Rodrigo is available for hire
Hire RodrigoRodrigo Mafra
Verified Expert in Design
Designer
Belo Horizonte - State of Minas Gerais, Brazil
Toptal member since February 10, 2020
Bio
Rodrigo is a principal product designer with 15+ years of experience turning complex product surfaces into clear, shippable experiences. After years leading design and talent, he is back to deep product craft, and still mentors. He works on systems, research, and agent workflows where the stakes are high and the next move must be visible. Technology and AI support how work ships; they are not the title.
Experience
- Product Design - 13 years
- Usability - 10 years
- UX Design - 10 years
- Mobile App UI - 8 years
- SaaS - 8 years
- Mobile App Design - 7 years
- UX Leadership - 5 years
- Artificial Intelligence (AI) - 3 years
Portfolio
Conta Azul Payroll
FintechBanking & FinanceProduct StrategyProduct DesignUser Experience (UX)User Interface (UI)+ 33 more
EatStayGive
Fun & LifestyleBlog DesignUser Interface (UI)Market ResearchUser Experience (UX)Visual Design+ 20 more
Geotec – Vale do Rio Doce
MiningMobile App DesignWireframingUser Experience (UX)User Interface (UI)Information Architecture (IA)+ 20 more
Work Experience
Principal Product Designer
2025 - PRESENT
Noord Studio
- Owned Principal product craft on complex B2B systems, pairing research, interaction design, and mentorship so teams ship clearer decisions.
- Delivered a scalable, unified design system for a global data platform, improving usability and freeing teams to focus on real user needs.
- Turned fragmented client product surfaces into shared patterns, tokens, and documentation that designers and engineers could adopt together.
- Mentored designers on systems thinking and critique while keeping hands-on ownership of high-stakes product flows.
- Translated ambiguous stakeholder goals into clear journeys, prototypes, and shippable interface decisions for global clients.
Technologies: Product Design, UX Research, Product Strategy, Design Leadership, Collaboration, Data Visualization, Web App Design, Dashboard Design, Stakeholder Management, Framer, UI Prototyping, UX Prototyping, AI Product Strategy, AI-powered Product Design, Claude Design, Software as a Service (SaaS), Agile, Surveys, Qualitative Research, Customer Experience, Customer Experience (CX) Design, Data Synthesis, Product Research, Quantitative User Research, Qualitative User Research, Survey Development & Analysis, Artificial Intelligence (AI), AI Research, Experimental Design, Sampling, Project Management, Replit, Research, Websites, English, Recording, Audio Recording
Head of Design
2025 - 2026
Invictus Global LLC
- Led end-to-end product design for a contract-tied payments agent, making every money move visible, confirmable, and refusable before founders commit.
- Translated complex contractual and financial workflows into clear, guided experiences with inspectable next steps.
- Designed plan-first confirmation patterns so high-stakes payment actions never fire from a single chat affirmation.
- Aligned product, engineering, and business stakeholders around agent flows where compliance claims stay sourced and reviewable.
- Built role-aware journeys for founders, investors, and contractors around the same contractual events without forking the product.
Technologies: Product Design, User Experience (UX), User Interface (UI), Mobile Design, Artificial Intelligence as a Service (AIaaS), Landing Page Design, Dashboard Design, Stakeholder Management, Cursor AI, UI Prototyping, UX Prototyping, AI-powered Product Design, Agile, Qualitative Research, Customer Experience, Customer Experience (CX) Design, Data Synthesis, Product Research, Qualitative User Research, Artificial Intelligence (AI), AI Research, Experimental Design, Project Management, Replit, Research, Websites, English, Recording, Audio Recording
Director of Design
2021 - 2025
Toptal
- Matched top-tier design talent to global clients across fintech, SaaS, and enterprise, aligning business goals with user-centered outcomes.
- Mentored clients and talent on stakeholder communication, reducing misalignment between product goals and design delivery.
- Led design-side talent partnerships that improved collaboration quality and client satisfaction on complex product engagements.
Technologies: Qualitative Research, User Research, Talent Management, Strategic Design, Leadership, UX Research, Interviewing, Communication, Stakeholder Management, B2B, Collaboration, User Interviews, Software as a Service (SaaS), Surveys, Customer Experience, Customer Experience (CX) Design, Data Synthesis, Product Research, Quantitative User Research, Qualitative User Research, Survey Development & Analysis, Artificial Intelligence (AI), AI Research, Sampling, Project Management, Research, English, Recording, Audio Recording
Director of Design
2021 - 2021
Exponential Ventures
- Led collaboration on AI hardware online store projects, boosting user engagement by guiding teams in strategic trade-offs and incorporating customer-focused practices.
