I help organizations understand what people need, and build what comes next.
I help creative talent own their careers.
For 15+ years I have led design and research everywhere from early stage startups to Verily Health, Autodesk, and Adobe, most recently on AI products and Responsible AI.
For organizations, I help teams move from early ideas to shipped products through research, design strategy, product design, and fractional leadership.
For creative professionals, I coach people earlier in their careers. It started as a way to give back, and it is some of the work I care most about.
Happy to share more work samples on request. Connect with me on LinkedIn.
A few things I have led
Verily Health (Alphabet) · Autodesk · Adobe Research · EPAM · Stanford · Early stage startups
Secured $2M+ in investment through executive storytelling and platform vision. Received Autodesk's CEO Award, recognizing the top 1% of performers.
Full case studies available on request.
Precision Health Platform
Led design for Verily's precision health platform, operating in early stage R&D to define AI enabled clinical enterprise workflows from 0 to 1. Established foundational platform architecture and unified interaction patterns across ambiguous, fragmented systems, and defined AI native decision support frameworks that increase transparency and trust.
Partnered with Brand on the investor deep dive and platform storytelling that secured the platform's investment. The architecture defined that year is the foundation the platform is built on today.
Responsible AI and Red Teaming
Partnered with data ethicist Dr. Rumman Chowdhury to build a custom generative AI prototype studying trust, bias, and transparency, and coached teams on red teaming research methods.
Contributed to Autodesk's Trusted AI principles and internal governance framework. Cited in Dr. Chowdhury's TED Talk, "Your Right to Repair AI Systems", as an example of industry best practice. I have since spoken publicly on designing Responsible AI, including a Girl Geek X talk.
3D Visualization Platform
Led UX strategy for Autodesk's 3D visualization platform, designing complex, visually rich interactive solutions including Autodesk Viewer and Viewer SDK, used by millions of creative professionals globally. Visualization experiences had evolved independently across products, creating fragmentation, so I created a shared viewing system framework unifying navigation, tools, and interaction patterns across the ecosystem.
Completion rates increased 53% overall and 63% for large files, improving workflow continuity and enabling scalable platform growth.
Autodesk Viewer, used by millions of creative professionals.
Learning Platform and Certification
Certification was a one time, in person, third party exam with no learning data and no visibility into progress. My reframe: make learning a journey and certification a milestone.
Transformed Autodesk's global certification program into a scalable digital learning ecosystem: dashboards, in product recognition, online certification, and data driven pathways.
For Organizations
I help teams move from early ideas to shipped products. I bring research, design, and technology together so people across disciplines can work as one team and create new products and services, drawing on 15+ years leading design and research, from early stage startups to Verily Health, Autodesk, and Adobe.
For companies, startups, universities, design schools, and foundations, across the U.S. and Latin America, in English and Spanish.
What I bring
Four areas of work. Engagements usually combine two or three, scoped to your goals, timeline, and budget.
Fractional Design & Research Leadership
Senior design and research leadership embedded in your team, without a full time hire. Engagements typically run 3 to 6 months.
I work alongside your team, setting creative direction, guiding research, and developing your designers and researchers.
The systems, processes, and team culture that let the work grow without losing quality.
I work independently, so I have no politics and no competing priorities. Just the work.
Market & User Research
Market, user, and human and AI interaction research that tells your team what people need, and whether they will trust what you build.
Market and user insight for early stage products, synthesized into a clear picture of the problem worth solving.
Built on my work with data ethicist Dr. Rumman Chowdhury at Autodesk: how people interpret, believe, and act on AI output, and red teaming to find bias, risk, and failure before you ship.
I hand off directly into design and product, so the research never becomes a report nobody opens.
Design Strategy & Product Design
From early ideas to shipped products: framing the right problem, defining the product and its value, and designing and prototyping it, including where AI belongs.
Framing the opportunity worth pursuing and defining what to build, for whom, and why.
Designing new products from first concept to launch, with testable prototypes in days, including AI-assisted builds close enough to real software to test before committing engineering.
An honest look at where AI adds value in your product and workflows, and where it does not.
Designing how AI agents and assistants speak, listen, and respond to how people feel, so they earn trust in the moments that matter, like health, money, and big decisions.
Executive and investor narratives that turn strategy into funding and momentum.
Workshops & Capability Building
Workshops and programs that equip teams to collaborate across disciplines and create new products and services, on AI, innovation, design thinking, and creative leadership.
When a program needs depth beyond mine, I curate AI practitioners, researchers, and domain experts, coordinated by one person.
Facilitation for ideation days, alignment workshops, and offsites where every voice contributes.
Programs built around your real challenges, for teams and leaders, and for universities and design schools.
Get in touch about your organization →
For Creative Professionals
Coaching emerging creative talent is one of my passions. I have hired, managed, and promoted designers, sat on the other side of the portfolio review, and built the teams you are trying to join, and mentoring the people coming up behind me has always been the part I enjoy most.
I work with UX, product, and brand designers, researchers, product managers, strategists, and marketing professionals: new graduates, international students navigating an unfamiliar job market, and people several years in who want to grow on their own terms. Managers come and go, feedback is scarce, and too many talented people are left to figure out their growth alone.
