profile-donnie

Donnie Suazo

Product design lead with experience across marine tech, consumer electronics, education and creative tools.

For the past seven years, I’ve led the design of a modern marine operating system, used in Simrad, B&G and Lowrance products. These include on-water displays, mobile apps and desktop tools. I was the first design hire and helped grow the team to over 20 people.
Alongside this, I built and now manage Argon, a customisable design system used by in-house teams and external boat builders. It supports embedded, mobile and web platforms, with adaptive themes for day, dusk and night use.
I focus on reducing friction, creating structure, and helping teams design and deliver with clarity.

Tools

Familiar with a wide range of tools across design, delivery and documentation.

Figma, Adobe CC, Protopie, Jira etc

Skills & Methods

Understand - Research, Discovery, Mapping. Design - Ideation, prototypes, testing. Deliver - QA, launch, monitor, refine.

Leadership Style

Hands-on and proactive, focused on leading by example. I utilise storytelling and asynchronous feedback to foster clarity and momentum. I like creating space for teams to showcase their work and align growth through clear, objective-led coaching.

Employment History

Navico Group Design Director

April 2022 - Present

  • Designed and launched Neon OS, now powering Simrad, B&G, and CZone systems.
  • Built Argon Design System, automating 80% of delivery and supporting design-to-code workflow.
  • Reduced design file load by 50%, increasing Figma performance and team efficiency.
  • Mentored product designers across teams and built an internal showcase platform to present work.
  • Shaped product strategy and vision in collaboration with engineering and product leads.

Previous roles

Navico Group Principal Designer & Senior Designer

2018 - April 2022

Bought by Many Product Designer

March - April 2018

TomTom Senior Designer

April 2015 - December 2017

Kano Computers UI/UX Designer

January - April 2015

Swiftkey (Microsoft) Visual Designer

April - December 2014

9 Yards Creative Digital Designer

Febuary 2013 -April 2014

Abbey Mill Studio Web Designer

January 2010 - Febuary 2013

Are you free to grab a coffee and talk design?

hello@suazo.design