- Accelerated project delivery by orchestrating cross-functional collaboration and streamlining stakeholder management on design initiatives.
- Optimized resource allocation across products by matching design talent to projects based on UX Design, Visual Design, and collaboration strengths.
Technologies: Figma, Miro, Web, Mobile, Prototyping, UX Research, UX Design, UI Design, Design Systems, B2B, Artificial Intelligence (AI), User Journeys, Collaboration, Web Design, Customer Journey, MacOS, Hotjar, Data Visualization, MVP Design, AI Design, Web App Design, Landing Page Design, Dashboard Design, Stakeholder Management, UI Prototyping, UX Prototyping, Software as a Service (SaaS), Agile, Qualitative Research, Customer Experience (CX) Design, Data Synthesis, Product Research, Qualitative User Research, Project Management, Research, Websites, English, Recording, Audio Recording
Design Manager
2020 - 2021
Conta Azul
- Set product design vision for the small-businesses pod and aligned design with product and engineering partners.
- Hired and developed a high-performing product design team through technical recruiting and structured mentorship.
- Coached designers in user research and product discovery, tightening the design process to the company's strategy.
Technologies: Product Design, SaaS, Miro, Maze, Figma, Design Leadership, Team Management, Stakeholder Management, UX Research, Collaboration, Usability Testing, User Interviews, Web App Design, Software as a Service (SaaS), Agile, Surveys, Qualitative Research, Customer Experience, Customer Experience (CX) Design, Data Synthesis, Product Research, Quantitative User Research, Qualitative User Research, Survey Development & Analysis, Experimental Design, Sampling, Project Management, Research, Websites, Recording, Audio Recording
UI Designer
2020 - 2020
Option A LLC
- Co-led a scalable design system for a global enterprise data platform, defining visual language and reusable UI components.
- Gathered stakeholder requirements and designed interface patterns for complex, data-heavy business workflows.
- Documented system guidance and feedback loops that improved handoff quality and adoption across product teams.
Technologies: User Interface (UI), UI Design, User Experience (UX), UX Design, Collaboration, Figma, Data Visualization, Web App Design, Dashboard Design, UI Prototyping, Software as a Service (SaaS), Agile, Product Research, Qualitative User Research, Experimental Design, Websites, English, Recording, Audio Recording
Senior Product Designer & UX Researcher
2018 - 2020
Conta Azul
- Led mixed-methods research with Brazilian small business owners and accountants to guide Conta Azul product decisions.
- Increased engagement with design solutions by 40% by validating hypotheses through research, prototypes, and mentoring.
- Reduced project delivery time by 20% with hypothesis-driven design, prototyping, and rapid user testing loops.
- Facilitated cross-functional workshops that synthesized research findings into clear product design decisions.
Technologies: Prototyping, Product Design, SaaS, Miro, Product Strategy, Product Discovery, UX Research, User Interviews, Figma, Web App Design, Fintech, Maze, Stakeholder Management, UI Prototyping, User Testing, Mobile, Software as a Service (SaaS), Agile, Surveys, Qualitative Research, Customer Experience, Customer Experience (CX) Design, Data Synthesis, Product Research, Quantitative User Research, Qualitative User Research, Survey Development & Analysis, Experimental Design, Sampling, Project Management, Research, Websites, Recording, Audio Recording
Senior Product Designer
2017 - 2018
Serasa Experian
- Co-designed Serasa Experian’s primary consumer mobile app with engineering for Brazil’s leading credit bureau.
- Defined visual and interaction patterns for mobile apps across the B2C product initiative.
- Built a white-label mobile foundation reused by additional Serasa consumer apps in Brazil.
- Started Product Talks across two Brazilian states to grow shared product and UX learning culture.
Technologies: Prototyping, Mobile Design, Product Design, Mobile App Design, Collaboration, Usability Testing, User Interviews, Figma, Fintech, Mobile, Software as a Service (SaaS), Agile, Qualitative Research, Customer Experience, Customer Experience (CX) Design, Product Research, Qualitative User Research, Project Management, Research, Recording, Audio Recording
Product Designer
2015 - 2017
Unisys
- Contributed to the end-to-end development of enterprise banking applications.
- Worked on interfaces that help bank staff achieve internal and external objectives, management reports, mortgage-related applications, and ideation of services that reach staff and end users.
- Created wireframes that describe how users will interact with the system.
- Led the design of a mobile app for Unisys tech support in Colombia and the United States.
- Developed internal initiatives such as U-Talks to ramp up the learning experience of new methodologies and more effective work inside the company.
- Created the design-thinking mindset within the software architecture team, one of the company's most autonomous and important teams.
