From the countryside in Latin America, to Silicon Valley

2000 - “You are a lost cause!”

That is what a teacher told me in high school. That one phrase had me questioning my value and worth as a person for a long time. It also lit a fire in me. I wanted to prove to myself and to that teacher that I was worth it.

My parents moved to the USA to try to provide a better future for me and my siblings - the kind of opportunities they had never had. My dad was an orphan, and my mom was the youngest of over 20 brothers and sisters. They had a tough life, and always had a modest income. Seeing how hard they worked for me and my siblings made me want to honor them more than anything.

The question I used to ask my young self was “How do I honor my legacy?”

The answer, was to discover what I love, and to work harder than anyone I knew at it. Design is what I love - and I am still working hard at it everyday.

So you are from Brazil?

When people hear that I am from Brazil, they think of Rio’s beautiful beaches, or the glamour of São Paulo’s fashion and design scene. But the truth is I come from a small country side town, which when I was born was famous for its many farms surrounding it. I have a Portuguese country accent, which kids in the big cities would make fun off. So yeah, I am a Brazilian country boy at heart.

2003 - Moving to the USA

When I first arrived in Boston as a teenager, I had to properly learn the language, so that I could succeed in school. But I also had to work. My first jobs were all typical immigrant jobs: Dishwasher at a restaurant (hated the job, but got free food); Landscaper in wealthy Boston neighborhoods (being outside had its pluses - dog not on leash isn’t one of them); House Painter (fun, but very tough in New England winters); Office Cleaner (huge buildings are pretty scary when you are alone in the graveyard shift). You get the picture. Those jobs were hard, but they humbled me and I learned a lot from each of them. They also helped me pay for college.

2005 - 2010 • Education, Education, Education

To college I went. I majored in Psychology and Sociology, because my dad said that “there will be a lot of crazy people needing help in the 21st century”. He was right, but I wanted to do something else, and it took me a few broken roads to figure that out.

I eventually got an MBA, and during the MBA I learned about Design Thinking - that sparked an interest, and led me to get a second Masters in Human Factors in Design. That is what officially kicked off my design career.

2010 - 2011 • The early years

In early 2011 I joined the User Experience Center, a UX consulting group. I worked in several major consulting projects in User Experience, Usability Testing, Eye-tracking, field studies and Interaction Design. I worked in a lot of finance software, including for Fidelity Investments and TD Bank.

In mid 2011 I joined the team of consultants, engineers and researchers at Essential Design (Boston, MA) as a UX Designer. There I worked in projects in user research, conceptualization and design. The coolest one was working on the iRobot Scooba robot.

Both of these companies trusted me when I was still inexperienced. They gave me a chance. I will never forget that.

2012 - 2017 • The Startup Years

I changed coasts and joined Meebo as a UX Designer in Mountain View in early 2012. At Meebo I worked designing their Advertising platform. Meebo was successfully acquired by Google in mid 2012.

In the middle of 2012, I joined Chegg as one of the early employees. There I worked as a UX Designer and Researcher, and created products such as Chegg Scholarships and Chegg Colleges. Chegg successifully IPOed and I wanted to join another early startup.

So to Pocket I went - Pocket had about 10 people total when I joined, and the years I spent there were some of the best years of my life. We were a small, but mighty team. We believed in our mission. We believed in each other. We were super focused on design and since Google Ventures was an investor, we got to work with the Design Sprint crew way before the book was out and everyone was sprinting. I learned so much there that it is truly hard to quantify. Pocket was eventually acquired by Mozilla, and several months after the acquisition, I joined Facebook.

2017 - 2021 • Facebook: Stories and AR/VR

I joined Facebook in 2017 and landed on the Facebook Stories team. There I had a chance to guide our strategy as a Design Lead on the “Future of Stories” work stream, and to execute design on the Stories Feedback system and Messaging.

After over two years on Stories, I became a Design Manager and Pillar Lead at Facebook Reality Labs, where I supported a team of designers creating experiences in the AR/VR for over two years.

2021 to Present:  Apple

In October 2021, I took on new challenge leading a super talented team of Human Interface Designers in the Video team at Apple in Cupertino, leading our work in creating high quality human experiences in our products. I am super excited with all of the great work our team is doing.

Not a lost cause after all.

After being apart from my parents for over a year because of the pandemic, they got a chance to come and visit us, and meet our youngest daughter for the first time.

At the end of their stay, my dad had tears in his eyes as he said “I am proud of you”. I get tears in my eyes every time I think about that.