ANDREI CERVANTES
EXECUTIVE DESIGN LEADER & EXPERIENCE STRATEGIST
I build high-performing teams, modernize enterprise workflows, and turn organizational friction into measurable growth. From scaling global innovation frameworks to building intent-driven product ecosystems, I create the experiences that define the systems.
Regularly, I'm a Workflow Remodeler
Connecting fragmented systems, remapping complex operations, and building friction-free enterprise ecosystems.
Remapping Global Trade Finance
THE QUESTION
How might we reimagine the flow of work for Trade Finance?
THE DISCOVERY
From document collection, digitization and validation to processing and payment, the global Trade Finance workflow at IBM was overwhelmingly manual, wildly inconsistent and siloed across multiple disparate stakeholders.
THE APPROACH
Assembled a multidisciplinary team of domain experts, process consultants, experience designers and technical architects. Aligned on core bottlenecks, envisioned actor-specific future states, architected the underlying drivers across process, talent, data, and tech, and scoped an outcome-focused MVP.
THE OUTCOME
An Intelligent Workflow featuring cognitive data collection, proactive risk mitigation, transparent progress tracking, and real-time regulatory updates. Projected to reduce cost per transaction by 50–75%, errors by 50%, and time to payment by 25%, while increasing Trade Finance Officer productivity by 50%.
Operational Efficiency Gains
50-70%
Lower Cost
50%
Fewer Errors
25%
Faster Payments
Overhauling IT Operations for a Major Middle East Airline
THE QUESTION
How might a large Middle East airline transform its chaotic IT operations?
THE DISCOVERY
An ungoverned "Wild West" environment riddled with shadow IT, lack of accountability, and glacial resolution times that relied entirely on internal networking and personal favors.
THE APPROACH
Brought conflicting IT and business factions together to map existing workflows, isolate root system gaps, diverge on multiple future-state operating models, and converge on a unified, outcome-driven roadmap for the airline.
THE OUTCOME
A fully transformed, structured, transparent and agile IT operating model — resulting in a $27M win for IBM.
IT Operating Model Transformation
Structured
Transparent
Agile
Architecting a Connected Portfolio Ecosystem
THE QUESTION
How might we help financial advisors make sense of Capital Group’s entire portfolio construction ecosystem, rather than leaving them to connect the dots themselves?
THE DISCOVERY
Capital Group didn't lack expertise, research or tools. The real issue was that these capabilities behaved like isolated products, forcing advisors to navigate organizational silos on their own just to figure out what was relevant to their clients.
THE APPROACH
Shifted from tool-centric delivery to an advisor-centric narrative. Mapped the ecosystem around what advisors are trying to accomplish rather than what Capital Group offers, connecting entry points directly to logical next steps — moving smoothly from insights and diagnostics to actionable advice.
THE OUTCOME
Delivered a connected, advisor-centered portfolio ecosystem framework that meets advisors at their moment of need. This structural shift increased repeat engagement, reduced abandoned client journeys, and boosted the utilization of downstream consulting and implementation services.
Turning Product Intelligence into a Cohesive Experience
THE QUESTION
How might we help investment professionals turn scattered intelligence into clear client answers without launching another standalone AI chatbot?
THE DISCOVERY
Investment managers and directors at Capital Group were solving related intelligence problems across fragmented tools — searching incoming requests across multiple systems while separate internal teams rushed to build isolated AI dashboards and chat interfaces.
THE APPROACH
Anchored AI development in human workflow intent. Helped envision a centralized Product Q&A workflow bringing requests, research, source citations, tracking and response drafting together into a single, cohesive research experience rather than a collection of separate apps.
THE OUTCOME
Shipped a production-ready Product Q&A experience that centralizes research and evidence-backed synthesis. More importantly, it established a blueprint for intent-driven AI product development across the firm: start with what people need to accomplish, then determine what role AI should play.
More Than Not, I'm a Behavior Renovator
Instilling new mindsets, accelerating global adoption, and embedding sustainable operational habits at scale.
Modernizing Account Team Engagement
THE QUESTION
How might we drive a step-change in how enterprise account teams engage with clients?
THE DISCOVERY
Account teams across IBM were mired in traditional, tactical, and myopic sales motions that no longer aligned with evolving client expectations or strategic enterprise needs.
