Mara Ellis

Work

About

Contact

Open to roles

Resume

Mara Ellis

Resume

Mara Ellis

Work

About

Contact

Resume

(About)

Open to senior roles

Hi, I’m Mara.

I’m a senior product designer who likes the unglamorous parts of software: schedules, invoices, bookings, the tools people use all day at work. I started in UI design, learned research on clinic floors, and now lead design for a field-service platform.

Outside work I teach a design-systems course for junior designers and cycle the Lisbon hills far more slowly than I would like.

Based in

Lisbon, Portugal (CET)

Experience

9 years, all in-house

Focus

B2B SaaS, fintech, operations

Languages

English, Portuguese, Spanish

View resume

Get in touch

(01) How I work

Three habits behind every project.

Start with the work, not the screen

I spend the first weeks where the work happens: dispatch rooms, clinics, support queues. The design brief comes after.

Start with the work, not the screen

I spend the first weeks where the work happens: dispatch rooms, clinics, support queues. The design brief comes after.

Design with engineering in the room

Rough flows in week one, pairing on edge cases, and one shared file for states, tokens and acceptance notes.

Design with engineering in the room

Rough flows in week one, pairing on edge cases, and one shared file for states, tokens and acceptance notes.

Measure what changes

Every project starts with a number we expect to move. If it doesn’t, we learn why and change the design.

Measure what changes

Every project starts with a number we expect to move. If it doesn’t, we learn why and change the design.

(02) Experience

Four product teams, nine years.

Lead Product Designer

Crewdock

SaaS

2023 – Now

Lead Product Designer

Crewdock

SaaS

2023 – Now

Senior Product Designer

Ledgerline

Fintech

2020 – 2023

Senior Product Designer

Ledgerline

Fintech

2020 – 2023

Product Designer

Tendwell

Health

2017 – 2020

Product Designer

Tendwell

Health

2017 – 2020

UI Designer

Parcelry

Logistics

2015 – 2017

UI Designer

Parcelry

Logistics

2015 – 2017

(03) Education and teaching

Still learning, sometimes teaching.

MA, Interaction Design

Design school, Lisbon

Degree

2015

MA, Interaction Design

Design school, Lisbon

Degree

2015

Design systems for junior designers

Evening course, twice a year

Teaching

2021 – Now

Design systems for junior designers

Evening course, twice a year

Teaching

2021 – Now

Designing for dispatchers

Talk at a Lisbon product meetup

Talk

2024

Designing for dispatchers

Talk at a Lisbon product meetup

Talk

2024