Senior Product Designer

Hi, I'm Catarina. I bring clarity to complex systems built for scale.

Hi, I'm Catarina. I bring clarity to complex systems built for scale.

Senior Product Designer with 8+ years across Fintech and E-commerce, working alongside engineering and business to translate legacy systems and compliance constraints into clear, useful, and consistent interfaces.

Senior Product Designer with 8+ years across Fintech and E-commerce, working alongside engineering and business to translate legacy systems and compliance constraints into clear, useful, and consistent interfaces.

Trusted by teams building at

(01) About

I'm a product designer and Certified Educator (CCP) where business, technology, and users collide.

For the past eight years I've worked across Fintech and E-commerce, turning legacy systems and compliance rules into interfaces people actually trust, understand, and keep using every day.

My work sits at the intersection of constraint and the user: deliberate, dependable, and quietly rigorous. No shortcuts, just solutions.

8+

Years Experience

30+

Projects Delivered

20+

Teams Collaborated With

3

Award Recognitions

(02) Stack

The tools I reach for, day to day.

Figma

Figma AI

Figma Dev Mode

HTML & CSS

UserTesting

Hotjar

Google Analytics

FigJam

Miro

Azure DevOps

Jira

Zeroheight

(03) Experience

Where I’ve been designing.

2024 — Present

Senior Product Designer

— Bliss Applications

Led product design for Pulsoo (BPI & NOS), an award-winning SME banking app, owning the vision end-to-end from research to a scalable design system. Also led UX across BPI's Core Banking evolution, including Home Loan digitization and the AGE App, across 5 squads.

Led product design for Pulsoo (BPI & NOS), an award-winning SME banking app, owning the vision end-to-end from research to a scalable design system. Also led UX across BPI's Core Banking evolution, including Home Loan digitization and the AGE App, across 5 squads.

2022 — 2024

Product Designer

— Instinct

Rebuilt Blueticket's omnichannel experience, Portugal's top ticketing platform, unifying web and mobile into one accessible, WCAG-compliant purchase flow for high-traffic events. Also designed Sonae Sierra's phygital loyalty program across Colombo and NorteShopping.

Rebuilt Blueticket's omnichannel experience, Portugal's top ticketing platform, unifying web and mobile into one accessible, WCAG-compliant purchase flow for high-traffic events. Also designed Sonae Sierra's phygital loyalty program across Colombo and NorteShopping.

2020 — 2022

Product Designer

— Next Engineering

Digitized Credibom's loan journey end-to-end, turning a paper-based process into a 100% online flow that cut time-to-money and reduced drop-off via simplified credit simulations. Also contributed UI refinements to Pisca Pisca's design system, part of the Credibom group.

Digitized Credibom's loan journey end-to-end, turning a paper-based process into a 100% online flow that cut time-to-money and reduced drop-off via simplified credit simulations. Also contributed UI refinements to Pisca Pisca's design system, part of the Credibom group.

(04) Selected Work

A few products I’m proud to have shipped.

Helio Analytics

FINTECH

Pulsoo

A free financial management app for micro and small businesses, launched by BPI and NOS, bringing multi-bank aggregation via Open Banking, tax and social security alerts, and payment initiation into one app.

Helio Analytics

TICKETING

MEO Blueticket

One of Portugal's largest ticketing platforms, redesigned for app and web to handle festivals, museums and seated shows in one system, with split payments, instalments and self-service resale built in.

Helio Analytics

RETAIL

Colombo Loves Me

A companion app for two of Portugal's largest shopping centres, prototyped and tested with real visitors to bring content, cross-store shopping, services and loyalty into one place. Several of the ideas it tested appear in the app Sonae Sierra launched in 2024.

Helio Analytics

FINTECH

Credibom

A fully digital personal loan for Banco Credibom, a consumer credit bank in the Crédit Agricole group, built to take a customer from simulation to a signed contract without paper or a branch visit, with proof of address, income and bank details retrieved through four integrated public and banking services.

(06) Testimonials

  • Strict WCAG compliance and high-converting checkouts don't usually coexist in enterprise commerce. Catarina proved they could, without compromise.

    Brand Director

    ·

    E-commerce

    Strict WCAG compliance and high-converting checkouts don't usually coexist in enterprise commerce. Catarina proved they could, without compromise.

    Brand Director

    ·

    E-commerce

  • Dense financial compliance rarely translates cleanly into digital flows without extra rework. Under Catarina, ours shipped faster because of it, not despite it.

    Product Owner

    ·

    Core Banking

    Dense financial compliance rarely translates cleanly into digital flows without extra rework. Under Catarina, ours shipped faster because of it, not despite it.

    Product Owner

    ·

    Core Banking

  • Catarina took ownership of Pulsoo end-to-end, from problem framing to delivery, with no direct design lead beside her, and raised the team's accessibility bar.

    Design Manager

    ·

    Consultancy

    Catarina took ownership of Pulsoo end-to-end, from problem framing to delivery, with no direct design lead beside her, and raised the team's accessibility bar.

    Design Manager

    ·

    Consultancy

  • Legacy blockers had stalled our retail checkout for months. Catarina untangled the cross-team dependencies and got it shipped on schedule.

    Product Owner

    ·

    Retail

    Legacy blockers had stalled our retail checkout for months. Catarina untangled the cross-team dependencies and got it shipped on schedule.

    Product Owner

    ·

    Retail

  • Handoff friction used to eat our sprint velocity. Catarina's architecture removed it our engineering cycles got shorter, full stop.

    Tech Lead

    ·

    Fintech

    Handoff friction used to eat our sprint velocity. Catarina's architecture removed it our engineering cycles got shorter, full stop.

    Tech Lead

    ·

    Fintech

  • Rare to find a designer who thinks in API constraints, component states, and user behavior at once. Catarina builds for all three, and it shows in the shipped product.

    Front-End Engineer

    ·

    Fintech

    Rare to find a designer who thinks in API constraints, component states, and user behavior at once. Catarina builds for all three, and it shows in the shipped product.

    Front-End Engineer

    ·

    Fintech

  • Organizational ambiguity kills most projects before they ship. Catarina brings disciplined structure, turning it into execution systems that scale. That's the actual skill.

    Design Lead

    ·

    Banking

    Organizational ambiguity kills most projects before they ship. Catarina brings disciplined structure, turning it into execution systems that scale. That's the actual skill.

    Design Lead

    ·

    Banking

  • A true mentor and a natural guide. Catarina's sharp perspective and steady leadership raise the entire team's UX thinking and UI quality in every project.

    Product Designer

    ·

    Core Banking

    A true mentor and a natural guide. Catarina's sharp perspective and steady leadership raise the entire team's UX thinking and UI quality in every project.

    Product Designer

    ·

    Core Banking

(07) FAQ

Frequently asked.

Who do you work with?

What technologies do you use?

How long does a project take?

Do you work remotely?

Can you join an existing team?