# Sami Surakka - Product Designer Portfolio

> Lead Product Designer at Cambri. I help companies turn design into business leverage. Focus: B2B, complex systems, and safety- or mission-critical product design. Red Dot Design Award–nominated work; craft and taste are the bar for what ships. Case studies span product design, UX design, design sprints, and design leadership across healthcare, infrastructure, maritime, emergency response, fintech, and market research. Much of my work is under client confidentiality; the portfolio shows what can be shared.

## Main Sections

- [Home](https://samisurakka.com/): Portfolio homepage with work overview and case study links
- [About](https://samisurakka.com/about): Background, approach, and experience
- [Contact](https://samisurakka.com/contact): Contact information and inquiry form

## Case Studies

- [Cambri Reporting](https://samisurakka.com/work/cambri-reporting): Insights from leading product design at Cambri, an AI-powered market research platform. Creating practical, data-driven UX focused on speed, clarity, and measurable ROI of design decisions. The work demonstrates how thoughtful design can transform complex data into actionable insights for business users. Client feedback: "Sami has a great ability to turn complex ideas and constraints into clear, intuitive solutions. He challenges when needed, always keeps the user in focus, and is incredibly easy to collaborate with."
- [Tietoevry Patient Monitoring](https://samisurakka.com/work/tietoevry-patient-monitoring): Redesigning a remote patient monitoring system for home-care healthcare professionals. Improved clarity, reliability, and cross-product cohesion across the product family, including Patient insights and 360° Training. Beyond visual design, modernized the design process itself by aligning development, design, and product management workflows. Client feedback: "The development team greatly benefited from Sami in planning the implementation, and based on the teams' feedback, Sami iterated the designs as needed. Over the year, the appearance of the products evolved in a more professional direction, making them pleasant to use."
- [Groke Fleet](https://samisurakka.com/work/groke-fleet): Groke Fleet, a real-time fleet monitoring tool for maritime operators providing comprehensive oversight of vessels and voyage data. Designed the system's user experience and visual interface, focusing on surfacing the right information at the right time. The challenge was making complex spatial and sensor data readable and actionable from a distance over multiple vessels, resulting in a Red Dot Design Award nomination. Client feedback: "Before Sami joined, the design work was expensive and significantly slower. With Sami's help, Groke's design process became twice as fast and half as costly."
- [Groke Pro](https://samisurakka.com/work/groke-pro): Groke Pro, a mission-critical maritime navigation system using AI-powered object detection and sensor fusion for safe ship navigation. Responsible for redesigning the interface with emphasis on clarity and safety under demanding operational conditions. Established the design language for the product family, balancing advanced technology with a futuristic, intuitive user experience suited for high-stakes environments. Client feedback: "Before Sami joined, the design work was expensive and significantly slower. With Sami's help, Groke's design process became twice as fast and half as costly."
- [Insta: Emergency Response System](https://samisurakka.com/work/insta-emergency-response-system): UX leadership for a large, multi-agency emergency response system used by multiple organizations. Started as a UX trainee and quickly became the sole usability expert, driving user research, workflow design, and tooling modernization. Helped grow the UX team and established a leaner, more structured design process, learning to operate in highly regulated, high-stakes environments where usability has real-world consequences.
- [RISE Concept](https://samisurakka.com/work/rise-concept): RISE, a crisis-management concept designed for NGOs and disaster response teams operating in high-pressure scenarios. The system combines situational awareness, clear prioritization mechanisms, and coordinated decision-making tools. Designed with a modern, futuristic interface that helps responders make critical decisions quickly during natural disasters and emergencies.
- [Infrastructure Project Management](https://samisurakka.com/work/infrastructure-project-management): Simplifying complex infrastructure workflows through UX design: redesigning error-tolerance processes and creating a new communication tool for public project transparency. The work demonstrates practical UX that makes technical systems more accessible and easier to use. Focused on improving both internal workflows and public-facing transparency tools.
- [WeatherTech Demo](https://samisurakka.com/work/weathertech-demo): Designing a high-impact internal demo for a Finnish weather technology company to secure buy-in for a new product initiative. Delivered fast concepting with strong visual direction and a cohesive experience. The demo successfully demonstrated the product's potential and helped secure internal support for the new initiative.

## Additional Resources

- [Sitemap](https://samisurakka.com/sitemap.xml): Complete sitemap of all pages
- [Robots.txt](https://samisurakka.com/robots.txt): Crawler instructions

## Skills & Expertise

### Core Design Disciplines
- Product Design
- UX Design
- UI Design
- User Experience Research
- Design Strategy
- Design Sprints
- Design Leadership
- Design Systems

### Technical Expertise
- AI-powered interfaces and automation
- Data visualization and analytics dashboards
- Complex data-driven applications
- Enterprise software design
- Safety-critical interfaces
- Real-time monitoring systems
- Spatial data visualization

### Industry Experience
- Healthcare systems (patient monitoring, remote care)
- Maritime navigation and fleet management
- Emergency response systems
- Infrastructure project management
- Financial services (KYC, investment platforms)
- Market research and analytics platforms
- Crisis management tools

### Design Approach
- User-centered design methodology
- Craft and taste as the bar for what ships (Red Dot Design Award–nominated work)
- Pragmatic, context-aware solutions
- Cross-functional team collaboration
- Process modernization and optimization
- Design system establishment
- High-stakes, regulated environments

## About the Designer

Sami Surakka is a Lead Product Designer (currently @ Cambri) with a focus on turning design into business leverage. His work has been nominated for the Red Dot Design Award; he treats craft and taste as the bar for what ships, not just process. His approach is pragmatic rather than dogmatic: building understanding and delivering meaningful, working solutions across B2B, complex systems, and safety- or mission-critical domains—from emergency response and maritime navigation to healthcare, infrastructure, and fintech. Design is not just the process; it's the end result.