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, 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.
Autodesk · Verily Health (Alphabet) · Adobe Research · EPAM · Stanford
Working across the U.S. and Latin America, in English and Spanish.
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.
A portfolio is an argument: I understand problems, I make good decisions, I deliver. We rebuild your case studies so the thinking behind the work comes through.
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.
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.
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.
Proof: built, grew, and promoted design and research teams at Autodesk and Verily Health.
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.
How users interpret, believe, and act on AI output, plus red teaming to find bias and failure before you ship.
I hand off directly into design and product, so the research never becomes a report nobody opens.
Proof: generative AI red teaming research that fed Autodesk's Trusted AI principles and was cited in a TED talk.
Design Strategy
From early ideas to shipped products: framing the right problem, defining the product and its value, and aligning your teams on where to go, including where AI belongs.
Framing the opportunity worth pursuing and defining what to build, for whom, and why.
An honest look at where AI adds value in your product and workflows, and where it does not.
Executive and investor narratives that turn strategy into funding and momentum.
Proof: executive and investor narratives that secured $2M+ in platform investment.
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.
Proof: seven years teaching design thinking at The Nueva School. A learning ecosystem I led reached 5M people.
Get in touch about your organization →
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 run market and user research, red teamed generative AI, 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.
A few things I have led
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.
Led the design of a no code visual authoring environment enabling clinical teams to configure AI assisted care programs without engineering support.
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.
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.
"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."
Trabajo también en español, en toda Latinoamérica
Soy diseñadora y líder de diseño con más de 15 años creando productos, plataformas y equipos en Alphabet, Autodesk y Adobe, con foco reciente en diseño de productos de IA e IA responsable. Nací en Latinoamérica y llegué a Estados Unidos como becaria Fulbright.
Para organizaciones: estrategia de diseño, integración de IA, liderazgo de diseño fraccional, facilitación de talleres y programas de desarrollo profesional 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.
Agendar una llamadaLet's build something together.
Whether you are looking for a coach, a design partner, or simply want to talk through an idea, I would love to hear from you. In English or Spanish.