About
Hello, I'm Rafa, and I live in Valencia. I design products that shape reality and build them for real. I have spent seven years on it, for companies from early-stage startups to publicly traded. Most of my work has been on products where real money moves, with some HR software, wealthtech, and brand work along the way. What I care about is making complex things feel simple and seeing the numbers move after launch1.
Currently at Jimdo, where I designed a new payment system for small businesses across Europe from scratch. Before that, four years at Factorial, where I led design on several products and was part of the growth phase that took the company past a billion-dollar valuation2. Before that, Allfunds Bank, where I designed tools for private banks during the year they went public on the stock market3.
Outside of work, my head is mostly reflections and questions about why we are here and what the point of being human is, mixed with fragments of shows and films that shaped me.
Away from the screen I shoot on a Fujifilm X-E5, play classical Spanish guitar, and look for landscapes around the Mediterranean. I also produce in Logic Pro X and dabble on the piano. Nothing serious, just messing around.
A few numbers from recent work: I took the monthly volume of a card spend product from EUR 163 to roughly EUR 294k4. Payroll activation went from 43 to 500 companies per month. And I shipped four employee benefit categories in Spain in under six months.
For years the question I kept asking while designing was “how does this make money?”, and lately the question has shifted to “how does this build trust?”5. Trust moves the numbers too, it just takes longer to show up.
I could go on about how I build systems with AI or about any project I've shipped. But if what you really want is the recipe for my arroz al horno gratinado al Pedro Ximénez, I'll share that too.
- 1. The number that mattered: companies using payroll went from 43 to 500 in four months.
- 2. I joined Factorial to lead design on the financial products: expense cards, payroll, banking, employee benefits. Stayed through the growth phase that took the company past a billion-dollar valuation.
- 3. Allfunds Bank is a fund distribution platform. The year I was there, they listed on the Amsterdam stock exchange. I designed tools for seven private banks, including Banc Sabadell d'Andorra, Caser Asesores, Arcano Partners.
- 4. First version of the expense card product. Monthly spending through the cards went from EUR 163 to EUR 294k in 18 months. It became the foundation of everything Factorial built around cards and expenses after.
- 5. A feature or a service can bring a customer in once; trust is the only thing that makes them come back. And it's the customers who come back that keep a business alive over time. Money earned without trust always leaks back out somewhere.
Principles
Every decision starts with the person using the product, not the org chart.
Good design feels simple. Not because it is simple, but because someone sorted out the mess behind it.
Tell people what is happening, why, and what comes next. Especially when something breaks.
Designers do not protect taste. They share it. Engineers, PMs, support, sales: everyone designs.
The work is not done when I hand it over to engineering. It is done when I check the numbers a month after launch.
Experience
Senior Product Designer @ Payments
Hamburg, Germany (Remote)
- Building the payment system for small European businesses from scratch: payment links and invoices. The screen where a website earns its first euro.
Senior Product Designer @ Benefits
Barcelona, Spain (Remote)
- Designed and launched the first version of Benefits in Spain. Reached around EUR 220k in yearly revenue in six months.
- Adapted the product for Portugal. Different tax rules, same interface.
- Integrated Benefits into the Compensation product. Opened a new revenue stream from 20+ existing customers.
- Extended the design system for the new features. Kept it consistent even while shipping a route a week.
Product Designer @ Payroll & Compensation
Barcelona, Spain (Remote)
- Rebuilt the payroll experience as a three-step flow. Adoption and efficiency went up.
- Cut task time and made key actions easier to find. User satisfaction went up.
- Helped other designers in the vertical ship better work. Mostly through pairing and reviews.
- Wrote the brief that turned Payroll into Compensation. Got product and design to agree on where it was going.
Product Designer @ Expenses, BaaS & Software Management
Barcelona, Spain (Remote)
- Turned a manual expense reimbursement tool into a card-based solution. Submitting an expense went from about 3 minutes to 10 seconds.
- Defined the card design and visual language: colours, card artwork, interface elements.
- Built the design foundation for new products on Stripe's payment infrastructure.
- Designed and launched a first version of Software Management using virtual cards.
Product Designer @ WealthTech SaaS & Consultancies
Madrid, Spain (Remote)
- Redesigned Allfunds' financial tools to make them easier to use and better connected to each other.
- Took the fund house registration process from paper and email to a digital flow. Cut the time to get started from weeks to days.
- Designed tools for clients including Santander, Banc Sabadell d'Andorra, and Caser.
UX/UI Designer
Valencia, Spain
- Designed websites and digital products for local brands. Focused on making them easy to use and true to each brand's identity.
- Led the visual direction and kept creative and technical teams working together.
Web Designer
Valencian Community, Spain
- Designed and built websites for clients like Sony Music Spain and Grupo Gimeno.
- Built sites that looked good and worked well for everyone, including people with disabilities.
Beyond design
A Fujifilm X-E5, usually at f/2. I just like taking photos.
Mostly guitar: Spanish, classical, acoustic. And long playlists in the evening.
Films and series with a slow character study. Lost, Black Mirror, Severance.
Long drives and slow lunches in nice places. L'Albufera at sunset is my favourite.
Clothing as art direction more than garment. Also into branding, interiors and contemporary art.
Slow Sunday lunches. Arroz al horno, mostly.