Technologies: Prototyping, Wireframe to Product, Team Scheduling, Proof of Concept (POC), Mobile UX, Mobile App UI, Mobile Design, UI Design, CSS, Lean UX, Web Design, Usability, Design Thinking, Product Design, Mobile App Design, User Research, SaaS, Wireframing, UX Design, Digital Product Design, InVision, Visual Studio Code (VS Code), HTML, Adobe Illustrator, Figma, Adobe Photoshop, UX Research, B2B, User Journeys, Collaboration, Usability Testing, User Interviews, Customer Journey, Google Analytics, Data Visualization, Web App Design, Dashboard Design, Presentation Design, Photoshop CC, Stakeholder Management, UI Prototyping, UX Prototyping, Software as a Service (SaaS), Agile, Qualitative Research, Customer Experience, Customer Experience (CX) Design, Data Synthesis, Product Research, Quantitative User Research, Qualitative User Research, Survey Development & Analysis, Experimental Design, Project Management, Research, Websites, English
Design Consultant
2008 - 2016
Mafra Design
- Studied user needs and desires, working with design solutions to best fit the target public of the business.
- Built strategies for the improvement of the brand, user-centered design, and the interface design.
- Worked with several high-profile Brazilian companies across finance, healthcare, mining, logistics, and cosmetics sectors.
Technologies: Prototyping, Health & Wellness, Sports & Recreation, Wireframe to Product, Team Scheduling, Sports & Athletics, Proof of Concept (POC), Mobile UX, Mobile App UI, Mobile Design, UI Design, User Research, Lean UX, Web Design, Usability, Design Thinking, Product Design, Mobile App Design, Wireframing, UX Design, Digital Product Design, Miro, Axure RP Pro, JavaScript, CSS, HTML, Zeplin, Sketch, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, User Journeys, Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO), Visual Storytelling, Webflow, Collaboration, User Interviews, Figma, iOS, Customer Journey, MacOS, Google Analytics, Hotjar, Data Visualization, Presentation Design, Photoshop CC, Stakeholder Management, Agile, Surveys, Qualitative Research, Customer Experience, Customer Experience (CX) Design, Data Synthesis, Product Research, Quantitative User Research, Qualitative User Research, Survey Development & Analysis, Experimental Design, Project Management, Research, Websites, Recording
Design Lead
2015 - 2015
iOasys
- Led a team of two designers, junior and mid-level.
- Created the documents and processes of the design team.
- Designed several UI interfaces for MVP projects for local clients.
- Supervised the early stages of the design project for a large event platform in Brazil called Sympla.
- Created documents and processes for the product development inside the company, like briefing models and kanban practices.
Technologies: Prototyping, Sports & Recreation, Wireframe to Product, Team Scheduling, Sports & Athletics, Proof of Concept (POC), Mobile UX, Mobile App UI, Fashion & Beauty, Mobile Design, UI Design, CSS, Lean UX, Web Design, Usability, Design Thinking, Product Design, Mobile App Design, Wireframing, UX Design, Digital Product Design, UX Leadership, HTML, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, Axure RP Pro, Zeplin, Sketch, User Journeys, Collaboration, iOS, Customer Experience, Customer Experience (CX) Design, Product Research, Project Management
Product Designer
2013 - 2015
Pontomobi Tecnologia
- Designed a mobile app for Coca-Cola during the 2014 Soccer World Cup in Brazil. Defined the visual aesthetics and interaction patterns.
- Worked on a complex system for Unilever that organizes all the distributed content inside super and hypermarkets.
- Collaborated with stakeholders for each project and filled the gap between the client and users, aiming to create more meaningful interactions.
- Created handoff patterns for the development team, such as implementing a process involving the design and developers. Used the Sketch and Zeplin platforms as tools.
- Designed the information architecture for a mobile app for a large gas station network coupon initiative called Ipiranga.
Technologies: Prototyping, Health & Wellness, Wireframe to Product, Proof of Concept (POC), Mobile UX, Mobile App UI, Mobile Design, UI Design, User Research, Usability, Design Thinking, Product Design, Mobile App Design, Wireframing, UX Design, Digital Product Design, Paper Prototyping, Axure RP Pro, Adobe Fireworks, Adobe Photoshop, B2B, User Journeys, Collaboration, Usability Testing, User Interviews, iOS, UX Prototyping, Qualitative User Research
UI Designer
2012 - 2013
Bolt Comunicação
- Delivered thoughtful visual and interaction design that aims to create engaging and user-friendly experiences.
- Worked on projects with a high level of interactivity.
- Collaborated with large clients such as Globo.com and Reckitt Benckiser.
- Designed institutional websites for Brazilian universities based on the main human-computer interaction principles.
