Case Study
Wing
Designing the full delivery experience — hardware, software, and ops — across a safety-critical, FAA-regulated partner network including DoorDash, Walmart, and Apian
Overview
As Global Head of UX at Wing, an Alphabet company, I led end-to-end product design, UX research, and human factors across a physical and digital delivery ecosystem — spanning Marketplace, GTM/Partnerships, B2B/logistics tooling, UTM/UAS aviation software, and hardware interfaces.
The work connected service design, industrial design, regulatory strategy, and field operations to scale autonomous drone delivery into new markets while meeting the safety and compliance bar required to fly.
Problem
Autonomous delivery is a safety-critical system: every UX and hardware decision carries regulatory, operational, and partner-trust consequences. Wing needed to scale into new markets and partner categories without compromising FAA compliance or the physical reliability of the service.
That meant designing for drones, ground operations, partner tooling, and aviation software at once, while a small UX team tried to keep pace with rapid field testing and expansion.
Approach
I led the design strategy and operating model across hardware, software, and regulatory workstreams. My team and I:
- Orchestrated service design frameworks for autonomous drone delivery logistics, R&D packaging, and safety-critical infrastructure.
- Scaled delivery capabilities across international QSR, retail, and healthcare networks by translating complex field testing and competitive research into needle-moving product capabilities.
- Managed the product UX footprint spanning Marketplace, GTM/Partnerships, B2B/Logistics tooling, UTM/UAS aviation software, and hardware interfaces.
- Grew the UX team from 2 to 10 and built a design strategy framework for FAA compliance that unlocked BVLOS (beyond visual line of sight) operations and operational scale.
- Redesigned payload geometry and industrial packaging, increasing partner goods capacity by ~86% — covering QSR menu items, small retail electronics, shelf-stable goods, and hospital-to-hospital samples, instruments, and medical supplies.
"Jacin's leadership on the hardware research was critical — he has a unique ability to see around corners."
Director, Marketing Communications, Wing
Results
The FAA compliance framework unlocked BVLOS operations and new market entry. The packaging redesign kept existing partners at the table and brought new ones in — including DoorDash, Walmart, and Apian (UK) — while partner-merchant count grew ~79.5%.
2→10
UX team growth
86%
increase in partner goods payload
79.5%
increase in partner-merchants
BVLOS
operations unlocked via FAA compliance
Field research insights also drove significant cost savings by redefining ground and partner operations infrastructure ahead of scale efforts.
Leadership takeaway
Designing for a physical, safety-critical system means the UX function has to own both the pixel and the regulatory pathway. Building a team that could do both was the real unlock — not any single feature.
