6 years in strategy and operations before moving into design.
Colombian in Madrid
Hola, I’m Cala!
I’m a designer at heart with a UX master’s and a business degree. I bring years of experience in operations and strategic and commercial planning at service companies, and I use that analytical foundation to design products that make complex things feel simple.
Research, systems, interaction and a lot of curious questions.
Where analytical thinking meets a deeply human experience.
A little context
Changing careers?
Not a pivot. A bridge.
The business years
Fleet strategy at LATAM. Operations & driver acquisition at DiDi across three countries. Fluent in OKRs, unit economics and stakeholder decks.
The gap I noticed
What looked good on a roadmap didn’t always work for the person on the other side of the screen.
The deliberate move
Master’s in UX for Services and Products. Not as an exit from business as the other half of it.
Now
Designing fintech products at CaixaBank & ING with both instincts at once: what does the user need, and what does the business need to hear to say yes.
Why it matters now
AI is collapsing the distance between disciplines. The most valuable people hold two languages at once and translate between them.
I’m building my profile not by accident but because of what I do to create better products from different perspectives.
02
How I work
My design process
DiscoverDefineDevelopDeliver
Discover
I start by understanding the real problem — talking to people, observing what they do, and researching the context around them.
Define
Then I cluster what I’ve learned and pinpoint the exact problem worth focusing on — one we can explain simply and act on.
Develop
This is where I ideate, brainstorm and co-create. I build models quickly so the team can see, question, and improve the idea together.
Deliver
Finally, I test. I keep what works, learn from what doesn’t, and refine the experience until it is clear, useful, and ready.
03
Selected work
Projects
Swipe the projects
FX platform · Morocco
thanX – CaixaBank
Helping SMEs manage international transfers with more transparency and an accessible, refreshed experience.
Three institutions, three trips for every cross-border paymentA single guided flow for imports, exports and transfers
View project 04
Since then I've grown into a
Designer × Business
Design craftBusiness & product
Tap a point to bring that skill up front.
Design craft
Interaction Design
My strongest area. Interactive prototypes, user flows, microinteractions, component states — this is where I feel most confident and most in flow.
Evidence
thanX transfer & FX flowsING InvestmentClimb
Core strength · 4.75/5
05
The path so far
Experience timeline
Business & strategyEducationDesign
Explore the timeline sideways
2017
Bachelor in Business Administration
CESA, Bogotá
Where my analytical, business-first way of thinking was built.
2017–2020
Fleet Strategy Sr. Analyst
LATAM Airlines
Built an NPV fleet model worth USD 60M and learned to defend decisions with data.
2020–2023
Operations Acq & Eng Manager
DiDi · Chile, Peru & Mexico
Led acquisition and operations across three markets, managing teams and A/B-testing growth.
2023–2024
Master in UX for Products & Services
UDIT, Madrid
Pivoted into design — the full Double Diamond, from research to prototype.
May–Sep 2024
UX/UI Intern
ING Bank
Unblocked a 3-year-stalled investment area and shipped its MVP in six months.
Sep 2024 – now
Digital Product Designer
EGGS · Part of Sopra Steria
Now leading UX on thanX and mentoring a team of six designers.