ABOUT
I earn the room before I design in it.
I earn the room before I design in it.
I earn the room before I design in it.
I earn the room before I design in it.
I’m André Duarte, a Senior Product Designer. I design enterprise software: the research platform, the rental back office, the insurance simulator, the hospital’s patient journey. Nobody chooses these tools. They arrive, and someone has to make the thing that arrived worth opening.
I’m André Duarte, a Senior Product Designer. I design enterprise software: the research platform, the rental back office, the insurance simulator, the hospital’s patient journey. Nobody chooses these tools. They arrive, and someone has to make the thing that arrived worth opening.
Seven years in product design, and enterprise B2B SaaS runs through all of it. At Globaleda it sat alongside consumer products for the web; since 2022 it has been enterprise only, one dense domain after another. Several products in that time, and all of them live.
Senior Product Designer · valantic LCS · September 2022 – July 2026. The five case studies here were made there.
Graphic Designer · Universidade dos Açores students’ union · October 2021 – May 2022.
Product Designer · Globaleda · September 2018 – June 2021. Client platforms for the web: B2B SaaS for business users and consumer products, shipped sprint by sprint inside Scrum teams.
Seven years in product design, and enterprise B2B SaaS runs through all of it. At Globaleda it sat alongside consumer products for the web; since 2022 it has been enterprise only, one dense domain after another. Several products in that time, and all of them live.
Senior Product Designer · valantic LCS · September 2022 – July 2026. The five case studies here were made there.
Graphic Designer · Universidade dos Açores students’ union · October 2021 – May 2022.
Product Designer · Globaleda · September 2018 – June 2021. Client platforms for the web: B2B SaaS for business users and consumer products, shipped sprint by sprint inside Scrum teams.
On several engagements I had to prove I was the right fit before anything else happened. What came after is the part I’m proud of: clients who came back and commissioned further work on the same system, and a team who started calling me their UX champion.
On several engagements I had to prove I was the right fit before anything else happened. What came after is the part I’m proud of: clients who came back and commissioned further work on the same system, and a team who started calling me their UX champion.
Based in São Miguel, in the Azores. Remote, on European hours.
Based in São Miguel, in the Azores. Remote, on European hours.
Download CV
THE RECORD
Six industries, all of them regulated
Six industries, all of them regulated
Six industries, all of them regulated
Pharmaceutical research, medical devices, specialist healthcare, insurance and fintech, industrial rental, workplace technology. The clients are under NDA, so the outcomes stand in for the names.
Pharmaceutical research, medical devices, specialist healthcare, insurance and fintech, industrial rental, workplace technology. The clients are under NDA, so the outcomes stand in for the names.
Pharmaceutical research, medical devices, specialist healthcare, insurance and fintech, industrial rental, workplace technology. The clients are under NDA, so the outcomes stand in for the names.
Pharmaceutical research, medical devices, specialist healthcare, insurance and fintech, industrial rental, workplace technology. The clients are under NDA, so the outcomes stand in for the names.
Search, AI chat and collections became one research flow
Global pharmaceutical R&D
Every one of the client’s hospitals runs one of the three versions
Global medical devices
85% of the legacy interface replaced, across office, yard and field
North American industrial rental
Two further apps commissioned on the same system
Multinational insurer
14 of 14 services adopted the status and disclosure patterns
Global workplace technology
One component library, reused across engagements by five designers and external contractors
Every engagement
IN THE ROOM
Getting agreement is the design work
Getting agreement is the design work
Getting agreement is the design work
I pitch the direction before I build it. Three times it would have been easier not to.
I pitch the direction before I build it. Three times it would have been easier not to.
I pitch the direction before I build it. Three times it would have been easier not to.
I pitch the direction before I build it. Three times it would have been easier not to.
I resequenced clinical content two teams had already signed off.
I resequenced clinical content two teams had already signed off.
I resequenced clinical content two teams had already signed off.
The original tool was complete and accurate, and patients still finished it feeling worse than when they started. It had been written to be complete, not to be read by someone who is frightened. I called the new direction the buddy system when I pitched it, and the name carried the room in a way the rationale on its own had not.
What it cost: review cycles got longer. Resequencing approved clinical content meant going back through everyone who had signed it off once.
I departed from a client’s own design system.
