How I
Work.
Four principles I never ship a product without, from seed-stage startups to companies past a million users.
Context.
Context is the first deliverable, not a step before the real work.
Before any screen, I map who it's for, what the data says, what the business can't get wrong, then hand that map to the whole team, so no decision depends on one head. Talked through a version of this on Bipa Cast #74, if podcasts are more your speed.
Velocity.
Speed is a design principle, not a trade-off.
I build for reuse, so the third surface costs hours, not the weeks the first one took. Under uncertainty, a testable assumption beats a perfect spec.
Impact.
Design that doesn't move a number doesn't matter.
My yardstick is the business's: users retained, revenue converted, decisions made faster. The best design decisions start in a meeting, not a wireframe.
Leadership.
Trust comes from staying hands-on, not from a leadership deck.
I run the interview, merge the PR, debug the pipeline myself when it's faster than a ticket. The team notices who's still doing the work.
From a team of 1 to 12 at Remessa Online to 35 people across 4 countries at Betterfly, the style stayed the same.
Autonomy, with a clear bar.
The team decides. The strategy stays guarded in frequent feedback.
“Gives the team a lot of autonomy but guarantees the strategy through frequent feedback sessions.”Fabio Oliveira, direct report, now Senior Product Designer at TRM Labs
Feedback that names the cause.
Specific enough to teach, never a vague "doesn't feel right".
“The clearest, most illuminating feedback a leader has ever given me.”Giovanna Medeiros, direct report, now Lead Designer at Nubank
Hands-on, never the bottleneck.
Close enough to see the problem early, far enough not to redo the work.
“He doesn't just talk about design or delegate tasks: he actually gets work done.”Will Capone, direct report, now Product Marketing at Anchorage Digital
Room to grow, results out loud.
Career paths, rituals and expectations stated openly, so people grow without waiting on me.
“Encourages independent thinking and gives people the freedom to grow.”Gabriel Dias, direct report, now Design Lead at Cora
One intention drives every project: generate benefit for the customer in a way that generates benefit for the business. Stripped to the minimum, that's a loop, and the six steps below are what fills it in.
Data → Initiative → Data
Data
Diagnose
Find the real problem, and the business opportunity inside it, not just the result people ask for.
Initiative
Frame
Define scope with stakeholders, not against them: what we build, what we don't, with the judgment of someone who's run the room before.
System
Foundation before surfaces: tokens, components, patterns.
Build
Design, prototype, test. Keep the feedback loop tight.
Ship
Handoff with precision. Live means live, correctly.
Data
Learn
Measure against the hypothesis. Feed the next cycle.
