Launching Flights at Booking.com
Years
Jul 2018 – Dec 2021 (3 years, 6 months)
Role
Founding Designer and Team Lead → Design Manager
Team
60+ cross-functional team; built and led 8-person design team
Impact
49M tickets annually across 55 markets
Years
Jul 2018 – Dec 2021 (3 years, 6 months)
Role
Founding Designer and Team Lead → Design Manager
Team
60+ cross-functional team; built and led 8-person design team
Impact
49M tickets annually across 55 markets
I joined as the third person and sole product designer on a new Flights team at Booking.com. I led design end-to-end—from search through booking confirmation—defining the MVP alongside engineering and product under supplier API constraints.
As the product matured, I expanded my scope beyond design execution into team and organizational leadership. I established design as an equal partner within the org, grew cross-functional leadership capacity (including supporting a senior engineer’s transition into management), and led the team through COVID as a culture carrier. This included running a longitudinal study that informed company-wide remote work policy.
Before leaving, I delivered the 2022 product vision and helped scale the organization to over 60 cross-functional contributors. Today, the Flights business sells 49 million tickets annually across 55 markets.
The Challenge
Booking.com had no flights product, despite being the world’s largest accommodation platform. Most trips start with a flight booking. Capturing that moment was critical to bringing users into the ecosystem earlier and strengthening the company’s “Connected Trip” strategy. This was a new business, built from zero.
My Role
Before Flights, I had already led 0→1 product work at Booking.com, designing and launching a ground transportation product across Europe. That work directly informed Booking Holdings’ decision to integrate RentalCars.com into Booking.com as a business unit.
When the company decided to launch Flights, I was selected as the founding product designer and team lead, responsible for building and managing the engineering team as it formed. I led the engineering team through launch.
After launch, I transitioned a senior engineer into an engineering manager role. As the organization scaled, I built and led the design function across product and content design.
What I Actually Did
The Outcome
The Flights product launched in September 2019 and scaled globally, becoming a central part of Booking Holdings’ strategy to build a full-trip platform. By 2024, the business was selling 49 million airline tickets annually across 55 markets, with revenue growing 64% year-over-year in 2023 and over 400% in its first four years.
I left Booking.com at the end of 2021, after delivering the 2022 vision, so I’m not claiming credit for the full trajectory. I designed the foundation as the sole designer, built the teams, and shipped the product that enabled that growth.
Beyond the product, I helped shape how the organization operated—how cross-functional teams aligned, how design influenced direction, and how leadership scaled with the business.
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