"Chela is the best designer I have ever worked with, and it’s not even close! I am so fortunate to have been paired with her as my main Design contact for the last 2.5 years.

Chela’s work is of the highest quality. The designs she produces are thoughtful, rigorous, and rooted in customer-centric thinking - we funneled all of our highest value, most complex problems to her. She can operate effectively at all levels of the product development lifecycle - user research, competitive analysis, visioning, prototyping, iterating, and redlining - and her work has impressed me at all levels. Every aspect of her designs is highly considered and defensible under scrutiny. When you ask Chela, “Why did you choose to do it this way?” be prepared for an in-depth explanation that contextualizes her thought process and decision making. Iterating and collaborating with her is an absolute dream, as you can have a conversation about how she’s broken down the problem first, and then see how she chose to represent that in the designs. She’s not dogmatic - when feedback means she has to adjust her own designs or thinking, she is quick to do so and carry that learning forward.

Chela’s talents stretch way beyond the average product Designer - she’s also a meticulous systems thinker and Product thought leader. Chela’s does her best work when given free reign to dig into complex, unwieldy challenges (like “create a holistic design system for the next generation of components” or “let’s vision a new industry-leading style + theme management system.) I’ve seen many other designs fail at similarly massive tasks… some may hyperfixate on specific details, or fail to examine the premise, or not know where to begin. Chela doesn’t have these problems however, as she starts every project by examining “who are the customers for this?” and “what are their needs?” She looks for ways to streamline and simplify, bringing a systematic order to problem spaces that are highly chaotic. If you have a daunting design task that feels overwhelming in both scope and impact, Chela is the person you want working on it!

Chela is an absolute joy to work with. She’s kind, approachable, and open to feedback. She’s tactful when she disagrees, and persistent in making sure her voice is heard. She exudes a true sense of ownership over her work. She’s become a cornerstone of the Design/Product/Engineering culture, and the rest of the Design team has an immense amount of respect for her. Her passion for all things design, and especially accessibility, is contagious! I was admittedly a bit clueless on the nuances of accessible design when we first met, but she has been patient and persistent in pushing accessibility requirements into my Product work.

Chela isn’t just an amazing hire, she is THE BEST hire you could possibly make when building out a Design practice. Your most mission-critical projects are in good hands when Chela is involved. I hope our careers cross paths again and again in the future!"

👉🏼 Patrick Quinn

Lead Product Manager at Unqork

"Chela is such a talented designer. She is extremely organized, proactive, and determined when it comes to solving design problems. Her clarity, responsiveness and friendly demeanor make her an amazing collaborator. I love working with her, as I always learn so much from her strong processes and incredible UI design skills.

She’s a champion of accessibility in our platform, which has been a huge undertaking. Chela brings enthusiasm and delight to our team’s culture as well, and makes virtual meetings so much more fun!

👉🏼 Katrina Priya

Product Designer at Unqork

"It's such a freakin pleasure working with Chela's designs, mockups, and docs. Everything she touches gets very organized and concise, making it super rad for Devs and PMs to work with.

She works great across multiple teams, managing several tasks in an efficient order. If I could, I would pick her to be the designer on any team I'm working with. Chela is just the best!"

👉🏼 Travis Hubbard

Staff Engineer at Unqork

"Chela is an exceptional UX and UI professional, she is excellent in front of an executive team and working on high-level product direction, but also great hands-on, and everything in between.

She is truly a one-of-a-kind user experience leader–one with a great deal of knowledge, who empowers her team on the daily.

As a PM I have had the pleasure of working with Chela on multiple projects (such as FOLEY, PATH, etc) and her professionalism and kind heart never seems to fade - My full-hearted recommendation goes to anyone lucky enough to have Chela on their team."

👉🏼 Olivia Linder

Senior Technical Project Manager at Reflexions

"In her last year with the Charles Butt Foundation, Chela set up our organization for success by creating a design system that informed and drove the overall look and feel for our organization’s website.

Additionally, she helped lead an effort to better understand our audience and user behaviors by doing extensive research on how users interacted with our previous website and low-fidelity prototypes. Using the methodology of contextual inquiry with actual users, we were able to pinpoint key issues found on the previous site and formulate practical solutions for the new site. The new site launch was an absolute success, and we could not have done it without Chela’s leadership and support."

👉🏼 Joel Goudeau

Art Director at the Charles Butt Foundation

"Chela and I collaborated together on numerous UI/UX projects, and I admire her thought-leadership and creativity. Her energy, work ethic, and tenacity helped to make our team a powerhouse of exuberant creativity.

When she's not saving our group from a last-minute assignment, Chela embraces the challenge of learning all there is to know about process, prototyping, and producing engaging designs. She is a delight to work with and is a great asset for any team."

👉🏼 Karen Wang

Lead Web Developer at the Charles Butt Foundation

"Marcela is the magic key. She always knows what to do even if the worst scenario comes around. She and her great skills as a designer help solve any issue she is in charge of.

You won’t regret it if you hire her. She is always finding new creative ways to improve the process in any field she develops at"

👉🏼 Sergio Gutierrez

Creative Designer at Zemoga, Inc

"Marcela is the Swiss Army Knife every design team craves! She has a very strong knowledge of design trends and how to implement them. Adept at ideation and research, though always ahead of schedule when it comes time for delivery."

👉🏼 Tannie Low

Creative & Studio Design Operations Leader