Hi, I'm Manel Leiva,
Senior / Staff Product Designer
I work at the architecture layer of products, where the system, the language, and the interface have to agree.
The problems I keep ending up on are where design and product architecture are the same problem: how should this domain language actually work, where's the line between flexibility and constraint, what gets exposed and what stays hidden.
I've done this across data platforms, financial modeling tools, and design systems, working closely with product and engineering.
I've worked on dense data, multiple roles, systems that need to scale. I also go deep on the systems side: component libraries, token architecture, the pipelines that keep design and code from drifting apart.
Outside work, I like tinkering with electronics and building 3D-printed or wood parts.
Selected Work
Data management layer
First designer on a squad that had been shipping a JSON editor as the user interface. Introduced the abstraction layer that let finance teams manage their own data without implementation support.
View case study
Modeling language
Defined the formula language used across Abacum's modeling layer. The language fix was the prerequisite for the in-editor suggestions that came after.
View case study
A production design system
Production design systems at two companies. Token architecture, component libraries, and the engineering pipelines connecting them to code.
View case studyAbout
Over the last decade I've worked on complex B2B products: dense workflows, operational tools, financial systems, data-heavy platforms, design systems. Work where UX and product architecture are hard to separate.
Earlier in my career I co-founded a UX studio and worked across retail, media, services, and early stage products. Moving between unfamiliar domains on short timelines became normal. Working without stable requirements or clean problem definitions became normal.
I also taught UX and digital design at postgraduate level. Teaching changed how I think. You can't rely on process vocabulary. At some point you have to explain why something works, what you're trading off, and where the complexity should actually live.
Prior work
B2B SaaS for sales compensation. Joined as the sole designer and owned design across the full product surface, from multi-step approval workflows and role-based permissions through data mapping flows and real-time commission tracking for multiple roles.
Built the design foundation the product was missing: component library, token architecture, an icon system maintained directly. Alongside shipping features.
Also set up the design discipline from scratch.
FP&A platform for finance teams. Started as the first designer on the data and integrations squad, leading the evolution from JSON editor to a structured interface where users could configure data sources and transformations without engineering.
Then moved to the engine squad to design the modeling layer that consumed those datasets, completing the data-to-model workflow.
Also led the standardisation of the design system across five product squads.
Co-founded and ran a UX studio for over a decade. One of the larger projects was a custom CMS for KYMCO Spain that managed their bike and e-bike website, e-commerce and ERP integration for stock and dealer data.
Other work I led included vLex Iceberg (a repository and search interface for legal documents), e-commerce platforms on WooCommerce, and custom WordPress development.