Francisco Guzman

Senior Staff Product Designer at Instagram.

I lead design for Instagram's shopping experiences. Previously, I helped launch our first subscription business and was an early product designer at Instacart and Nuro.

Abstract hand-drawn planes and nodes forming a connected system

Work

A fashion post displayed in the Instagram app on a smartphone
Instagram fashion post · Lance Reis / Pexels
Instagram · Current

Shop Everything

Project details

Problem

People discover products in photos and videos, but Instagram's shopping tools were split across creators, sellers, Search, and separate AI work.

What I did

Use the content itself as the starting point. For visual search, I recommended a pause-triggered entry and removed a product picker when the model could detect only one item.

Outcome

The concept was tested with people. The broader work now connects creator tagging, seller tools, Search, and AI-assisted discovery.

Finding products at the moment of inspiration

People often want to learn more about products they see in posts and videos. I lead design for Instagram Shopping, from creator recommendations and AI-assisted discovery through in-app checkout.

Meta Verified shown across Instagram surfaces
Instagram surfaces
Close view of Meta Verified across Instagram Feed and Reels surfaces
Feed and Reels

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Meta · 2022–2023

Meta Verified

Project details

Problem

Instagram needed reasons to subscribe beyond a badge. It also had to add links without bringing back the spam and safety problems that had kept them restricted.

What I did

Use verification as the trust check for links. Label subscribers first, delay labels for everyone else, and focus the first benefits on things creators already needed.

Outcome

Meta Verified launched in 2023 with verification, account support, impersonation protection, and subscriber features.

Building a truly useful subscription

Meta Verified began as a paid badge. I led Instagram design for the features around it, making the subscription more useful for creators and businesses.

Public launch
A Nuro autonomous delivery vehicle meeting a customer
Delivery system
A customer receiving a delivery from the Nuro vehicle compartment
Customer handoff

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Nuro · 2018–2019

Nuro

Project details

Problem

Removing the driver also removed the familiar delivery handoff and many operational fallbacks.

What I did

I designed one service flow across the customer app, vehicle interface, remote start, and fleet operations, including what happened when the vehicle could not begin a trip on its own.

Outcome

The remote-start work is documented in US Patent 11,623,657.

Designing delivery without a driver

A driver normally confirms the address, finds the customer, and hands over the order. As Nuro's first product designer, I designed how the customer, vehicle, remote operator, and fleet team handled those moments without one.

View patent
An Instacart shopper selecting produce in a grocery store
Shopper fulfillment
Instacart · 2015–2018

Instacart

Project details

Problem

When an item was out of stock, shoppers and customers had to negotiate a substitute through slow, unstructured messages while the order was underway.

What I did

I designed a replacement flow that suggested substitutes, let customers approve or choose another option, and translated the decision into the shopper's active task list.

Outcome

The system became a durable part of Instacart's fulfillment experience and helped establish a pattern now common across grocery delivery products.

Taking the guesswork out of grocery replacements

When an item was out of stock, shoppers and customers had to work out a substitute by message. As Instacart's second product designer, I designed a replacement system that turned that back-and-forth into clear recommendations and approvals.

Earlier work

Prismatic

Prismatic topic and interest interface
Prismatic · 2013–2014

Giving people control of the feed

I designed reactions and gestures people could use to tune a personalized news feed.

Read case study

03 / About

A little about me.

Home

Dominican Republic to Brooklyn

I grew up in the Dominican Republic and now live in Brooklyn.

Hand-drawn journey from the Dominican Republic to a Brooklyn brownstone

Making music

Songs, poetry, and singing

I write songs and poetry, and sing whenever I can.

Hand-drawn open journal, musical notes, and microphone

Away from the screen

Travel and fitness

I love exploring new places and making fitness part of everyday life.

Hand-drawn passport, boarding pass, and running shoe

About card 1 of 3

Career

  1. Instagram2020–now

    Senior Staff Product Designer

    Shopping and product discovery · Managed up to seven designers; now lead multi-team work as an IC

  2. Nuro2018–2019

    First product designer

  3. Instacart2015–2018

    Second product designer

  4. PrismaticMar 2013–Dec 2014

    Interaction Designer

Hand-drawn Stanford block S and redwood tree illustration

Stanford University

MS
Symbolic Systems · Human-Computer Interaction
BS
Management Science & Engineering

Symbolic Systems combines computer science, linguistics, psychology, and communication to study how people and intelligent systems interact. I focused on HCI, social psychology, and behavior change through lab research and a master's thesis.

04 / Contact

Contact

If the work feels relevant, reach out. I'm happy to share more about how I think and work.

LinkedIn
Hand-drawn paper airplane in flight