Sessions in English and Spanish, wherever you are.
What we work on together
Three areas most people want help with. We usually touch all three, in whatever order fits where you are.
Creative Confidence and Portfolio
Most emerging creative professionals have the skills. What they're missing is the belief that their perspective belongs in the room, and a portfolio that proves it.
We surface what makes your work and perspective distinctive, and build from that, not from what you think you're supposed to be.
We rebuild your case studies so they show how you understand problems, make decisions, and deliver.
Present your work clearly, handle feedback and critique, and speak up in meetings with confidence.
Mock interviews with someone who has sat on the hiring side. We practice your stories and the hard questions for every round, from the recruiter call to the final panel.
"Her management style is marked by compassion AND passion. She helps us lean into our strengths, rather than only focusing on areas of growth. Quite refreshing."
Navigating the Workplace
Org dynamics are real. Politics are real. The jump between a startup and a large organization is a real adjustment. None of it has to derail you.
How to adjust your message for any audience without losing your point of view, in team reviews, executive presentations, and everything between.
How to build influence, navigate competing priorities, and stay effective when the structure around you keeps changing.
What makes you strong in a startup and what gets valued in a large org overlap, but they're not the same. We map the gap before you land in it.
Own Your Career
Your manager will change. The team will restructure. Your career cannot be what waits for those things to stop happening.
The mindset, strategy, and habits that make your trajectory yours, regardless of who is in the seat above you. That is the whole point.
Part of coaching is knowing when someone else is the better answer. I connect people to others in my network worth meeting, workshops worth taking, and communities worth joining.
Not just "what should I apply for", but what kind of designer or creative leader you want to become, and how to get there deliberately.
Ways to work together
Start with a free 30 minute intro call. No commitment. We talk through where you are and figure out together which of these fits, if any.
Sessions and packages
Spark Session · $175 · one 75 minute session
One focused conversation. Portfolio, story, career direction, or a challenge you're sitting with. You leave with a clear next step.
Growth Package · $650 · four 60 minute sessions over 6 to 8 weeks
Async feedback between sessions. Portfolio, presentations, and career strategy, for a real shift in how you show up.
Ongoing Mentorship · $400 per month · two 60 minute sessions monthly
Plus async support between them for portfolio reviews, prep before a big presentation, or a question you need answered this week. Month to month, cancel anytime.
Many companies offer a learning and development budget that covers career coaching. I provide itemized invoices for reimbursement, and I can bill your employer directly if that is easier.
"Daniela's curiosity and creativity has been a critical component to building a vision that is inspirational and impactful. Her humility allows you to comfortably lay out half-baked ideas."
"Your facilitation made everyone feel comfortable and confident sharing opinions, ideas, and feedback. Thank you for bringing us together and helping scale our project."
"You have been an invaluable thought partner in putting together a program across the platform and the company. I feel I have a true partner in leading platform design in the right direction."
About
I came to the U.S. from Latin America as a Fulbright Scholar with a portfolio, ambition, and no map. Figuring it out the hard way is a large part of why I do this work now.
My background is in Experience Design and research, rooted in Design Thinking at Stanford, where I learned to start with people and let the problem shape the solution.
Education runs underneath all of it: I'm an avid learner, and I've designed learning ecosystems for millions of users, taught design thinking to everyone from executives to fourth graders, including seven years at The Nueva School, and grown design teams who mentor each other into stronger practitioners.
Most of my work has happened early, in R&D and early stage product, where ideas are still taking shape. At Adobe Research, Autodesk Research, Verily Health (formerly Google Life Sciences, an Alphabet company), and early stage startups, I have led design and research that took ideas from zero to launch, prototyping technology before it had a market, from early machine learning for creative tools to generative and clinical AI. Along the way I have led UX strategy for Autodesk Viewer, used by millions, run market and user research, led Responsible AI research and red teaming, and picked up a patent at Adobe Research.
I'm also an avid storyteller, whether that means helping a large company make the case for funding a new business line, or helping early-stage startups craft the narrative that earns their next round.
Trabajo también en español, en toda Latinoamérica
Llevo más de 15 años liderando diseño e investigación, desde startups en etapa temprana hasta Verily Health, Autodesk y Adobe, con foco reciente en productos de IA e IA responsable. Ayudo a equipos a pasar de las primeras ideas a productos lanzados. Nací en Latinoamérica y llegué a Estados Unidos como becaria Fulbright.
Para organizaciones: liderazgo fraccional de diseño e investigación, investigación de mercado y de usuarios, estrategia de diseño y diseño de producto, y talleres y programas de desarrollo de capacidades, para empresas, startups, universidades y fundaciones.
Para profesionales creativos: coaching de carrera para diseñadores, investigadores, product managers y estrategas que están comenzando o quieren crecer con intención.
Sesiones y proyectos en español e inglés, de forma remota o presencial. La primera conversación de 30 minutos es sin costo.
Let's build something together.
Looking for a coach, a design partner, or simply want to talk through an idea? In English or Spanish.