Heller de Paula
Product Design Leadership | Product Strategy | DesignOps | AI
📍 São Paulo, SP, Brazil
About
I’m a Product Design leader with 16+ years of experience building digital products, developing people, and scaling design practices across complex organizations.
My work sits at the intersection of Product Design Leadership, Product Strategy, DesignOps, and AI. I help organizations translate customer needs, business priorities, and technical constraints into clear product direction, effective operating models, and measurable outcomes.
Throughout my career, I have led multidisciplinary teams across Product Design, UX Research, and Strategy, including an organization of 50 professionals supporting multiple products and platforms. My responsibilities have included people development, design governance, organizational design, discovery practices, Design Systems governance, product metrics, and collaboration across Product, Engineering, Data, and Business.
My background includes financial services, payments, digital platforms, B2B and B2C products, and experiences used by millions of customers.
I also teach postgraduate courses at Istituto Europeo di Design, connecting Product Design, Strategy, Business, Discovery, Research, Innovation, Experimentation, and Design Metrics.
My current focus is helping organizations scale Product Design through stronger leadership, evidence-based decisions, efficient operating models, AI-assisted workflows, and closer collaboration between Design, Product, Engineering, and Business.
Selected Outcomes
- Led and developed a multidisciplinary organization of 50 professionals across Design, Research, and Strategy.
- Reduced operating costs by 15%, increased team productivity by 10%, and achieved an average NPS of 75, with a peak of 80.
- Enabled a 12% migration of customer support demand to digital channels by redesigning a self-service platform.
- Led a portfolio of 6+ products and delivered growth outcomes including 369% higher ROAS and 257% higher landing-page conversion.
Core Expertise
Design Leadership · People Management · Product Strategy · DesignOps · Product Discovery · UX Research · Stakeholder Management · Design Systems · Product Metrics · Product Analytics · Service Design · Operational Efficiency · AI for Design · Fintech and Payments
Professional Experience
Istituto Europeo di Design
Istituto Europeo di Design – Postgraduate Professor in Product Design | Part-time
February 2025 – Present
Teach postgraduate courses connecting Product Design, Design Strategy, Business, and Design Metrics.
Help professionals apply Product Discovery, UX Research, Service Design, Customer Experience, Product Strategy, Innovation, Experimentation, and Outcome-Driven Design to business decisions and measurable product outcomes.
Combine academic frameworks with practical experience leading multidisciplinary design organizations, financial products, digital platforms, and complex product portfolios.
Faberhaus Play
Head of Product Design
February 2024 – Present
• Lead end-to-end Product Design for a portfolio of 6+ digital products, connecting strategy, discovery, research, validation, go-to-market, metrics, and continuous optimization.
• Shape product positioning, customer journeys, experience flows, and conversion strategies by balancing customer needs, business goals, data, and execution feasibility.
• Conduct research, behavioral analysis, hypothesis validation, and Growth/CRO experiments across acquisition, activation, conversion, and retention.
• Apply AI-assisted workflows to research, synthesis, ideation, prototyping, experimentation, and documentation, improving the speed and quality of product decisions.
• Outcomes include 78% lower cost per purchase, 369% higher ROAS, 257% higher landing-page conversion, 40% lower CPL, 3x more qualified traffic, and email open rates above 20%.
Wunderman Thompson
Head of Product Design
June 2022 – January 2024
• Led a multidisciplinary organization of 50 professionals across Product Design, UX Research, and Strategy, supporting multiple products and platforms in complex, regulated environments.
• Defined and evolved the Product Design operating model, including DesignOps, governance, processes, quality standards, resource allocation, and collaboration across Product, Engineering, and Business.
• Connected customer experience, Design Systems, product metrics, and business priorities to guide strategic initiatives and scale design practices.
• Developed design leaders and individual contributors while aligning squads and stakeholders around quality, consistency, predictability, and delivery effectiveness.
