Sara holds the position of Head of Innovation and previously served as Head for Center of Excellence, Head of Customer Experience at ThoughtWorks' Office of the CIO. She collaborates closely with the CIO to craft strategies and oversee the implementation of special initiatives, focusing on areas such as customer experience, design strategy, product management, and Gen AI.
Thoughworks is a leading global technology consultancy with a workforce of over 10,000 employees worldwide. With over 8 years of experience within the organization, Sara has held various leadership roles.
She started as a design consultant for global organizations, guiding them through digital transformation projects across various industries including finance, retail, events, government, fashion, and food. She served as Head of Customer Experience for TechOps, the largest distributed function within ThoughtWorks, comprising over 300+ employees worldwide. Sara also spearheaded the Design Strategy for the multi-year Global Program called "Talent Tech," aimed at enhancing the overall experience to support the continuous development of employees globally. The project won the Merit Award in the People Development Stream in May 2024.
Sara is passionate about cultivating product and service-oriented cultures, advocating for responsible tech practices such as digital accessibility and sustainability. She is also a co-author of the Data Awesome Academy, which promotes a human-centered approach to data. In addition, Sara provides coaching to leaders and teams on lean experimentation, product thinking, and service design practices.
Prior to joining ThoughtWorks, Sara led design strategy initiatives for several startups, including Solair, which was acquired by Microsoft in 2016 in Bologna, and SafetyCulture, one of Australia's startup unicorns, in Sydney.
She is also a TEDx speaker, a General Assembly instructor and an amateur illustrator.
awards
Service Design Award - Finalist in the Professional Commercial category
Unlocking Employee Growth and Business Success through Service Design
Oct 2024 - Global Service Design Conference - Helsinki - website
Merit Award - Winner in the People Development category
TalentTech as a differentiator: how Thoughtworks cultivates and grows talents
May 2024 - SDA Bocconi School of Management - Milan - website
UX Design Award - Nomination in the Concept category
Domini: the AI-powered Business Analysis Assistant
July 2024 - UX Design Award - website
conferences & EVENTS
A battle-Tested framework for Building a High-Value IT Department
October 2024 - Codemotion - Milan
AI for Developing Countries (AIFOD)
July 2024 - United Nations - Vienna - website
TalentTech as a differentiator
May 2024 - Merit Summit, SDA Bocconi School of Management - Milan
Business value articulation: talking about the impact of our work
October 2023 - Talk for Codemotion Italia - Milan - website & recording
Devs meet Ethics: Sustainability
October 2023 - Co-speaker Mauro Bennici- Live Twitch from Codemotion Italia - Milan
Workshop: The Accessibility Playbook. A beginner’s guide to web accessibility
October 2023 - Co-speaker Minette Mangahas and Larissa Günther - Intersection Conference - Turin - website & playbook
Shift your mindset on Accessibility & Inclusion
July 2023 - DnA Conference - Wuhan - slides & recording
Dalla Progettazione alla Strategia
April 2023 - Talk for Codemotion - Tech Career Compass -Milan - recording
Making everyone Data Awesome
October 2022 - Talk for Intersection Conference - Turin - link
Shift your mindset on Accessibility & Inclusion
September 2022 - Talk for YConf Europe - recording
Shift your mindset on Accessibility & Inclusion
March 2022 - Talk for Codemotion Italia - recording
Codemotion - Rome, Italy
March 2019 - Co-speaker with Alessandro Confetti - Codemotion Rome builds its own first tech radar!
Codemotion - Rome, Italy
March 2019 - Co-speaker with Alberto Forni - Design & Development: How to put your ego aside and make it work.
