Application for
I'm Leonie Pfalz — a design leader who cares about building great teams and working closely with Product, Engineering, and Data to make things people genuinely love. 17 years of leading design across marketplaces, platforms, and products — always together with the people around me.
Here's how my experience maps to what you're looking for.
You're looking for someone who can set design vision and navigate ambiguity across a fast-evolving, multi-market business.
At Deliveroo, I set the design direction for Delivery & Logistics — understanding what riders, customers, and partners actually need and turning that into a clear plan for what we work on and why. At Unmind (workplace mental health), I was responsible for three completely different user groups (employees, managers, and HR leaders), each with their own needs, and had to figure out the right strategy for all of them at once.
You want a leader who moves fluidly between long-term direction and high-quality execution.
At ImmobilienScout24, I built a new team from scratch and set the long-term direction while also running weekly usability testing, prototyping workshops, and A/B tests — we released to users every two weeks. At Unmind, I worked with Product, Engineering, and Data leaders to expand from one audience to three after the pandemic changed everything about how people used the product. I'm comfortable in the big-picture strategy and in the details of what we're shipping this sprint.
You want someone who invests in people's growth, wellbeing, and long-term success.
I've built design teams from scratch — 20+ people at Flink, 13 at Just Eat Takeaway, and the whole UX function at Unmind. I care about the people in my team as individuals. In weekly 1:1s we talk about how they're actually doing, not just what they're delivering. I try to create environments where people feel safe enough to take risks, honest enough to give real feedback, and supported enough to do the best work of their careers.
You need someone who partners deeply with Product, Engineering, and Data — and shapes culture beyond their immediate team.
At ImmobilienScout24, I changed how the whole product team worked — getting designers, engineers, and PMs into research together, making decisions together, and sharing accountability for what happened after launch. At Unmind, I started a Voice of the Customer programme so user feedback shaped what the whole company built, not just what design thought was important. At Deliveroo, I ran a workshop with the global design leadership team in San Francisco where we defined our leadership principles and made real commitments — building AI tools to help drive connection, strategic alignment and design ambition.
Monzo designs for "magic moments" — experiences that feel deeply human, not just functional.
At The Times, I took a 240-year-old brand and made it feel at home on a phone — the Play Store rating went from 2.8 to 4.4 stars and people read three times as many articles per session. We also pushed hard on accessibility (colour contrast, screen readers, text resizing) because everyone deserves a good reading experience. At Unmind, a user described our AI coach as "the best thing that ever happened" — and we partnered with Ragged Edge on a rebrand that gave the whole product a distinctive, cohesive personality.
You want a leader who embraces new technology to move faster, think bigger, and amplify their team's impact.
I use Cursor and ChatGPT every day as real working tools — pulling insights and analysis through existing skills and MCPs, exploring design concepts, and building tools that advance design, product and localisation practices across DoorDash. The result: faster workflows, more impact, and a team that can do the same. This site was built entirely in Cursor.
Deliveroo
Leading Product Design, Content Design & Localisation across Delivery & Logistics — connecting consumers, riders, and restaurant/grocery partners. Working closely with Product, Engineering, and Analytics to figure out what matters most and ship it well. Using Cursor and ChatGPT daily to understand feedback at scale and build working prototypes.
Unmind
Built and led the UX function for a B2B mental health platform serving three audiences — employees, managers, and HR leaders. Collaborated with Product, Engineering, Data, and Science leaders to define product vision, expand into new audiences, and launch AI-powered experiences. Established the company-wide Voice of the Customer programme and partnered with Ragged Edge on a full rebrand and design system.
Flink
Built a 20+ person design, research, and content organisation from scratch during rapid international growth. Created team structures and operating models in close partnership with Product, Engineering, and Commercial leaders — aligning everyone around shared outcomes across four markets.
Just Eat Takeaway.com
Built and led a 13-person multidisciplinary design team, partnering with Product, Engineering, and Data leaders to shape consumer strategy across European markets. Led major cross-functional initiatives — redesigning search and checkout, rolling out a unified design system post-merger, and expanding the platform from takeaway into grocery and retail.
Novoda (consultancy)
Led product design across consultancy and client engagements, embedding cross-functional design practices within client organisations. At The Times, partnered with IDEO, editorial leaders, and mobile engineers on a full app redesign. At ImmobilienScout24, led a shift in how Product, Engineering, and Design collaborated — embedding shared research, joint ideation, and A/B-tested releases every two weeks.
Earlier: Mobile Product Designer at Novoda (2014–16) · Head of Design at Touchnote (2010–14) · Graphic Designer at Concrete Studios (2007–10)
Marketplace platforms, B2B products, and award-winning consumer experiences — all involving complex, multi-audience systems.
Current role
Three-sided marketplace · Delivery & Logistics
Leading design across a three-sided marketplace — using Cursor and ChatGPT daily to make sense of feedback from riders and customers, build working prototypes, and shape what we ship across all three audiences.
B2B mental health platform · 3 user groups · 2.5M+ users
Designed for employees, managers, and HR leaders simultaneously — each with distinct archetypes and needs. Led a full rebrand with Ragged Edge, built the design system, launched an AI-powered virtual coach (63% retention, 90% satisfaction), and created an enterprise analytics tool adopted by clients including Bain, KPMG, and Uber.
