Sam Saha

Sam Saha

Sam Saha

Sam Saha

Sam Saha

Strategic Designer

Driving Innovation
in Complex Ecosystems

• DESIGN LEADERSHIP
• RESEARCH
• FORESIGHT & STRATEGY
• VISION & CONCEPT
• EXPERIENCE & SERVICE DESIGN

+20YRS


2024–25
Writing & Consulting

2018–23
Lead Experience Design Strategist
Volvo Cars

2014–18
Startups & Consulting

2014–15
Experience Designer & Strategist
OpenTable

2011–13
Director of Experience Design
Telenav & Digitas

2005–10
Creative Director
Publicis Sapient & Coca-Cola

w/


Automotive & Mobility 
Volvo Cars, GM, AutoTrader, Manheim
Energy & Sustainability  
GE Energy
Finance
Bank of America, GMAC
Retail & Consumer Goods

Target, Home Depot, Coca-Cola
Fashion & Apparel  
Prada, Mi Ola, Topology Eyewear

Travel & Hospitality 
OpenTable, Hyatt
Technology & Communications
Telenav, AT&T, Sprint
Media 
Esquire, Harper's Bazaar
Logistics 
DHL
Government 
UK Inland Revenue
Agency & Consulting  
Publicis Sapient, Digitas, Icon MediaLab

some HIGHLIGHTS


+ Experience & Service Designer and Strategist with a +20-year track record of delivering solutions that make a difference


+ Collaborated with organisations at every scale—from 0–1 startups to global leaders, with varying degrees of maturity in digital practices


Led cross-functional teams building explorations, strategies and solutions across a range of industries, contexts and audiences


+ Built, (co-)led and mentored global experience design teams of 20 to 40 across locations & time zones


 + Resurrected the strategy practice in the XD team at Volvo Cars


+ Defined and executed multi-region customer research programs


+ Co-founded/partnered two startups in apparel retail & marketing


+ Authored whitepapers on sustainable and connected mobility


+ Panel speaker at SxSW on the adoption of electric vehicles


+ Motivated by the urgent need for radically human– and planet–centered innovation & creativity to tackle the challenges & opportunities of our time


the WORK

.

SUSTAINABLE
ENERGY
__

Volvo Cars
EV Charging Education
2020–21

COMMUNICATIONS ELECTRIFICATION

Helping customers choose the electric vehicle format that might best suit their situation and lifestyle 

Screenshot 2024-10-01 at 21.46.36

SUSTAINABLE
ENERGY
__

How do we bring forth an age of energy abundance?

The tech keeps improving, but it’s well and ready for mass-market deployment. And the smart money is betting on the economic inevitability of cheaper and cleaner end-to-end value chains for renewable energy.

At this point, the transition to a cleaner energy economy is really a problem of customer understanding, ease-of-use of products & services, social alignment, responsible business, and bold policy.

MINDSET
How do we unshackle ourselves from “fossilage”, and its wasteful & damaging concentrations of power?
ALIGNMENT
How do we drive collective action in shared contexts such as the workplace, apartment buildings, neighborhoods, etc, where action requires aligning multiple stakeholders?
TIPPING POINTS
Are affordability and resilience the core benefits that tip us over from the era of “mainframe” to personal energy?
AGENCY
Whom do we trust to operate the network that connects us, and to steward the surplus value that it generates?
RESTORATION
How might we channel that surplus to mitigate decades of harm, and restore balance on a planet in crisis?
ev2wrk_1

EV2WRK
Ongoing 

ADVOCACY ELECTRIFICATION

Early drafts of an exploration of styles, narratives, capabilities, and policies required to juice the rollout of electrification through an emphasis on relevance to different customer segments. 

EV2WRK aims to communicate the potential for “batteries-on-wheels“ to redeem the costly idle mobile asset—and shift the conversation on EVs from the fears, uncertainty and doubts around these new technologies to focus on the advantages of electrified mobility–capability, portability, access, pleasure, smarts, etc.

GE Energy
Smart Meter Rollout
2009

ADVOCACY DIGITALIZATION

Early forays in customer education to build a greater understanding of energy usage, and enable system visibility behind the meter

A bridge with some words on it
A picture of some different types of energy meters.
Four different pages of a website with various colors.