• Reduced operating costs by 15%, achieved an average NPS of 75 with a peak of 80, and improved operational efficiency across product squads.
Wunderman Thompson
Product Design Manager
February 2021 – May 2022
• Led Product Design initiatives for complex digital platforms in partnership with Product, Engineering, and Business.
• Established scalable processes, governance, and cross-squad collaboration practices to improve strategic alignment, predictability, and operational efficiency.
• Facilitated discovery, solution validation, prioritization, and stakeholder alignment, generating evidence to inform roadmaps and product evolution.
• Increased team productivity by 10% through process and workflow optimization.
PagSeguro PagBank
Product Design Manager
January 2019 – February 2021
• Led Product Discovery and Design initiatives for large-scale financial products in partnership with Product, Engineering, Data, and Business teams.
• Developed designers and coordinated research, journey mapping, hypothesis validation, prototyping, and usability testing to inform product decisions.
• Translated complex financial, regulatory, and operational requirements into intuitive, accessible, and scalable digital experiences.
• Improved critical customer journeys to support adoption, conversion, engagement, operational efficiency, and customer experience across products used by millions of people.
PagSeguro PagBank
Product Designer Specialist
April 2018 – January 2019
• Applied Service Design, Design Thinking, and Human-Centered Design to the evolution of digital financial products.
• Led journey mapping, service blueprints, co-creation workshops, and cross-functional alignment across Product, Engineering, Operations, and Business.
• Strengthened discovery practices to improve prioritization, reduce uncertainty, and increase operational efficiency.
Cielo
Product Designer Specialist
February 2017 – March 2018
• Led a large-scale Design Sprint with more than 200 participants to define and strategically validate a new Smart POS for the payments market.
• Facilitated discovery, co-creation, and executive alignment across customers, Business, Technology, and Operations.
• Led validation and prioritization activities that produced three prioritized proposals, with one initiative selected for agile development.
PagSeguro PagBank
Senior Product Designer
February 2016 – February 2017
• Contributed to the discovery, design, and launch of financial products involving lending, bank reconciliation, and gamification.
• Led UX Research, journey mapping, information architecture, interaction design, prototyping, and solution validation.
• Translated complex financial and operational requirements into intuitive and scalable experiences in collaboration with Product, Engineering, and Business.
• Supported the evolution of Product Discovery and Service Design practices through customer research, workshops, and cross-functional alignment.
UOL
Senior Product Designer
February 2014 – February 2016
• Led Product Design initiatives for large-scale digital products and self-service platforms, serving millions of users across one of Brazil’s largest internet ecosystems.
• Conducted UX Research, journey mapping, information architecture, prototyping, and usability testing to identify opportunities and validate solutions.
• Partnered with Product Managers, Engineers, and Business stakeholders to improve customer experience, increase self-service adoption, and optimize digital journeys.
• Redesigned the Self-Service platform, enabling a 12% migration of Call Center demand to digital channels, improving operational efficiency and reducing support costs.
Femoralis
Product Designer
February 2010 – February 2014
• Led UX and Product Design initiatives for products in financial services, education, and credit ecosystems.
• Conducted user research, information architecture, journey mapping, wireframing, prototyping, and usability validation.
• Designed responsive digital experiences focused on usability, accessibility, and customer experience.
• Partnered with Engineering and Business to translate complex requirements into intuitive solutions aligned with product and business goals.
Education
Graduate Studies in Leadership and People Management | Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul | 2019–2020
Graduate Studies in Futurology and Business | Diip, CBA B+G & Hivelab | 2015–2016
Graduate Studies in Service Design | The School for Service Innovation | Hivelab | 2014–2015
Bachelor’s degree in digital communication and multimedia | Universidade Anhembi Morumbi | 2009–2013
Certifications and Languages
Ethnic-Racial Leadership – RM Consulting, 2023
Management 3.0 – K2, 2019
Portuguese – Native
English – Full Professional Proficiency