Codemotion - Milan, Italy
Nov 2018 - Co-speaker with Alessandro Confetti - Italian Communities Tech Radar
Italian Women in Innovation and Entrepreneurship (ITWIIN)
Nov 2018 - Co- speaker with Allegra Bandinelli - Women in Tech: diversity & inclusion - Venice
ThoughtWorks Local Office Day
Oct 2018 - Italian Communities Tech Radar - London
Intersection conference - UI & Development
Oct 2018 - Co-speaker with Alberto Forni - Design & Development: How to put your ego aside and make it work - Milan
Service Design Drinks - Bologna
July 2018 - Panelist - Democratisation of the design process
Explore Talk - Milan
May 2018 - Speaker - Servitization: the stomach wars and the future of retail
Zanichelli
May 2018 - Speaker - How to work with data - Bologna
Nokia
May 2018 - Co-speaker with Matteo Vaccari - Be agile in enterprise - Bologna
Google
Feb 2018 - Mentor at Google Design Sprint for start-ups - Milan
Service Design Drinks - Milan
2017-2018 - ThoughtWorks Host
Politecnico di Milano - MA in Service Design
Dec 2017 - Speaker - Service Design at ThoughtWorks
Sketchnote Meetup - London
2016-2017 - ThoughtWorks Host
Behance Portfolio Review - London
2016-2017 - Organiser
Dribbble Meetup - London
Jan 2017 - Organiser
ThoughtWorks Local Office Day - London
Apr 2016 - Speaker - The power of visualising conversations
University of Manchester - Manchester
Mar 2016 - Speaker - A day in the life of a UX designer at ThoughtWorks
TEDx
May 2015 - Speaker - Everybody is an experience designer - recording
Start-up Weekend - Townsville, Australia
Nov 2014 - Speaker - Everybody is an experience designer
General Assembly - Sydney, Australia
Feb 2014 - Panelist - Career switch from visual design to user experience
puBlications, PODCASTS & FEATURES
Co-Designing a Global Employee Experience: A Decade of Innovation and Impact
Article published on ServiceDesingNetwork.com - article available exclusively to SDN members - 2024
Driving innovation at Thoughtworks: The power of hackathons
Article published on ThoughtWorks.com - article - 2024
An integrated talent ecosystem designed for growth
Featured - Article published on ThoughtWorks.com - article - 2024
How Business Leaders can leverage accessibility to innovate
Article published on ThoughtWorks.com - article - 2023
How Business Leaders can leverage accessibility to innovate
Article published on Medium - article - 2023
案例分享：可访问性数据驱动业务价值增长
Article published on ThoughtWorks China WeChat - article - 2023
在世界无障碍日谈谈为什么要做无障碍设计
Article published on ThoughtWorks China WeChat - article - 2023
How to raise awareness and build capabilities with simple and engaging accessibility content
Article published on ThoughtWorks.com - article - 2023
A11yOps: Automated digital compliance for Accessibility
Article published on ThoughtWorks.com - article - 2023
Dalla Progettazione alla Strategia
Codemotion - Tech Career Compass - podcast Spotify - 2023
Reimagining the employee experience through a new self-service portal
Article on Thoughtworks.com - article - 2023
Making Data Awesome
Podcast available on BarryO’Reilly.com - podcast - 2022
The Data Awesome Framework
Article available on ThoughtWorks.com - article - 2022
Five tips from the Data Awesome Frontline
Article available on ThoughtWorks.com - article - 2022
Why do data platforms fail?
Article available on ThoughtWorks.com - article - 2021
It is cheaper to fix a mistake before you make it
Featured by UX Collective & UX News.
Article available on ThoughtWorks.com - article - 2020
Going beyond the classic competitive analysis matrix
Featured by UX Collective & Medium.
Article available on ThoughtWorks.com - article - 2020
Accelerate employee’s growth by fostering a “Cultivation” culture
By Sara Michelazzo and Sylvia Le Hong
Article available on ThoughtWorks.com - link - 2020
Driving Change: evolving our Culture through Design
By Sara Michelazzo and Samantha Rosa
Article available on ThoughtWorks.com - article - 2019
ThoughtWorks Global Code of Conduct
Design Lead - link - 2019
ThoughtWorks Feedback Playbook
Design Lead - ThoughtWorks Internal only - 2019
ThoughtWorks Growth Guide
Design Lead - ThoughtWorks Internal only - 2019
An Inclusion & Diversity Manifesto
Illustrator - ThoughtWorks Internal only - 2019
The review journal by Sara Michelazzo & Praveena Fernandes
Get your free copy: http://www.saramichelazzo.com/reviewjournal
When the governance is guided by the purpose by Marina Capizzi
L’Impresa, Italian Magazine of Management - Febbraio 2018
Organisations without hierarchies to anticipate the markets by Gaspare Caliri
Skille: La bussola per chi fa innovazione, L'eco di Bergamo - August 2018 Link
Understanding Design Thinking, Lean, and Agile by Jonny Schneider
Illustrator - O'Reilly 2017. Get your free copy: http://thght.works/2gOQcuf
The gift of feedback by Sara Michelazzo & Karen Williams
Download a free copy of the Feedback Booklet in English or in Spanish.
Featured by Pat Kua's blog 2017 - CTO @ N26
products
BYOR Voting App (open source) is a companion app for the ThoughtWorks Build Your Own Radar (BYOR) exercise that allows simplifying how to collect and consolidate blips to generate a Tech Radar with large crowds of technologists. Github repositories: BYOR-VotingApp [web-app] | BYOR VotingApp [server] | BYOR-VotingApp [infrastructure]
ARtology app showcases pioneering artists experimenting with the impacts of new technologies. With the ARtology app, you can explore these works interactively and experience these ideas through Augmented Reality. Link