I help creative talent own their careers.I help organizations build what comes next.
For 15+ years I have built products, platforms, and design teams inside Alphabet, Autodesk, and Adobe, most recently leading AI product design and Responsible AI research. Now that experience goes to work for you: helping creative professionals navigate their careers, think strategically, and grow on their own terms, and helping organizations build design, AI, and innovation capability of their own.
Autodesk · Verily (Alphabet) · Adobe Research · EPAM · Stanford
Working across the U.S. and Latin America, in English and Spanish.
For Creative Professionals
Coaching from a working design leader, not a career counselor. 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. 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. Helping emerging talent take ownership of their careers is what I did for years inside companies. It is my superpower, and now it is my practice.
Sessions in English and Spanish, wherever 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 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 · $175
One focused 75 minute conversation. Portfolio, story, career direction, or a challenge you're sitting with. You leave with a clear next step.
Growth Package · $650
Four sessions over 6 to 8 weeks, with async feedback between them. Portfolio, presentations, and career strategy, for a real shift in how you show up.
Ongoing Mentorship · $400 per month
Two 60 minute sessions a month, 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.
Not sure which fits? We will figure it out together on a free intro call.
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 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. I work with organizations across the U.S. and Latin America, in English and Spanish, bringing practices from global technology companies to teams building in both markets.
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.
Design as a catalyst
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, 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, and grown design teams who mentor each other into stronger practitioners.
I have led UX design and research at Adobe, Autodesk, and Verily, and taken ideas from zero to launch inside early stage startups, picking up a patent along the way 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 with over 100 participants, 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.
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.