Rosina Bosco, MFAD ’11 is currently the Co-Founder and Chief Creative Officer of Flatirons Development: a digital product development consultancy with a focus on strategic product design and user research for early stage companies.

What have you been doing professionally?
Since graduating SVA in 2011 I entered a career as a software designer. I’ve worked in both small startups and larger organizations running user research, UX/UI design, and product design strategy. Some companies I’ve worked for include: The New York Times, XO Group (The Knot), Amplify Learning, and Gust. I’ve taken those experiences into the current and most exciting chapter of my career.

For the last two years my business partner at Flatirons Development and I have combined our engineering and design backgrounds to work closely with early-stage founders to help their ideas and products go to market. Seeing their products thrive in the real world has been a personal and professional joy.

Why did you decide to create your own company?
The freedom and autonomy of starting my own business loomed large over the decision. But there is a huge satisfaction in lending my expertise to building products and helping to guide other founders and their startups through the right process of getting their ideas out into the world and to their target audience.

My partner and I love to share success, and to that end we’ve grown to a team of 8 (5 engineers, 2 UX/UI designers, and a sales & marketing lead) and have helped a dozen startups bring their ideas to fruition.

What are some of your favorite projects that you’ve worked on?
Two projects come to mind. The first, dtour.life, is a SaaS platform that helps recently separated couples navigate the emotional challenges of their divorce in a way that takes the edge off the legal details. It’s almost like TurboTax for divorce. The second, VictoryLap, is an app that helps organizations match with entry level sales reps while providing much needed education and methodologies to those reps. It serves both the organization and the sales rep to hit the ground running. 

Who inspires YOU?
Tina Roth Eisenberg was my thesis advisor while at SVA and continues to inspire me today. Her entrepreneurial spirit has made such an impact on the design community. When she was helping me with my thesis back in 2011, she had started Creative Mornings and was in the midst of launching Tattly. To see how far she has taken these companies since then is incredible. She has always had a contagious enthusiasm for entrepreneurialism and community development, and I’m honored to have had the opportunity to work with her.

How do you stay inspired?
I’m perpetually curious about the digital products I encounter on the web. How they comparatively solve user problems and their unique approaches to the user experience. In creating a frictionless user experience, it’s never about recreating the wheel, it’s about appropriately leveraging patterns that people are already using everyday in a seamless way.

Do you have any advice for current students?
Give 200% of yourself to this program. It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity to develop your voice and learn who you really are as a design professional. There will always be someone who is better than you at something, so stay true to yourself and find your voice — it’s the only thing that will differentiate your work from that of your peers.

Aside from the late nights/early mornings working hard and bonding with your classmates, it’s the exposure to legendary instructors and mentors was my favorite part.

Tell us about how SVA MFA Design may have influenced your career?
This program has had a tremendous impact on my career. I don’t know if I ever would have pursued a career in software design if it weren’t for my thesis, a mobile app called Wildhood, which forced me out of my comfort zone (print design) and challenged me to think like an interaction designer. SVA taught me the foundations of user research and user experience: the importance of building products for other people – recognizing their problems, pain points, and needs; understanding who they are and how a product could fit into their daily life, and meeting them where they live. 

If you could choose a thesis topic today, what would you do?
I’ve become quite the avid home cook and there aren’t any websites to help me organize my recipes. I really wanted to design one, but with a growing business and clients to serve, it’s hard to find time for personal projects. When Adobe asked me to perform a live demo of XD, I took the opportunity to create a recipe site in front of a live online audience!
You can view them here:
Day 1: https://youtu.be/CgiEDkRhwKY
Day 2: https://youtu.be/EqjWT1g6o6U

Visit flatironsdevelopment.com to learn more about Rosina’s company, what they do, and how they do it.