Hi, I’m Carel.
From user research to shipped code, I design products that make an impact.
What I do
I run the research, design the product, and ship the front-end.
Product Strategy
Discovery workshops, problem framing, stakeholder alignment: steering the product before a pixel is drawn.
Product Design
End-to-end UX & UI: setting the quality bar from research and flows to the finished interface.
Front-end Engineering
Production React / Next.js. I speak engineering fluently, so design decisions survive the build.
Design Systems
Owning the system end to end: tokens, components, and the standards that keep teams consistent.
Research & Testing
Interviews, usability, metrics: building the evidence that earns design a seat in roadmap decisions.
About
I lead UX strategies that drive measurable product growth.
Carel Maeda
Product Design Manager · Toronto
Over the years, my strategies delivered around 10–15% YoY growth for clients, alongside stronger engagement and less workflow friction. The platforms I design make users’ lives easier each day so they can focus on selling.
Working across design, product, and engineering, I align stakeholders, shape roadmap priorities, and ship accessible, high-impact experiences. In 2023 my team and I built Paygos’ first design system, and I scaled it — streamlining the design-to-dev handoff from weeks to days.
With a background in marketing and engineering, I bring structured problem-solving to creative strategy. As a Product Design Manager, I’m growing my leadership toward a Design Lead role — mentoring designers, taking extra courses, staying up to date with a growing industry, and making myself future-proof.
Outside of work, I’m usually behind a camera. Photography shares the same instinct I bring to design: noticing the details that make complex things feel simple.