I departed from a client’s own design system.
I departed from a client’s own design system.
Their standards were built for brand surfaces, not for a dense internal application. Interpreting them meant leaving the system in places, which is an awkward argument to make when the system belongs to the people you are presenting to.
What it cost: every departure had to be justified to its owners. Inside someone else’s system the burden of proof sits with the change, not with the status quo, and some of those conversations took longer than the design work.
I cut information from a screen the people in front of me had asked for.
I cut information from a screen the people in front of me had asked for.
I cut information from a screen the people in front of me had asked for.
Operational users ask for everything on screen, and they mean it. But the product had to answer does this need me, not where is the package; the second question isn’t stored anywhere, so the interface has to work it out.
What it cost: pushback, and a real one. Some users now take an extra step to reach detail they used to see immediately, and being right about the default doesn’t make that free.
Getting agreement is part of the design work, not something that happens after it.
HANDOVER
Design and engineering, kept close
Design and engineering, kept close
Design and engineering, kept close
I prototype in code (Framer, React, Claude Code), so a handover is a conversation about something that runs, rather than a document about something that doesn’t. What I hand over is what I built against: a design.md file the build reads, and the Figma system the team reads.
I prototype in code (Framer, React, Claude Code), so a handover is a conversation about something that runs, rather than a document about something that doesn’t. What I hand over is what I built against: a design.md file the build reads, and the Figma system the team reads.
The design system behind these products was adopted by five designers and external contractors, with one component library reused across engagements, so quality and delivery speed stopped depending on who was staffed that quarter.
The design system behind these products was adopted by five designers and external contractors, with one component library reused across engagements, so quality and delivery speed stopped depending on who was staffed that quarter.
Accessibility is a working constraint: WCAG 2.1 AA, settled while the thing is being drawn instead of audited after.
Accessibility is a working constraint: WCAG 2.1 AA, settled while the thing is being drawn instead of audited after.
TOOLKIT
AI
Claude, Claude Code, Codex
Design
Figma, FigJam, Miro, Framer
Research
Notion, Maze, Claude
Code
React, Tailwind CSS
AI
When building gets this fast, judgement becomes the job
When building gets this fast, judgement becomes the job
When building gets this fast, judgement becomes the job
Both Lab projects were built with Claude as a collaborator, and being straight about that matters more than looking clever. It wrote most of the prototype code and the written specs, and argued for several of the decisions.
Both Lab projects were built with Claude as a collaborator, and being straight about that matters more than looking clever. It wrote most of the prototype code and the written specs, and argued for several of the decisions.
What doesn’t move: what to cut, who to talk to, and what a finding actually means. And the material underneath (interview recordings and meeting transcripts) is kept with the client’s consent, including on internal teams.
What doesn’t move: what to cut, who to talk to, and what a finding actually means. And the material underneath (interview recordings and meeting transcripts) is kept with the client’s consent, including on internal teams.
WHERE I WORK FROM
São Miguel, Azores
São Miguel, Azores
São Miguel, Azores
I work remote, on European hours. One hour behind Lisbon, two behind central Europe, so the overlap with a UK or EU team is the whole working day.
I work remote, on European hours. One hour behind Lisbon, two behind central Europe, so the overlap with a UK or EU team is the whole working day.
I studied design in Coimbra and came home. Portuguese is native, English is what I work in every day.
I studied design in Coimbra and came home. Portuguese is native, English is what I work in every day.
NEXT
What I’m looking for
What I’m looking for
What I’m looking for
A permanent Lead or Senior Product Designer role, in a team building something complicated for people who have to use it.
A permanent Lead or Senior Product Designer role, in a team building something complicated for people who have to use it.
Agency work gave me many domains quickly and the habit of earning the direction every time. What it could not give me is staying with a product long enough to see the second and third version of a decision. That’s the part I want.
Agency work gave me many domains quickly and the habit of earning the direction every time. What it could not give me is staying with a product long enough to see the second and third version of a decision. That’s the part I want.
A limit I haven’t solved: across these engagements the work was reviewed with stakeholders, specialists and client teams far more often than with the people who use the thing. On the patient product none of them were patients. On the logistics one I got a courier and an operations coordinator, and no further. I would push harder for direct contact with the people a product is actually for, even where arranging it is genuinely difficult.