- Used Lean UX to follow the agile environment developed inside the company.
Technologies: Prototyping, Wireframe to Product, Proof of Concept (POC), Mobile UX, Mobile Design, UI Design, CSS, Lean UX, Web Design, Usability, Design Thinking, Mobile App Design, Wireframing, UX Design, HTML, Axure RP Pro, Adobe Flash, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO), Visual Storytelling, Collaboration, Usability Testing, User Interviews, Google Analytics, Hotjar, Photoshop CC, Agile, Surveys, Qualitative Research, Customer Experience, Customer Experience (CX) Design, Qualitative User Research, Survey Development & Analysis, Experimental Design, Websites, Recording
UI Designer
2011 - 2012
MIND
- Redesigned a landing page for Hotmilhas, a miles exchange platform.
- Created visual patterns for email marketing for several clients.
- Designed a CMS platform for blogging for an independent publicity agency.
- Created animated banners for Google Adwords to a miles exchange company.
- Helped create a new website to showcase SsangYong cars in Brazil.
Technologies: Health & Wellness, Proof of Concept (POC), UI Design, Web Design, Usability, Adobe Flash, Axure RP Pro, Google, Adobe Photoshop, Visual Storytelling, Collaboration, Photoshop CC
Education
2023 - 2024
Master of Business Administration (MBA) in Business Intelligence
Uniasselvi - Indaial, Brazil
2015 - 2016
Post-graduate Degree in Interaction Design
Pontífica Universidade Católica - Belo Horizonte, Brazil
2010 - 2012
Associate's Degree in Graphic Design
Centro Universitário UNA - Belo Horizonte, Brazil
Certifications
JUNE 2017 - PRESENT
Design Sprint Bootcamp
Sparck
MAY 2017 - PRESENT
Design Sprint
APRIL 2016 - PRESENT
Service Innovation by DesignThinkers Academy
DesignThinkers Academy
Skills
Tools
Sketch, InVision App, Google Web Designer, Miro, Jira, Confluence, Maze, Hotjar, Google Analytics, Claude, InVision, Google Workspace, Adobe Photoshop, Axure RP Pro, Adobe Flash, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Fireworks, Zeplin, Bootstrap Studio, Marvel App, Photoshop CC, AI Tools
Platforms
Figma, MacOS, Android, iOS, Webflow, Visual Studio Code (VS Code), WordPress, Web, Mobile
Languages
HTML, CSS, JavaScript
Industry Expertise
Banking & Finance, Building & Construction, Fashion & Beauty, Health & Wellness, Sports & Recreation
Other
Mobile Design, Mobile UX, User Experience (UX), Blog Design, User Interface (UI), Design Sprints, Google Design Sprints, Customer Journey, UI Design, Product Design, User Flows, Task Flows, Requirements Analysis, Fintech, UX Leadership, Mobile App UI, Proof of Concept (POC), Team Scheduling, Wireframe to Product, Design Thinking, User Research, Prototyping, User Interviews, Information Architecture (IA), Stakeholder Mapping, Stakeholder Interviews, Surveys, Usability, Usability Testing, Typeform.io, Web Design, UX Design, Mobile App Design, Digital Product Design, Wireframing, Agile, Lean UX, SaaS, Collaboration, Interaction Design (IxD), Heuristic Analysis, Usability Analysis, UX Research, Stakeholder Management, Data Visualization, Qualitative Research, B2B, User Journeys, MVP Design, Web App Design, UI Prototyping, UX Prototyping, Software as a Service (SaaS), Customer Experience, Customer Experience (CX) Design, Data Synthesis, Product Research, Qualitative User Research, Survey Development & Analysis, Experimental Design, Project Management, Research, Websites, English, iOS App Design, Branding, Design Leadership, Sports & Athletics, Visual Design, Design Systems, Presentations, Mobile UI, Redesign, Website Redesign, Framer, Cursor AI, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO), Visual Storytelling, Carrd, AI Design, Artificial Intelligence as a Service (AIaaS), Landing Page Design, Claude Code, Dashboard Design, Claude Design, AI-powered Product Design, Quantitative User Research, AI Research, Sampling, Replit, Recording, Audio Recording, Google, Paper Prototyping, Product Strategy, Apps, Mining, Fun & Lifestyle, Market Research, Style Guides, User Testing, Product Discovery, Mixed Method Research, UX Strategy, Business, Business Intelligence (BI), Balance Scorecards, A/B Testing, Team Management, Talent Management, Strategic Design, Leadership, Management, Interviewing, Communication, Business Strategy, Service Design, Human-centered AI, Web App UX, Presentation Design, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Stripe, AI Product Strategy
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