Francisco Guzman

Senior Staff Product Designer at

I head product design for Instagram Shopping, working hands‑on and stepping into product strategy when the path is unclear. Before Instagram, I worked entirely at startups as Nuro's first product designer and Instacart's second. I began in a role spanning product design and code after studying engineering and HCI at Stanford.

Work

A person browsing a product detail experience on a smartphone

Diagram connecting inspiration, creators and sellers, AI and Search, and product discovery

A fashion post displayed in the Instagram app on a smartphone

Instagram · Current

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.

Product call
Product discovery was scattered. For video, I proposed creator-timed product cards when automated tracking was not reliable enough. For Visual Search, I used pause as the entry and removed the picker when the model detected one product.
My scope
I head product design for Instagram Shopping as a formal IC, keeping creator, seller, Search, and AI work pointed at one content-native journey.
What changed
Creator cards and controls shipped. Visual Search reached public testing, with Search and ML partners owning the retrieval and model systems.

Meta Verified shown across Instagram surfaces

Close view of Meta Verified across Instagram Feed and Reels surfaces

Meta · 2023–2025

Making verification useful on Instagram

Meta Verified launched with a paid badge. I led Instagram design for the features around it, from trusted links to how verification appeared across surfaces.

Public launch

Product call
A badge alone was not enough. I helped shape a bounded Links in Reels experience that used verified identity, limited usage, and a restrained treatment to balance usefulness with platform trust.
My scope
I led Instagram design for Meta Verified’s benefits, translating a company subscription into experiences that fit Reels, profiles, and other Instagram surfaces.
What changed
Links shipped for eligible subscribers. I also led phased labels and notability work to keep verification clear without adding another badge.

Public launch

A Nuro autonomous delivery vehicle meeting a customer

A customer receiving a delivery from the Nuro vehicle compartment

Nuro · 2018–2019

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

Product call
Without a driver, key failures had no person on the scene to resolve them. I mapped the moments a driver normally handled and gave each one a new owner, including when a vehicle could not begin the trip on its own.
My scope
As Nuro’s first product designer, I worked across the customer app, vehicle interface, remote operations, and fleet tools.
What changed
The result was one service flow across people, hardware, autonomy, and operations. I’m a named inventor on Nuro’s remote-start patent.

View patent

An Instacart shopper selecting produce in a grocery store

Instacart · 2015–2018

Taking the guesswork out of grocery replacements

I designed core logistics and fulfillment experiences at Instacart, including the replacement system that connected shopper decisions with customer approvals.

Product call
Out-of-stock decisions happened mid-shop while shoppers and customers held different information. I turned that negotiation into a structured loop between shopper suggestions and customer approval.
My scope
As Instacart’s second product designer, I led core fulfillment and logistics experiences.
What changed
The decision returned to the shopper’s task while the order was still underway, making a stressful exception visible and recoverable.

Prismatic · 2013–2014

Exploring new ways to be social

I designed feedback systems for a personalized news feed and was part of the core team that redesigned Prismatic with Teehan+Lax.

Read the redesign case study

02 / Career

Early teams to global scale.

Instagram
2020–now
Senior Staff Product Designer
Head product design for Instagram Shopping as a hands-on IC. Previously managed seven designers, hired three, and coached three to promotion.
Nuro
2018–2019
First product designer
First designer across customer, vehicle, fleet, and remote-operations products.
Instacart
2015–2018
Second product designer
Second product designer, leading core logistics and fulfillment.
Prismatic
2013–2014
Interaction Designer
Worked across product design and code.

Education

Hand-drawn Stanford block S and redwood tree illustration

Stanford University

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

My background spans engineering, computer science, and HCI. I focused on social psychology and behavior change through lab research and a master's thesis.

03 / Contact

Let's talk.

I'm most interested in early products where the interaction model isn't obvious yet. If that sounds like what you're building, send me a note.