ABOUT
I earn the room before I design in it.
I earn the room before I design in it.
I earn the room before I design in it.
I earn the room before I design in it.
I’m André Duarte, a Senior Product Designer. I design enterprise software: the research platform, the rental back office, the insurance simulator, the hospital’s patient journey. Nobody chooses these tools. They arrive, and someone has to make the thing that arrived worth opening.
I’m André Duarte, a Senior Product Designer. I design enterprise software: the research platform, the rental back office, the insurance simulator, the hospital’s patient journey. Nobody chooses these tools. They arrive, and someone has to make the thing that arrived worth opening.
Seven years in product design, and enterprise B2B SaaS runs through all of it. At Globaleda it sat alongside consumer products for the web; since 2022 it has been enterprise only, one dense domain after another. Several products in that time, and all of them live.
Senior Product Designer · valantic LCS · September 2022 – July 2026. The five case studies here were made there.
Graphic Designer · Universidade dos Açores students’ union · October 2021 – May 2022.
Product Designer · Globaleda · September 2018 – June 2021. Client platforms for the web: B2B SaaS for business users and consumer products, shipped sprint by sprint inside Scrum teams.
Seven years in product design, and enterprise B2B SaaS runs through all of it. At Globaleda it sat alongside consumer products for the web; since 2022 it has been enterprise only, one dense domain after another. Several products in that time, and all of them live.
Senior Product Designer · valantic LCS · September 2022 – July 2026. The five case studies here were made there.
Graphic Designer · Universidade dos Açores students’ union · October 2021 – May 2022.
Product Designer · Globaleda · September 2018 – June 2021. Client platforms for the web: B2B SaaS for business users and consumer products, shipped sprint by sprint inside Scrum teams.
On several engagements I had to prove I was the right fit before anything else happened. What came after is the part I’m proud of: clients who came back and commissioned further work on the same system, and a team who started calling me their UX champion.
On several engagements I had to prove I was the right fit before anything else happened. What came after is the part I’m proud of: clients who came back and commissioned further work on the same system, and a team who started calling me their UX champion.
Based in São Miguel, in the Azores. Remote, on European hours.
Based in São Miguel, in the Azores. Remote, on European hours.
Download CV
THE RECORD
Six industries, all of them regulated
Six industries, all of them regulated
Six industries, all of them regulated
Pharmaceutical research, medical devices, specialist healthcare, insurance and fintech, industrial rental, workplace technology. The clients are under NDA, so the outcomes stand in for the names.
Pharmaceutical research, medical devices, specialist healthcare, insurance and fintech, industrial rental, workplace technology. The clients are under NDA, so the outcomes stand in for the names.
Pharmaceutical research, medical devices, specialist healthcare, insurance and fintech, industrial rental, workplace technology. The clients are under NDA, so the outcomes stand in for the names.
Pharmaceutical research, medical devices, specialist healthcare, insurance and fintech, industrial rental, workplace technology. The clients are under NDA, so the outcomes stand in for the names.
Search, AI chat and collections became one research flow
Global pharmaceutical R&D
Every one of the client’s hospitals runs one of the three versions
Global medical devices
85% of the legacy interface replaced, across office, yard and field
North American industrial rental
Two further apps commissioned on the same system
Multinational insurer
14 of 14 services adopted the status and disclosure patterns
Global workplace technology
One component library, reused across engagements by five designers and external contractors
Every engagement
IN THE ROOM
Getting agreement is the design work
Getting agreement is the design work
Getting agreement is the design work
I pitch the direction before I build it. Three times it would have been easier not to.
I pitch the direction before I build it. Three times it would have been easier not to.
I pitch the direction before I build it. Three times it would have been easier not to.
I pitch the direction before I build it. Three times it would have been easier not to.
I resequenced clinical content two teams had already signed off.
I resequenced clinical content two teams had already signed off.
I resequenced clinical content two teams had already signed off.
The original tool was complete and accurate, and patients still finished it feeling worse than when they started. It had been written to be complete, not to be read by someone who is frightened. I called the new direction the buddy system when I pitched it, and the name carried the room in a way the rationale on its own had not.
What it cost: review cycles got longer. Resequencing approved clinical content meant going back through everyone who had signed it off once.
I departed from a client’s own design system.
