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JIM SABIA
Founder, Director of Product, UX-UI

Jim founded Umano I/O on the premise that great products, great user experiences and access to them are not a privilege, but a necessity.

An accomplished and innovative product leader, Jim has over 15 years of experience designing focused, relevant products for desktop, mobile, web, and interactive TV applications.

Jim is also a skilled team leader able to motivate and inspire product teams to deliver groundbreaking work in a fast-paced, deadline-driven environment. He’s an expert at finding imaginative solutions to technical problems and a specialist in user-centered design principles.

What drives Jim most is the sharing of knowledge. Whether it’s helping teams work through design sprints or cultivating the skills and techniques to allow groups to problem solve for themselves — teaching is the fuel that sustains him.

When he's not helping clients develop better products, you can find Jim helping build the next great school in Virginia. 


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MONIROM SOUTHAKAKOUMAR
CoFounder, Design Director, UX-UI

Monirom is an anomaly. An amalgam of graphic design, advertising, PR, publication, brand, and identity design — as seen through the lens of a product designer. He's been working in mobile app and web design long before the advent of smartphones.

With 16+ years of experience in both hands-on and design management roles, he's plied his talents at boutique studios, global agencies, tech giants, and scrappy/late-stage start-ups.

Monirom is constant in his ability to spark the gears of inspiration and start the creative process. He loves to color outside the lines and eat paste, break things, and put them back together again.

He's designed for the likes of TechCrunch, Engadget, the Huffington Post, Proctor & Gamble, Miller Brewing, Microsoft, National Geographic, Pfizer, AOL, Ford Motor Company, US Airways, and the AIA. (as well as several places he can’t disclose because of NDAs etc.)

Monirom's past work includes campaigns that gave voice to the tragedy in Darfur, multilingual collateral for the World Health Organization, graphic support for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's effort to improve education in America, congressional reports for the DHS, and designs for DaimlerChrysler's campaign to reduce teen driving fatalities.

He's drawn to design that makes a difference since we all should be yearning to be part of something greater than ourselves.