I have been a designer for more than fifteen years. Today I manage a team of 22 designers across several products at Namecheap and Spaceship, and I spend my days in conversations about decisions: which ones to make, on what criteria, and who should be making them.
Before that I spent twelve years at KuantoKusta, a Portuguese price comparison site that was also a marketplace. I joined as a content manager and left as Head of Product Design. That is where I learned most of what I know, almost always by solving problems that had nothing to do with screens.
Earlier still I taught painting to older students, founded an art magazine and ran a gallery. None of that is wasted CV. It is the reason I still believe design is better explained with a story than with a process.
Why this site exists
I write when there is something I need to make clear to myself. The idea almost always turns up on a run, not at a desk.
The best answers I have given to product problems came from unlikely places. A naval battle from 256 BC. The arc of a cannonball. The epicycles astronomers invented to rescue a wrong model of the universe. These are not decoration. They are how I think.
The pattern repeats across almost everything I write. People look at the surface. I try to show the system underneath.
About the writing
I write in Portuguese first and translate afterwards. The articles are here in both versions, and the switch at the top takes you from one to the other.
I do not write every day. I write when a subject seems worth the effort, which means fewer pieces and, I hope, better ones.