MOBILITY
__

MOBILITY
__

More than just a device on wheels

Even as the industry struggles through a wholesale reconfiguration of the many mutually-reinforcing systems that have enabled its success over the past century (but have since stagnated and hindered its progress), the digitalization of the car is transforming the in-car and car-adjacent experience, diversifying the ways in which we use our cars, and transforming our perceptions of the value they offer. 

By expanding the ways we can access a car—from ownership and leasing to more flexible formats such as on-demand access, ride-hailing, etc.—the networked automobile also creates the opportunity to redefine the environments it traverses, especially our cities. 

At Volvo, and independently, I/we explored how these developments might play out as trajectories of established investments in digitalization and sustainable mobility. 

001.04

Redesign Urban Mobility
2023–24

ADVOCACY MOBILITY

Is $15 a reasonable price to drive into Manhattan? A closer look at the case for congestion charging

E5C56B2C-67B5-49D8-B01E-42F861E5B932_1_201_a

Clues to Unlocking the Mobility Revolution—Innovations in Product Design
2023

ANALYSIS MOBILITY

What’s it going to take to unlock real growth for micromobility, and deliver the myriad benefits that it promises?

Strategies for More Sustainable Car Use
2021–23

ECOSYSTEM STRATEGY MOBILITY

thumb_1

To many of us it has become a self-evident truth that car-dominant transportation systems are simply unsustainable ...

Defining Vehicle Software
2023–25

ECOSYSTEM STRATEGY CONNECTED EXPERIENCE

A series on the defining role of software in the modern car experience

004.1.02

Turn Your Lights On!
2018

ADVOCACY SAFETY

The perils of failure in the design of the human-machine interface

CONNECTED
EXPERIENCE
__

CONNECTED
EXPERIENCE
__

Omnichannel, Always-On, Ubiquitous … All‑Consuming

Through my career in-house and at agencies, I have worked on a variety of challenges at the cutting edge of consumer, employee, and citizen engagement experiences:
Digital Commerce in automotive, fashion and retail • In-car and adjacent experiences • the Software-Defined Vehicle • Retail and Service Operations • Online Government Services • etc.


Volvo Cars
Customer Lifecycle Vision
2020–22

VISION / ARCHITECTURE CONNECTED EXPERIENCE

How do we transform the traditional 6-month chore of research & deliberation into driving a Volvo within a week?

In the context of evolving consumer mindsets and the growth of shorter, more fluid models of access to private car use such as subscriptions, on-demand access, etc., we crafted a vision for a shopping journey that was radically faster, not draining of time, energy and goodwill, and the foundation of a positive relationship between the customer and retail

virtualShowroom_1
A woman is putting money into an automated coke machine.

Coca-Cola
Freestyle Dispenser
2008–09

EXPERIENCE ARCHITECTURE COMMUNITY / EXPRESSION

Enhancing the classic soft drink selection and pouring experience for an entertainment-oriented generation through variety & choice

Scout
Personal Navigator
2011

VISION / ARCHITECTURE CONNECTED EXPERIENCE

Early integrations of navigation, place discovery, and day-to-day movement across mobile, car and web

A phone and laptop with an image of a car.
A car dashboard and the driver 's view of a city street.
A car dashboard with the sun setting in the background.

Taco Bell
Omnichannel Strategy
2013

EXPERIENCE ARCHITECTURE COMMUNITY / EXPRESSION

Connecting fans and food across digital & retail channels

A black background with various images of people.

SERVICE +
OPERATIONS
__

And behind
every customer touchpoint

Below the surface of any improvement to the consumer experience lies a service design initiative to transform employee capabilities and the operations of an organization. B2B solutions benefit from many of the same drivers that transform consumer experiences:


Portability & ubiquity of information makes it a part of the natural flow of inter-personal interaction and decision-making


Queryable data architectures allow for exploration and discovery to start with the information that is most-readily available


Processes evolve from being long, linear, location-bound, and rigid to real-time, flexible, distributed, and responsive


Business models transform to take advantage of shifts in workloads, processes, time, and value.

SERVICE +
OPERATIONS
__

A black and white infographic with arrows pointing to different types of business.

