About Me
I started my career as a UI/UX designer. I kept landing in early-stage startups or small companies, where product ownership and process are still taking shape, and everyone naturally wears a few hats. My instinct to organize meant I couldn't just design in a vacuum, so I started bringing structure where it was needed: defining functional requirements, coordinating teams, and giving direction to fast-moving, resource-lean environments. Somewhere in that process, I realized I loved the "organizing" side as much as the design side, so I studied agile methodologies, product management, and built those skills alongside my design practice.
11+ years later, I'm a digital product leader who moves comfortably between UI/UX design, product ownership, and team leadership, usually brought in for one and ending up doing all three.
What I bring:
Product & Delivery Management
Functional Analysis & Requirements Definition
UI/UX Design & Design Systems
Product Strategy & Roadmapping
Workflow Optimization & Team Operations
User Research
Agile Methodologies
AI-enabled workflow design
I care about work that matters: I've spent most of my career in mission-driven companies, including a global platform for the vegan community, and I actively support animal welfare causes outside of work.
Latest Work Experiences
Independent Contractor
July 2025 - Present | Remote
Currently working as an independent product and UX consultant on a mix of contract and advisory engagements:
Website Redesign - Marketspread (UI/UX Design - Freelancer - Ongoing)
Leading a full website redesign for Marketspread, a B2B SaaS platform for market and event management. They brought me in to build a professional, conversion-focused website able to compete with established players in the category, working alongside a content writer and directly with the founders.
Product & Functional Specs - Work for Impact (Project Manager and Functional Analyst - Independent Contractor)
Brought back by Work for Impact specifically to define the functional specifications for a new AI-powered product, a major initiative I led while continuing to manage the company's other active projects. I participated in discovery and formalized a 100+ page, scenario-driven document written to hand off directly to the internal dev team for Phase 1 build. I delivered the complete spec set at the end of the engagement.
Brand Identity & Website - Boutique Home Décor Retailer (Freelancer - Designer & Go-to-Market Strategist - Ongoing)
Leading a full digital relaunch for a boutique home décor and textile retailer (wallpaper, curtains, rugs, bespoke soft furnishings). I'm building a new brand identity from scratch, designing and building a new showcase website end-to-end using AI-assisted development, and defining a combined go-to-market strategy spanning digital (positioning for platforms like Etsy and Pinterest, defining which products translate well to online sale) and physical retail (in-store events and local presence).
Design Quality Oversight - Luxury Real Estate (advisory)
Engaged directly by the client to oversee and review the work of their in-house junior designer building the website for a large luxury property. Ran weekly design reviews, providing structured feedback to ensure the output met a professional, high-end standard before moving forward.
From UI/UX Designer to Head of Product
HappyCow | June 2022 - July 2025 | Remote
HappyCow runs a B2C mobile app connecting vegan consumers to restaurants and products, alongside a B2B web app for business listings, plus an internal admin tool for managing user and business submissions. I joined as UI/UX Design Lead, working solo on design across the B2C and B2B products with a small team of 4 developers and an on-and-off PM.
Whenever the PM role sat empty, I naturally stepped in to keep things moving, and that pattern of filling the gap became one of the reasons I was promoted to Head of Product in October 2024.
As Head of Product, I lead the team through a significant team restructuring. I worked on operations management first, formalized a bug-triage process and portal, started a documentation and access map for the company's systems, and worked to reinforce trust between team members so it could operate with less single-point dependency.
I also led the definition of an entirely new roadmap, synthesizing years of feedback from B2B business owners about listing visibility and app features into a new priority-ranking algorithm and bidding-based pricing model for premium placement, to reinforce the revenue stream.
Product Manager & UI/UX Design Lead
Work for Impact | May 2023 - Apr 2025 | Remote
Work for Impact had originally launched as an ethical alternative to freelance marketplaces like Upwork, but by the time I joined, the company had shifted direction: it was becoming more of an ethical BPO/talent-partner model, serving companies looking to build remote teams rather than individual freelancers browsing gigs. The existing marketing website still spoke to freelancers, so I was brought in specifically to lead the redesign and realign it with this new B2B, enterprise-facing positioning.
