15+ years helping products and teams grow. Solving the best problems, in the best way, with the best people.

I’m currently Principal Product Designer at GitLab, the leading platform for software development, and one of the largest all-remote orgs.

I led GitLab’s first agentic design sprint, shaped the UX vision for AI in the IDE, and contributed to putting GitLab in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for AI Code Assistants. Over the years, I’ve supported the growth of design from 5 to 30+ people — from early startup days through IPO and beyond.

Before GitLab, I helped a startup grow 25% each month and hit #1 on Product Hunt. I also led design at a SaaS.

I turn fuzzy problems into clear directions. I ease design operations, establish useful design systems, and make sure what we build actually fits user and business needs. As a player-coach, I lead by example — mentoring, building culture, and staying close to the work. Hands-on and technical when it helps. Strategic and diplomatic when it matters.

I’ve given 20+ talks and workshops on AI UX, design strategy, and design culture — at events like Lisbon AI Week, LisboaUX, and World Usability Day.

Expertise

  • Design Leadership
  • Coaching and Mentoring
  • Product and UX Strategy
  • User Experience Design
  • Design Operations
  • Design Systems
  • Business Design
  • Remote Collaboration
  • Workshop Facilitation
  • Public Speaking ↗(opens in new window)

Experience

  1. – Present

    Principal Product Designer

    GitLab

    + More info - Less info

    Designing for software development at GitLab ↗(opens in new window) — products for Enterprise, AI, Code Review, Source Code, and Project Management. GitLab’s the leading open source platform and one of the largest all-remote orgs, trusted by 50%+ of Fortune 100 and 30m+ users. Helped mature UX, from 5 to 30+ designers, from startup to IPO and beyond. Job description ↗(opens in new window)

    Key results

    • First Principal Designer assigned to cross-cutting projects, to influence product strategy across teams.
    • Defined UX vision for agentic AI in code editors (IDE) that unblocked teams working on similar projects.
    • Facilitated design sprint for agentic AI that produced highly-rated concepts to support company’s vision.
    • Contributed to GitLab’s leadership in Gartner’s MQ for AI Code Assistants, by developing AI UX vision and strategy, establishing UX benchmarks, and aligning teams.
    • Established regular design critiques through facilitation and support materials.
    • Mentoring designers on leadership, communication, collaboration, iteration, and more.
    • My GitLab public recordings ↗(opens in new window)

  2. – Present

    Speaker & Workshop Facilitator

    Independent

    + More info - Less info

    20+ practical talks and workshops on AI UX, design strategy, and design culture. Available for talks, panel discussions, and workshops — remotely or in person, at your company or community.

    Key results

  3. –

    Staff Product Designer

    GitLab

    + More info - Less info

    Key results

    • Partnered with Google Cloud to unlock revenue stream and introduce the first cloud integration.
    • Redesigned the documentation homepage, resulting in 7% increase in ease of finding information.
    • Enhanced designer career progression and responsibilities. Boosted collaboration and belonging with distributed design studios and revamp of internal UX Forum call.
    • Improved planning and alignment by introducing prioritization sessions. Increased deliverable quality with an upgraded UX QA process.

  4. –

    Senior Product Designer

    GitLab

    + More info - Less info

    Key results

    • Improved usability and sales potential of revenue-drivers (Source Code and Code Review) by enhancing discoverability and integration of quality, security, and compliance features.
    • Scaled design system through coaching and contributions to process and all design layers. Introduced object modeling and semantic layouts.
    • Optimized design allocation and collaboration during team restructuring.
    • Piloted and improved our UX benchmark methods and metrics, such as SUS, ratio of strategic:reactive work, or UX scorecards.
    • Enhanced designer workload management with commitment inventory and other methods.
    • Interviewed ICs to Directors, and defined interviews for a diverse, global candidate pool. Onboarded new designers.

    Major learnings

    • Methods, tools, and rituals to mature a UX, from hiring to measuring impact.
    • Mentor and delegate work to junior designers.
    • Interview and create exercises for dozens of candidates.

  5. –

    Product Designer

    GitLab

    + More info - Less info

    Key results

    • Led first major navigation redesign, and introduced a workflow based on research, boosting user efficiency and satisfaction.
    • Established the design system and its foundations, ensuring consistency as the team and product grew.
    • Improved design operations by enhancing tooling, process, and contribution workflows.

    Major learnings

    • Iteration, reduce a solution to its most essential parts, learn fast.
    • Transparency, share more and often, inside and outside the company.
    • Communication, write and speak concisely and efficiently.
    • Collaboration, async with colleagues and users.
    • Efficiency, plan own work and adjust work environment for best output.

