About
Zalihata Ahamada
Design Ops Manager, consultant and trainer. I build autonomous teams, solid practices, and systems that last.
For over 20 years, I have helped teams get organised, demonstrate their value, and grow. With clear systems, reusable deliverables, and practices designed to be owned by the teams themselves.
I started my independent practice in 2015, alongside salaried roles, with the intention of combining training and consulting. I went fully independent in 2024. To understand my approach better, read my Learnings newsletter.
20+
years of experience
3,000+
people trained
100+
projects delivered
30+
speaking engagements
Four areas of expertise
Demonstrate & measure
Building the business cases that convince leadership. Putting numbers on what seemed impossible to quantify: return on investment of a Design System, value of a design team, impact of an operational transformation.
Structure & align
Creating the operating models that clarify who does what, when, and why. Governance, RACI, rituals, documentation: turning ambiguity into a framework teams can own.
Grow the team
Recruiting, onboarding, supporting. Designing skill-building paths. Protecting the quality of work and the wellbeing of people during periods of rapid growth.
Experiment & share
Training, facilitating, designing learning programmes. Testing new practices, documenting what works, making knowledge reusable by other teams.
Experience
A consistent thread: learn, structure, share
This covers the most formative steps. For the full detail, see my LinkedIn profile.
2024–2025
Design Operations Manager
BPCE Solutions Informatiques
Building a return on investment (ROI) measurement framework for the NEO3 Design System, used by around twenty banking brands within the group. Improving UX ways of working. Standardising processes, tooling, and documentation.
2022–2023
Design Operations Manager
Glovo · Barcelona
Designing and deploying an operating model for an organisation of 65 to 80 designers. Leading a custom typeface project: replacing a licensed font with 5 bespoke alphabets, deployed across all Glovo products and services in 25+ countries.
2021–2022
Design Operations Manager
PayFit
Design governance, rituals, tooling, performance indicators. Recruiting and onboarding 30 designers in under a year, while maintaining the quality of both the candidate and recruiter experience.
2015–present
Independent consultant & trainer
Life & Learning
Consulting on UX strategy, service design, Design Ops, and people management. User research, workshop facilitation, prototyping, and testing. Clients include Mairie de Villepinte, La Bulle de Jade, Corneille, HelloAsso, and others. Recent example: in 2025, a qualitative research project for HelloAsso on online giving (focus groups, mental model analysis, Indi Young method).
2017–2021
CX/UX Coach
Orange Business Services
- ·Designing and deploying the CX Makers programme: a cross-functional training path for 1,500+ employees in France and internationally, co-built with Cegos and Le Laptop. Instructional design, facilitation, owning and defending the budget at executive committee level.
- ·Leading over 50 service design and UX projects, including the redesign of the eSIM customer journey (user research, journey mapping, ideation workshops, prototyping) and the redesign of the project managers' collaborative workspace (interviews, Design Sprint, prototyping, user testing with Testapic (now UserTesting)).
2013–2017
English teacher
French national education system
Qualified secondary school teacher (CAPES). Teaching in high school. Pedagogical projects, school trips, international exchanges, English-language theatre.
2011–2014
Partner Programs Manager
Orange Business Services
Setting up and managing Cisco partner discount programmes. Global management of Cisco and Microsoft certification projects, covering around 60 countries.
2008–2011
Training project manager
Orange Business Services
Designing and deploying a global training programme on project profitability tracking tools. Training project teams in financial management fundamentals, in France and internationally. Facilitating onboarding sessions to introduce the Orange Business product and service portfolio to new hires in France.
A consistent thread: sharing knowledge
Teaching keeps me concrete. A deliverable must be usable without me. A process or a tool must outlast the end of the project. That standard runs through everything I do.
I have been teaching since 2013, across very different contexts: the French national education system, design schools, professional training organisations, and the teams I work with on projects. I also run in-house and individual programmes: UX Strategy, People Management, Design Ops, and more. Clients include Cinq Degrés, Amadeus, MAIF, La Poste, Octo, and others.
Le Laptop since 2021
Creating and running the Design Ops and Storytelling programmes. Redesigning the learning design of the Product Design and Agility programme. Running the UX Strategy and Sprint Master & Facilitation programmes. Mentoring on the certified Product Designer path.
Les Gobelins
Mentoring on the certified Manager / Designer of Digital Products and Services path. Occasional programmes in UX Strategy, Design Ops, and UX Design.
CY Cergy Paris Université
English for designers.
Rubika, Sup de Pub, Léonard de Vinci
UX Design.
Life & Learning
Tailored programmes for organisations and individuals: UX Strategy, People Management, Design Ops, and more. Clients include Cinq Degrés, Amadeus, MAIF, La Poste, Octo, and others.
3,000+
people trained, across in-house programmes (Orange Business, 1,500+ people), initial training, and continuing professional development.
Initial training and certifications
- 2018–2019UX Design certification (master level) — Les Gobelins
- 2013–2014CAPES English teaching qualification (master level) — Académie de Créteil
- 2000–2003BA in English Language & Literature — Paris III Sorbonne Nouvelle
- 2023Design Systems certificate — Le Laptop
- 2024Sprint Master & Facilitation certificate — Le Laptop
- 2024Qualitative synthesis training — Indi Young
Selected case studies
BPCE · NEO3 · 2025
Energy sector · 2025–2026
PayFit · 2021
Sitgesmorzart · Lab · 2026
See all case studies
4 cases to explore how I work
Building a UX governance framework
Explore the case studyRecruiting 30 designers in under a year
Explore the case studyBuilding an e-commerce site through pair-programming with AI
Explore the case study
Shall we talk?
First call on me. 30 minutes, no commitment.