Fran Bencosme · Product praxis est. 2008
I don't just design;I BUILD
UX · Product Strategy · Digital · Branding
↓I believe products should have a point of view. Here's mine.
About
Short sentences. Long story
I'm Fran Bencosme, a product designer and strategist from Santo Domingo. Eighteen years ago I wrote code for phones that no longer exist; today I lead products from the first question to the last shipped screen.
I work across UX, branding, product strategy and digital. Not because I couldn't choose. Because the best products are built where those disciplines meet.
Still curious. Less patient with nonsense.
Santo Domingo, most days.
- 18
- years in the craft
- 40+
- products shipped
- 4
- disciplines, one point of view
- 8
- countries worked across
Eighteen years. The through line is the problem, never the tool.
Selected work
Judge for yourself
Three problems that were not what the brief said they were.
-
Project 01
Meridiano · Rebuilding mobile banking for 1.2 million people who just wanted three things
Meridiano's app was organized like the bank's org chart, and users paid for it: 2.1 stars and a support line on fire. We rebuilt it around the three actions people actually do. Balance, transfer, pay. Eight months later the rating read 4.6.
The home screen. Three actions, nothing else. The day we deleted the org chart from the navigation. -
Project 02
Vela · Turning a template store into a brand people remember by name
Vela had traffic and no memory. People bought once and forgot the name by dinner, because the store looked like every template on the internet. We gave the brand an opinion first and rebuilt the checkout second. Returning customers went up 38%. Branded searches tripled.
The wordmark, versions 1 through too many. Photography that breathes. Grids don't sell stories. -
Project 03
Atlas · Un-designing a logistics platform that had every feature and no users
Atlas shipped every feature any client ever asked for. That was the problem. Dispatchers needed six screens to answer one question: where is my truck. We rebuilt the product as answers instead of features. One command view. Finding a shipment dropped from four minutes to twenty seconds.
The command view. One screen, five answers. Discovery with real dispatchers. They knew things the brief didn't.
Good work speaks for itself. Then I explain what it was thinking.
How I work
Three things I believe
Eighteen years taught me a few things I no longer argue about. These are the ones that change the work.
-
01
Strategy before pixels.
I start with the business and the person using the thing, not the screen. The best design decision is often the one that removes work instead of adding it.
Read: Saying no is the deliverable -
02
A brand is a promise.
Identity is not decoration. It is what people expect from you before they read a single word, and it has to mean something.
Read: A logo is not an opinion -
03
It is not done until it ships.
I speak developer and stay through the build, so what we designed is what people actually get. Not a pretty file nobody uses.
Read: Nothing is finished in Figma
Eighteen years in, my best tool is still a question.
Process
I understand first
No sacred methodology. Five things I refuse to skip, in order.
- 01
Ask
The uncomfortable question, before anything else.
- 02
Frame
The real problem, not the one the brief describes.
- 03
Cut
Until only what matters is left on the screen.
- 04
Test
With real users, so prototypes are wrong early and cheap.
- 05
Ship
Stay through the build, until it works in someone's hands.
18.4861° N, 69.9312° W · working worldwide
Contact
Your move
Thank you for traveling this far.
If you carry a complex problem, the next sentence is yours.