I departed from a client’s own design system.
I departed from a client’s own design system.
Their standards were built for brand surfaces, not for a dense internal application. Interpreting them meant leaving the system in places, which is an awkward argument to make when the system belongs to the people you are presenting to.
What it cost: every departure had to be justified to its owners. Inside someone else’s system the burden of proof sits with the change, not with the status quo, and some of those conversations took longer than the design work.
I cut information from a screen the people in front of me had asked for.
I cut information from a screen the people in front of me had asked for.
I cut information from a screen the people in front of me had asked for.
Operational users ask for everything on screen, and they mean it. But the product had to answer does this need me, not where is the package; the second question isn’t stored anywhere, so the interface has to work it out.
What it cost: pushback, and a real one. Some users now take an extra step to reach detail they used to see immediately, and being right about the default doesn’t make that free.
Getting agreement is part of the design work, not something that happens after it.
HANDOVER
Design and engineering, kept close
Design and engineering, kept close
Design and engineering, kept close
I prototype in code (Framer, React, Claude Code), so a handover is a conversation about something that runs, rather than a document about something that doesn’t. What I hand over is what I built against: a design.md file the build reads, and the Figma system the team reads.
I prototype in code (Framer, React, Claude Code), so a handover is a conversation about something that runs, rather than a document about something that doesn’t. What I hand over is what I built against: a design.md file the build reads, and the Figma system the team reads.
The design system behind these products was adopted by five designers and external contractors, with one component library reused across engagements, so quality and delivery speed stopped depending on who was staffed that quarter.
The design system behind these products was adopted by five designers and external contractors, with one component library reused across engagements, so quality and delivery speed stopped depending on who was staffed that quarter.
Accessibility is a working constraint: WCAG 2.1 AA, settled while the thing is being drawn instead of audited after.
Accessibility is a working constraint: WCAG 2.1 AA, settled while the thing is being drawn instead of audited after.
TOOLKIT
AI
Claude, Claude Code, Codex
Design
Figma, FigJam, Miro, Framer
Research
Notion, Maze, Claude
Code
React, Tailwind CSS
AI
When building gets this fast, judgement becomes the job
When building gets this fast, judgement becomes the job
When building gets this fast, judgement becomes the job
Both Lab projects were built with Claude as a collaborator, and being straight about that matters more than looking clever. It wrote most of the prototype code and the written specs, and argued for several of the decisions.
Both Lab projects were built with Claude as a collaborator, and being straight about that matters more than looking clever. It wrote most of the prototype code and the written specs, and argued for several of the decisions.
What doesn’t move: what to cut, who to talk to, and what a finding actually means. And the material underneath (interview recordings and meeting transcripts) is kept with the client’s consent, including on internal teams.
What doesn’t move: what to cut, who to talk to, and what a finding actually means. And the material underneath (interview recordings and meeting transcripts) is kept with the client’s consent, including on internal teams.
WHERE I WORK FROM
São Miguel, Azores
São Miguel, Azores
São Miguel, Azores
I work remote, on European hours. One hour behind Lisbon, two behind central Europe, so the overlap with a UK or EU team is the whole working day.
I work remote, on European hours. One hour behind Lisbon, two behind central Europe, so the overlap with a UK or EU team is the whole working day.
I studied design in Coimbra and came home. Portuguese is native, English is what I work in every day.
I studied design in Coimbra and came home. Portuguese is native, English is what I work in every day.
NEXT
What I’m looking for
What I’m looking for
What I’m looking for
A permanent Lead or Senior Product Designer role, in a team building something complicated for people who have to use it.
A permanent Lead or Senior Product Designer role, in a team building something complicated for people who have to use it.
Agency work gave me many domains quickly and the habit of earning the direction every time. What it could not give me is staying with a product long enough to see the second and third version of a decision. That’s the part I want.
Agency work gave me many domains quickly and the habit of earning the direction every time. What it could not give me is staying with a product long enough to see the second and third version of a decision. That’s the part I want.
A limit I haven’t solved: across these engagements the work was reviewed with stakeholders, specialists and client teams far more often than with the people who use the thing. On the patient product none of them were patients. On the logistics one I got a courier and an operations coordinator, and no further. I would push harder for direct contact with the people a product is actually for, even where arranging it is genuinely difficult.