I led the UI/UX and rebrand over several months, working alongside a copywriter, a front-end developer, a consultant structuring the new site architecture, and the founder — my work depending on their parallel delivery to come together into the final site.
Once the redesign shipped, I was asked to stay on to support the core SaaS platform (where freelancers and companies connect). There was no dedicated product owner or PM in place, and work was arriving unstructured, directly from the founder, so I took the initiative and introduced ClickUp to give the team a shared system for tracking work, and naturally grew into a project manager and functional analyst role: defining which features needed attention, scoping new ones, and shipping them with a small cross-functional team (roughly 5–10 people), running daily standups and weekly syncs rather than formal sprints.
On the platform itself, I redesigned the sign-up/login flow, which had usability issues affecting new user activation, restructured the bug-reporting flow that was creating friction for the dev team, and led the redesign of the time-tracking desktop app used by freelancers to log billable hours, among other features shipped over the course of the engagement.
After leaving in 2025, I was asked to return later that year specifically as Functional Analyst and Project Manager to define the functional specs for a major new app, a direct result of the trust built during my first stint.
From UI/UX Design to Product Lead
WARDA | Aug 2017 - May 2022 | On Site
WARDA builds SeeCommerce, a PIM/DAM asset management platform for fashion brands, solving what they call "product content chaos" for teams managing huge volumes of product and campaign assets. The platform is trusted by major fashion houses including Calzedonia, Brunello Cucinelli, Missoni, and Sergio Rossi.
I joined as a solo UI/UX designer on products being built from the ground up: the PIM, a DAM, and a native visual merchandising app, designing every screen and flow essentially from a blank page, in constant collaboration with the development team. Working that closely with developers on a brand-new product is where I learned to think in components rather than screens; the FE developers taught me what a component was from a development perspective, and together we built out a full component library and design system that became the shared design language across all three products.
Over time, my scope expanded well beyond design: I worked directly alongside the PM/PO and delivery manager, constantly debating and defining functional requirements with developers, covering areas like asset tagging and taxonomy structures, approval and versioning workflows, and permissions across teams and brand accounts, all core to how a PIM/DAM needs to function for fashion-scale asset libraries. This growth was formally recognized twice: first with a promotion to Designer + Product Manager, and later to Product Lead. Throughout this period, WARDA's CTO was a genuine mentor to me, shaping how I think about product and technical collaboration to this day.
I worked within a small, senior team: one PM/PO, one delivery manager, and 5–8 developers.
More work experiences and details available on linkedin.com/in/danielacontessa
Studies & Certifications
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Oct 2025 | Online Course
Learned how to use GenAI and AI-integrated tools to enhance product management responsibilities, including drafting product requirements and supporting your team's collaboration.
Credential ID 001785978
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Sep 2025 | Online Course
The course focuses on component arrangements, UML visual notations, architectural styles, trade-off evaluations, and practical design patterns using Java-based projects.
Credential ID 4L96FH84GZE3
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Sep 2023 | Online Course
This course covers essential user experience (UX) concepts like usability, accessibility, and user-centered design, alongside user interface (UI) fundamentals such as layout, typography, and color theory.
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Jul 2024 | Online Course
Core concepts of AI and generative AI, prompt-writing principles, responsible use guidelines, and strategies for staying updated with emerging AI technologies.
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Oct 2021 | Online Course
Built a solid foundation in human-computer interaction principles, learning how to design intuitive, user-centered experiences by integrating psychology, ethics, navigation design, screen layout, personas, and practical toolkits.
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Sep 2011 - Jun 2014 | 3 Years Diploma | On Site
Developed expertise in branding, typography, layout design, visual storytelling, and digital/print production, UI/UX Design, with a strong foundation in creative concept development and design strategy.
More study experiences and details available on linkedin.com/in/danielacontessa
Ready to Build Something Great?
From UX to product strategy, I help turn ideas into solutions that work. Let’s talk about what you need and how I can help.