feel intimidating, especially when giving critical feedback. To make participation more inclusive, we could apply more facilitation and group work techniques like structured turn-taking, written input, and smaller group discussions—ensuring everyone, regardless of confidence level, seniority or personality, feels comfortable contributing. 

Additionally, adapting communication styles and planning meetings and rituals across time zones can help employees in different locations feel more included and respected. In a company as internationally diverse as ours, with teams across Europe and Asia, being mindful of cultural differences and work habits strengthens collaboration and connection.

Design is often about seeing the world differently. How do unique perspectives contribute to more innovative, inclusive, or impactful design?

Design is about understanding diverse user personas and perspectives to create solutions that truly meet their needs or create new opportunities. I believe in the power of collaboration to shape user experiences—bringing together different disciplines (product, UX, data, engineering, marketing, business…), backgrounds, and lived experiences helps challenge assumptions, uncover blind spots, and drive more inclusive, innovative, and impactful solutions. In our team, we rely on the design thinking process and, whenever possible on data, to validate problems and ideas early, we challenge opinion-driven solutions (yes, even the ones coming from management), and ensure we create meaningful experiences for a broad audience of experts and non-experts across different cultures and languages.

Looking back on your career, what’s one lesson or piece of advice you wish you had known earlier as a leader in design?

There are three things no one really prepares you for as a design leader: dealing with constant change, facing failure and handling emotions at work. These topics aren’t talked about much until you face them. I was lucky to learn from others’ experiences, but much of it came through my own one.

Stepping into leadership, I quickly realised that part of the responsibilities is managing chaos—shifting market dynamics, evolving company goals, and team reorganizations. Early on, I saw change as uncomfortable and as trouble, but over time, I learned to approach it as a learning opportunity rather than a setback.

Failure comes in many forms: a workshop derailing, a project not getting approved, or weeks of design work reduced to the bare minimum. I used to take it personally. Now, I see it differently—if you involve stakeholders early, seek feedback from more experienced colleagues, and de-risk your approach, you’re better equipped to handle challenges. And sometimes, failing is just a signal that change is needed.

One thing I wish I had understood earlier is the power of emotional intelligence, my job is no longer about the content and the design, it is about people. Self-awareness, not just of your own emotions, but also how others feel and react, can be the difference between conflict and harmony, frustration and clarity. The more I grow as a leader and designer, the more I realize that design isn’t just about doing the design job, delivering solutions on the market: it’s about navigating people, their emotions, and making change more acceptable, both within the organisation and through great products.