About
Pilar
Moreno Mena.
I'm a Senior Product Designer and Operations Strategist with ten years designing products and the operational systems that make teams work better. I'm most useful at the intersection of design, product, and strategy — where the problem isn't just what to build, but how to build it and how to make the organization capable of sustaining it.
I've spent my career at Thoughtworks — working as a consultant embedded in large organizations across healthcare, technology, hospitality, and AI-enabled services — and in-house at METRO.Digital in Germany.
Pilar Moreno Mena · Senior Product Designer
Background
The longer story
I started as a UX/UI designer in 2016, implementing Sketch and Zeplin to standardize the first design handoff process at a small app company. That early instinct — improving how design work gets done, not just what it produces — has defined most of what I've done since.
At METRO.Digital, I spent three years leading the redesign of an internal CRM used across 17 countries — improving the SUS score from D (57.3) to B (81.7). The real work wasn't the design. It was building the research infrastructure, establishing cross-timezone team rituals, implementing Qualtrics in 13 languages, and creating a discovery framework that other teams eventually adopted.
At Thoughtworks, I've worked across healthcare, technology, cruise line, and AI-enabled services — moving from individual contributor to taking on product management, operational strategy, and cross-functional coordination at a global scale. My most recent work involves building the internal communications and sales enablement infrastructure for a new AIOps managed services offering — coordinating across 6 regions while simultaneously acting as PM and UX lead for an agentic AI platform.
I mentor designers, contribute to hiring, and think a lot about how design organizations can work better. I'm moving toward roles that let me operate at both levels — practitioner and strategist — where the full range of what I can do is actually useful.
What I care about
How I think
01
Problems before solutions
I'm allergic to jumping to solutions. The most expensive mistakes I've seen come from teams that didn't spend enough time understanding what was actually wrong.
02
Honesty over comfort
I'd rather tell a stakeholder something they don't want to hear early than design something beautiful that doesn't solve the real problem. Research is for learning, not for confirming.
03
Systems over one-offs
The question I keep asking is: will this still work when I'm not in the room? Processes, documentation, and frameworks that outlast the project are the real deliverable.
04
People first, always
Whether it's the user on the other side of a product or the designer I'm mentoring — I find that the best outcomes come from actually caring about the human in front of you.
Languages
Native Spanish · Fluent English · Facilitated research in German-speaking markets
Open to
Lead UX / Product Design
Product Management
Design Operations
AI Product Design
Operations Strategy
Remote · Hybrid · Relocation