OpenTable
Restaurant Solutions
2015

SERVICE ARCHITECTURE BUSINESS OPERATIONS

Leveraging the diffusion of consumer-friendly hardware & software platforms to expedite product trial, to smooth adoption, and to improve learning, utilization & retention of the “Guest Center”

A person holding an electronic device in their hand.

Home Depot
First Phone
2007

EXPERIENCE DESIGN STAFF PRODUCTIVITY

With the long-term migration to flexible staffing, come varying degrees of brand tenure and domain knowledge. 
On-the-floor digtal solutions supporting inventory management, product knowledge and analytics are critical to staff productivity & impact, as well as the quality of the shopping experience

A screenshot of the app showing various items.
A chart showing the trend of wood flooring and the change in price.
A table with an overview of the sales, inventory and gross margin.
A table with three columns and two rows of data.

DHL
Business Customers
2006

EXPERIENCE DESIGN STAFF PRODUCTIVITY

Efficiency solutions for high-volume shippers

dhl
dhl_state
dhl_concept
A woman in white and red jacket walking.

Prada
Epicenter NY
2001–02

PROCESS DESIGN CONTENT DEVELOPMENT

A seminal deployment of multi-channel interaction to complement high-touch haute couture customer service. 
The content development process was designed to harvest the various artifacts of the product development process at points of creation, and transform them into assets for the various touchpoints

COMPUTATIONAL
ART
__

COMPUTATIONAL
ART
__

0000001
00000011
000000111

… or something like that
(Robots, Flight of the Conchords) 

If we think of design and strategy as the work of finding useful answers, art is perhaps the search for meaningful questions.

One of my areas of artistic interest lies in mathematical patterns—visual and sensory ways of apprehending “naturally-occurring” structures, logic, and beauty.

Wires
ongoing

PATTERNS BINARY MATHEMATICS

Wires is a visualization of the underlying structure within the binary series, articulated as 16x16, 4x4 and 2x2 grids. The grids and the connecting diagonals reveal self-similar patterns of repetition, and continuity & discontinuity across different scales.

In addition, the interwoven structures for the two values are rotationally symmetrical around the z-axis. The logic of the structure is comprehensible through the figure, but as the series scales up, the figures themselves are increasingly difficult to discern–as if manifest only through the barest disturbance to the field itself.

A group of three black and white circles on display.

Matrix & Octaves
2007

PATTERNS BINARY MATHEMATICS

Matrix is a graphic exploration of patterns in binary numbers through a series of square matrices generated by a recursive multiplication of each matrix by itself. Octaves was displayed in the Instrumental show at the Gallery Project in Ann Arbor

A white sheet with many dots on it

Take a Number
2002

SEQUENCE / PATTERNS COMMUNITY

A path-dependent serial artwork allowing up to 100 customers to acquire representations of patterns based on their choice of number and the choices of those who have predeced them

A black and white picture of an abstract design.

Infinity > Infinity + 1
ongoing

PATTERNS BINARY MATHEMATICS

A network computing project to count to infinity by aggregating 1 count per viewing client per second ... ad infinitum

A white background with red and yellow dots on it.

Shuffle
2006

PATTERNS GAMES / ALGORITHMS

Shuffle is a work about the underlying pattern logic of the rules of games and puzzles. The piece was enacted at the Game Show exhibit at the Contemporary Art Institute of Detroit

EXPRESSION +
COMMUNITY
__

Mi Ola Surf
Brand Strategy & Design
2015

BRAND / GRAPHICS CULTURE / FASHION

High-performance swimwear line for active lifestyles 

A page of fashion related posts with photos.

Cult Collection
Fashion Community
2014–16

VISION / PRODUCT / DESIGN COMMUNITY / EXPRESSION

Co-founded and designed a community to allow fashion enthusiasts to discover and shop their individual style

EXPRESSION +
COMMUNITY
__

Letting it all hang out

I have found myself returning to projects where shared narratives and communal identity are built through acts of individual and collaborative expression & creativity.

RandomLyrical
ongoing

BRAND / GRAPHICS CULTURE / EXPRESSION

Celebrating the power of song

HOLLER at me