I help creative talent grow.
I help organizations build.
I have spent 15+ years building AI products, platforms, and design teams inside Alphabet, Autodesk, and Adobe. Now I put that experience to work for you: coaching emerging creative talent, and helping organizations build innovation capability of their own.
From San Francisco to Santiago: I work in English and Spanish, across the U.S., Latin America, and beyond.
Career coaching for creative professionals: UX, product, and brand designers, researchers, product managers, strategists, and marketing professionals. I work with new graduates entering the field, international students navigating an unfamiliar job market and hiring culture, and people several years in who are ready to grow on their own terms rather than their manager's timeline. Managers come and go, feedback is scarce, and too many talented people are left to figure out their growth alone. Helping emerging talent take ownership of their careers is what I have done my whole career inside companies. It is my superpower, and now it is my practice. Sessions in English and Spanish, wherever you are in the world.
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.
A portfolio isn't screenshots. It's an argument: I understand problems, I make good decisions, I deliver. We rebuild your case studies to make that case.
Better presentations. Sharper feedback conversations. The confidence that comes from knowing exactly what you made and why.
"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.
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
Spark Session, one focused 75 minute conversation · $175
Growth Package, four sessions over 6 to 8 weeks · $650
Ongoing Mentorship, monthly 1:1s and async support · $400 per month
Not sure which fits? We will figure it out together on a free intro call.
I help organizations build the strategy and capabilities they need to innovate: design strategy, AI integration, fractional design leadership, and professional development. For companies, startups, universities, design schools, and foundations. 10+ years taking products from 0 to 1. Engagements across the U.S., Latin America, and beyond, in English and Spanish.
Design Strategy
Whether you are building a design function from scratch or maturing one that has outgrown its shape, the foundation matters more than the tooling.
What does design actually mean for your product and company? Not a mission statement, but a working point of view that shapes real decisions.
The systems, processes, and team culture that let creative work grow without losing quality or coherence. Built for your organization, not off a shelf.
From executive narratives that fund new business lines to the pitch that earns a startup its next round, I help teams turn strategy into a story people believe in.
AI Integration and Transformation
Most organizations are either watching from the sidelines or chasing tools without a strategy. I have led AI product design and Responsible AI research inside Alphabet, Autodesk, and Adobe. This work is grounded in years of building with AI, not commenting on it.
An honest look at your specific workflow, your team's capabilities, and where integration makes sense and where it does not.
The workflows, rituals, and mindset shifts that make AI part of how your team creates. Not a side experiment that fades after the first sprint.
Developing the internal champions and leadership practices that keep the transformation alive long after the engagement ends.
"Because of your strong customer orientation and innovative approach, you are ensuring the next generation of professionals discover the skills they need."
Fractional Design Leadership
Senior creative direction and team development for organizations that need the real thing without a full time hire. Engagements typically run 3 to 6 months.
I work alongside your team, setting creative direction, developing your designers, and building the foundation for what comes next. Not advisory. Present.
Because I work independently, I have no politics, no competing priorities, no hidden constraints. Just the work.
Professional Development & Capability Building
Innovation is a capability, not an event. I design workshops and multi session programs around AI, innovation, design thinking, and creative leadership, drawing on my Stanford training and 7 years teaching at The Nueva School, including its summer Design Thinking Institute, and I bring in trusted specialists when the work calls for it.
Multi session programs designed around your organization's real challenges. Not a one off workshop, but skills and rituals your teams keep using.
Expert facilitation for ideation days, perspective mapping sessions, alignment workshops, and offsites, designed so every voice in the room feels confident contributing.
Creative leadership and human centered problem solving for executives and managers navigating ambiguity, AI, and change.
Portfolio reviews and career development programs for junior teams, and for universities, design schools, and bootcamps preparing students and international graduates to enter the field with confidence.
How an Engagement Works
It always starts with a conversation about what you are trying to build. From there I shape a scoped proposal: a facilitated workshop or design sprint, an advisory engagement, a multi session capability program, or embedded fractional leadership. Engagements range from a single workshop to six months, in English or Spanish, remote or in person.
Every organization is at a different moment. I am flexible on scope, format, and pace, and I would rather find the version of the work that fits you than force a package that does not.
When your goals call for it, I assemble collaborators and specialists, from AI practitioners to facilitators to domain experts, so the engagement is built to deliver, not limited to one person's hands.
Designing what people can trust
I came to the U.S. from Chile as a Fulbright Scholar with a portfolio, a lot of ambition, and no idea how any of it actually worked. No network, no map, no one to tell me which rooms mattered. I figured it out slowly, and often the hard way. That is a large part of why I do this work now.
Over 15+ years I have turned ambiguous, complex technical systems into platforms and products people actually trust. At Verily I led experience design for a precision health platform, defining the architecture and human AI interaction patterns that let clinical teams configure care programs without writing code. At Autodesk I led UX for a 3D visualization platform used by millions of creative professionals, and partnered with data ethicist Dr. Rumman Chowdhury on generative AI research later cited in a TED Talk as industry best practice. At Adobe Research, early machine learning work led to a patent. Before all of that, I took products from zero to launch inside early stage startups and consultancies.
Alongside the products, I have built the teams. I have grown and led design organizations across companies large and small, coaching designers on craft, career growth, and systems thinking, and building cultures where people mentor each other into stronger practitioners. I designed learning ecosystems reaching millions of users, and taught design thinking to everyone from executives to fourth graders, including seven years at The Nueva School and its summer Design Thinking Institute, where I coached educators and facilitated workshops.
I am also an avid storyteller. I have helped large companies make the case for funding a new business line, and helped early stage startups craft the narrative that earns the next round. My background is in Experience Design, rooted in Design Thinking at Stanford, where I learned to start with people and let the problem shape the solution.
At the core of all of it is a simple intention: empower teams, elevate design, and build things that genuinely help people thrive. Plenty of people teach innovation. I have spent my career building it inside companies, and coaching the people who make it happen.
"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."
Let's find the right starting point.
Individual coaching or organizational work, in English or Spanish. Book a call or send me a note and we will take it from there.