  6. –

    UX Teacher

    EDIT. Digital Design & Tech School

    + More info - Less info

    Lectured UX in the “Front-end Development” program: Content Strategy, Information Architecture, Interaction Design, and Responsive Web Design. Enabled students to embrace any kind of web challenge, from responsive websites to mobile apps. Students ranged from professional web designers and developers to recent graduates in IT and Design.

    Key results

    • Grew semester-over-semester enrollments, with continued development of an up-to-date program curriculum.
    • Assisted students growth and career paths through after-school mentoring.

    Major learnings

    • Continued own education, kept current with trends and industry best practices.

  7. –

    Design Consultant

    Independent

    + More info - Less info

    Consulted for Milan Design Week, British Council, Landing.jobs, SensesLab, ExperimentaDesign, Faculty of Architecture of Lisbon, Clube Português Artes e Ideias, Portuguese Popular Art Museum, among others.

    Key results

    • Contributed to 25% MoM growth of Landing.jobs with their redesign. After launch, they reached #1 on Product Hunt.

  8. –

    Product Designer

    Driven

    + More info - Less info

    Led UX Design on various projects at Driven (currently ALTA Digital), a strategy, design, and technology consultancy. Assisted in Front-end Development, Project Management, and Stakeholder Management. Designed internal and external branding. Worked with Drupal, AngularJS, Symfony, and Magento.

    Key results

    • Defined product strategies and roadmaps based on research, such as a mobile app and intranet for the largest postal company in Portugal (CTT).
    • Cultivated data-driven design and implemented website analytics.

    Major learnings

    • Consolidated knowledge of multiple business and user research methods.

  9. –

    UX Designer

    DRI

    + More info - Less info

    Led UX Design on various projects at DRI, an international customer experience consultancy. Assisted in Front-end Development, Project Management, and Stakeholder Management. Worked with World Health Organization, Galp Energy, DPD, and more. Played a major role in internal and external branding. Worked with Drupal, AngularJS, Symfony, Android, and SugarCRM.

    Key results

    • Boosted project completion speeds and visual cohesion with Style Tiles and Atomic Design.
    • Improved quality by cultivating detail-orientation and systematic organization.
    • Led the design of projects across platforms, audiences, and industries.
    • Enhanced dialogue among clients and coworkers with websites for responsive wireframes (used Pattern Lab).
    • Team was often praised by clients for timing, quality, and customer experience.
    • Wrote and spoke in public about workflows and responsive web design best practices.
    • Fostered the internal design culture, through talks and newsletters.

    Major learnings

    • Learned professional communication skills between stakeholders and coworkers.
    • Gained knowledge about project management, customer acquisition, and contracts.
    • Further fine-tuned ability to multitask and set priorities on major projects.
    • Consolidated knowledge of Agile approaches, such as Scrum and Kanban.

  10. –

    Designer

    Rupeal

    + More info - Less info

    Led design team at InvoiceXpress and worked on other products, such as BestTables (now TheFork by TripAdvisor). Regularly designed internal communication. Rupeal is a company that develops Software as a Service (SaaS) products and does IT staffing. Products and clients included the telco NOS and Jazzdesk, among others.

  11. –

    Lead Designer

    InvoiceXpress

    + More info - Less info

    Led design team for the product and website of InvoiceXpress, the #1 invoicing SaaS for SMBs in Portugal. Developed front-end for Ruby on Rails and WordPress. Mentored junior designers in UX, Product Strategy and Front-end Development.

    Key results

    • Led the website redesign, which stood for three years.
    • Revised product writing and introduced content style, voice, and tone.
    • Steered the product roadmap in a more solid way with personas.
    • Improved feature prioritization through user empathy and metrics analysis.
    • Cultivated data-driven design and implemented website analytics.
    • Educated junior designers in Front-end Development 101 in just a couple of months.

    Major learnings

    • Learned about startup stages and growth hacking approaches.
    • Mastered landing page conversion and lead generation techniques.
    • Applied Agile Software Development principles and best practices.
    • Fine-tuned ability to work and communicate in a team.
    • Got acquainted with software version control and application deployment.
    • Got visibility into the workings of a transparent company. Participated in internal discussions on payroll, workers compensation, and company structure.

  12. –

    Web Design Teacher

    iPROF

    + More info - Less info

    Introduced Web Design to people from a wide range of backgrounds, with little IT knowledge, and no relation to Design. Program included: Internet vs Web, networks/protocols, project planning, methodologies, usability and accessibility, wireframes and mockups, and basic HTML/CSS. Responsible for course planning, educational materials, and student assessment.

Elsewhere

  • Resume @ LinkedIn
  • Microblog @ X