THE APPROACH
Conducted behavioral research to identify recurring patterns in account team workflows. Built an immersive three-month mentoring program rooted in Enterprise Design Thinking principles, piloted it across IBM’s 5 largest Integrated Accounts, and scaled it to the remaining 85.
THE OUTCOME
Active application of Enterprise Design Thinking across IBM’s 90 largest accounts, directly driving a 76% increase in opportunities, 54% higher client satisfaction, and a 40% increase in deal win rates.
Scaling Enterprise Design Thinking Across Latin America
THE QUESTION
How might we drive rapid adoption of Enterprise Design Thinking across Latin America?
THE DISCOVERY
Historically underserved by upskilling initiatives, IBM’s Latin American region was predictably and painfully lagging behind global adoption benchmarks.
THE APPROACH
Spearheaded a month-long regional tour engaging 250 client-facing champions across Mexico City, Guadalajara, Lima, Bogota, Buenos Aires, São Paulo, and Rio de Janeiro. Followed up with tiered immersive summits and ongoing mentorship for regional standouts.
THE OUTCOME
Mass adoption across Latin America — activating +16,000 badged Practitioners, +1,500 Co-creators, 35 capable Coaches, and 17 active local Chapters that rank among the most passionate and high-performing globally.
Virtualizing Global Automation Bootcamps
THE QUESTION
How might we accelerate global adoption of a new automation mindset and its required behaviors at scale?
THE DISCOVERY
Overcoming training fatigue to spread a complex mindset shift (positioning automation as an enterprise reinvention catalyst rather than a task-runner) required a highly engaging experience, complicated further by the sudden shift to remote work in 2020.
THE APPROACH
Isolated core behavioral shifts (focusing on outcomes first, starting small, speaking in stories) and designed an intensive two-day experiential bootcamp at IBM, completely virtualizing the curriculum for seamless global delivery.
THE OUTCOME
A celebrated global training program that averaged an NPS of 65 across 400 individuals in 12 global events, directly impacting an estimated ~$80M in next-quarter deals.
Global Training Impact
35
NPS
Average participant satisfaction
400
Individuals
Across global training programs
12
Global Events
International reach
~$80M
Value
Estimated deal impact
Accelerating Coach Activation from Years to Months
THE QUESTION
How might we activate client-side Enterprise Design Thinking Coaches with radical efficiency?
THE DISCOVERY
The traditional path to badge a Coach at IBM required 2–3 years of organic day-to-day experience — a timeline far too slow for enterprise clients demanding immediate strategic outcomes.
THE APPROACH
Designed and piloted an intense 6-month accelerator program with a major health insurer, featuring prime candidate selection, on-site bootcamps, real-world leadership opportunities, personal mentorship, and exposure to global design leaders.
THE OUTCOME
Compressed the activation cycle from years to a mere 6 months, elevating participant capabilities by an average of 6.6 points across all 8 Coach dimensions (on a 10-point scale) and earning official status as an enterprise-grade offering.
Embedding Operational Resilience as Everyday Behavior
THE QUESTION
How might we make resilience part of how teams plan, decide, and act every day, rather than something thought about only when disruption occurs?
THE DISCOVERY
Operational resilience at Capital Group relied too heavily on individual heroics and post-incident firefighting rather than explicit ownership, systemic risk anticipation, and proactive cross-boundary coordination.
THE APPROACH
Co-created a 90-day learning and behavior-change model across business units, establishing interconnected principles to embed risk anticipation directly into active work streams rather than treating adoption as a static training exercise.
THE OUTCOME
Engaged 43 participants across 12 business areas and 3 leadership tiers, establishing a proactive operational posture that reduces recovery times, clarifies ownership, and sharpens decision-making under pressure.
Other Days, I'm a Problem Solver
Unstucking stalled initiatives, restoring cross-organizational trust, and solving high-stakes friction.
Rescuing a Procure-to-Pay Integration
THE QUESTION
How might an online payments company align leadership around a newly acquired procure-to-pay process?
THE DISCOVERY
Somewhere along the way, IBM and client teams lost all alignment around a newly purchased $50M process. Widespread organizational confusion, broken trust, and severe friction brought delivery to a standstill, prompting both sides to bring in executive backup.
THE APPROACH
Designed custom Enterprise Design Thinking workshops to bridge the gap over five grueling days — linking the value of the new process directly to client pains, establishing end-to-end alignment, and co-creating an operational path forward.
THE OUTCOME
Restored cross-organizational trust, secured unquestioned clarity around the $50M process, and successfully green-lit delivery for the online payments company.
Streamlining Cyber Insurance Quote-to-Bind
THE QUESTION
How might the world's largest insurer fix an inefficient digital quote-to-bind process for cyber insurance?
THE DISCOVERY
A broken, manual experience featuring lengthy forms, scattered data and slow turnaround times — prompting brokers to bail and bypass the system entirely. Furthermore, brokers lacked cyber expertise, keeping client relationships purely transactional.
THE APPROACH
Formed a multidisciplinary team across business units at the world's largest insurer, conducted broker interviews, co-created an MVP vision, and implemented rapid iteration to break through enterprise complexity and force decision-making.
THE OUTCOME
An entirely digital quote-to-bind experience featuring pre-collected data, dynamic risk scores, and real-time collaboration tools. This drove higher straight-through processing, turned brokers into consultative partners, and accelerated policy delivery.
Expanding Access to Community Wealth-Building
THE QUESTION
How might an ambitious financial education program expand its reach without losing the trust, mentorship and human support that make it valuable?
THE DISCOVERY
While initial Capital Group fellowship cohorts demonstrated strong results, real power came from trust and peer mentorship — support that tended to drop off abruptly upon graduation.
THE APPROACH
Mapped the complete ecosystem across fellows, non-profit leaders, advisor mentors and sponsoring firms. Shifted from single-cohort tweaks to architecting a scalable operating model and ongoing participant learning loops.
THE OUTCOME
Scaled the fellowship into a connected wealth-building ecosystem. Early results across the first 14 nonprofit fellows showed extraordinary leaps, including a jump in financial capability design knowledge from 7% to 100% and comfort leading risk/credit conversations from 21% to 71%.
Often, I'm a Tinkerer
Building practical toolkits, prototyping Copilot Studio AI agents, and grounding emerging tech in human intent.
Crafting Enterprise Automation Toolkits
THE QUESTION
How might we help sellers course-correct their clients’ automation efforts toward enterprise reinvention?
THE DISCOVERY
Shifting enterprise mindsets at IBM from viewing automation as a basic task-runner to a catalyst for reinvention was a major hurdle; comprehension did not automatically translate into behavioral change in the field.
THE APPROACH
Mapped common client journey scenarios (executing existing plans, recovering from failed attempts, building on small wins) and co-created intuitive, step-by-step rerouting toolkits alongside global sellers and consultants.
THE OUTCOME
Empathetic, highly practical toolkits that enabled global sellers to independently and predictably guide clients toward compelling reinvention — directly impacting ~$80M in next-quarter deals.
Building an AI Agent That Thinks Before It Writes
THE QUESTION
How might AI help people communicate more effectively without simply generating more noise and content?
THE DISCOVERY
Team communication at Capital Group often broke down because dense decks were organized around author preference rather than executive audience needs.
THE APPROACH
Brought together a cross-functional squad and deliberately avoided starting with raw AI. Researched where storytelling broke down, experimented with audience profiles and decision trees, and tested prototypes until narrowing down to three core jobs: find the story, tell the story, and test the story.
THE OUTCOME
Translated this learning into a production-grade Microsoft Copilot Studio enterprise agent that reasons through audience intent and desired outcomes before offering drafting guidance, cutting revision loops and boosting storyteller confidence.
A Bit More About Me
MY PATH SO FAR
Experience Design Leader
Capital Group
2024–Present
Director, Experience Design
Rocket Central
2022–2023
VP, Experience Design
Goods & Services
2021–2022
Global Design Strategist and Enterprise Design Thinking Leader
IBM
2016–2021
Creative Director
Multiple Advertising Agencies
2012–2016
Copywriter
Multiple Advertising Agencies
2005–2012
MY CLIENT PARTNERS
Consumer
2K Games
Best Buy
The Kraft Heinz Company
Wawa
Education
Pearson Regent University
Texas School for the Deaf
Finance
Chubb
PayPal
PNC Bank
Raymond James
Healthcare
Aetna
Florida Hospital
Oil & Gas
BP
Shell
Tech
AMD
Dell
Microsoft
Teradata
Telecom
AT&T
Cablevision
Telstra
Verizon
Travel
American Airlines
Etihad Airways
La Quinta
Southwest Airlines