Global food marketplace · Multi-market
Redesigned order tracking to scale across food, grocery, and retail. Led a unified design system rollout post-merger, simplified checkout flows, and expanded the platform from takeaway into everyday convenience — navigating localisation and regulation across European markets.
Award-winning journalism · 600K+ subscribers · 20M+ readers
Redesigned the digital experience for a 240-year-old brand — partnering with IDEO on consumer research (70+ interviews, 275 surveyed), running bi-weekly usability testing from week 2, and championing W3C accessibility (colour contrast, screen readers, text resizing). Play Store rating went from 2.8 to 4.4 stars.
Germany's largest real estate platform · 12M+ monthly visitors
Embedded customer-centred design across multiple product squads. Ran weekly research (guerrilla testing, focus groups, lab usability), facilitated rapid prototyping workshops, and built a cross-platform design system. Led a confidence-based rollout approach — shipping iteratively every two weeks with A/B testing to validate impact.
Rapid grocery delivery · 4 markets
Scaled a 20+ person design org from scratch during hypergrowth — building the structures, processes, and culture needed to move fast without losing quality.
Personalised postcards · 15M+ users · 4.5 year tenure
Led design across mobile apps, web, physical products, and marketing. Conducted extensive consumer research to redefine the value proposition, created a new brand identity, and redesigned the full card-creation experience — including a credit purchase redesign that increased average order value by 80%.
Monzo talks about designing for "magic moments" — experiences that feel deeply human, not just functional. That's exactly how I think about design too. The best products come from genuinely understanding people, caring about the details, and never losing sight of who you're making this for.
Every meaningful product decision I've made started with understanding people. Not assumptions — real conversations, watching real behaviour, hearing what actually frustrates them. At ImmobilienScout24, I brought the whole team to a train station on week one to test with strangers. At The Times, we tested with readers every two weeks from day fourteen. At Unmind, I started a Voice of the Customer programme because what we were learning from users shouldn't just sit with design — it should shape the whole business.
Today, AI makes this even more powerful. I use ChatGPT to make sense of feedback from thousands of users across different audiences — finding patterns that would take weeks to spot manually. But the tools only work because the instinct to listen comes first.
The products I'm proudest of are the ones that made someone's life a bit easier. At Unmind, a user called our AI coach "the best thing that ever happened." At The Times, we pushed to change a 240-year-old colour system because readers with visual impairments couldn't read the articles properly. At Just Eat, we redesigned order tracking because that anxious wait after you've paid is real — and people deserve to know what's going on.
Making money work for everyone means thinking about the person who's worried about their balance, the person sending money home to family, the person trying to split a bill fairly. You can't design well for those moments without actually understanding how they feel.
The moments people remember don't happen by accident. They come from caring about the details everyone else thinks are done. At The Times, we commissioned a new digital typeface because reading on a phone screen is a completely different problem to ink on paper. At Unmind, we worked with Ragged Edge to build a design system that didn't just look good — it gave every part of the product its own personality. At Touchnote, one small interaction change — replacing buttons with a happy-face slider — increased average order value by 80%.
I think the future of banking should feel like that. I'd love to help Monzo get there — through craft, care, and treating every interaction as a chance to earn someone's trust.
Design doesn't work in a silo. The products I'm proudest of were built with Product, Engineering, and Data people — not designed and handed over, but figured out together. At Deliveroo, I work alongside PMs and engineers to decide what we focus on and why. At Unmind, I worked with leaders across Product, Engineering, Data, and Science to expand from one audience to three. At ImmobilienScout24, I changed how the whole team worked — getting everyone into research together, making decisions together, and owning the results together.
Real partnership isn't about alignment documents. It's about actually trusting each other, being honest about what's working and what isn't, and respecting what everyone brings.
I've built design teams from scratch five times — 20+ people at Flink, 13 at Just Eat Takeaway, the whole UX function at Unmind, and design practices at ImmobilienScout24 and Deliveroo. Each time, I've focused on the same things: hiring people for who they are not just what they can do, making it safe to be honest, and finding the right balance of support and stretch for each person.
I care about people first. Weekly 1:1s aren't status updates — they're about how someone is actually doing. The teams I'm proudest of aren't just the ones that shipped great work; they're the ones where people felt genuinely looked after.
AI gives us something genuinely new: the ability to understand our markets, our users, and our product opportunities at a depth and speed that wasn't possible before. That means we can create positive change sooner — spotting what matters, testing ideas faster, and building with more confidence in what people actually need.
But faster doesn't mean careless. The responsibility doesn't go away — it gets bigger. We need guardrails that hold us accountable to quality: in our design, in the experiences we ship, and in the products people trust us with. Used well, AI makes the work better. Used without care, it just makes mistakes faster.
"She not only demonstrates exceptional expertise and vision, but also creates an incredibly positive and supportive environment for her team."
— Misha Dimitrova, Product Designer
I've spent my career working on products where the details really matter — marketplaces, platforms, and tools that people rely on every day. Payments is exactly that kind of challenge: it's personal, it's high-stakes, and there's so much opportunity to make it feel genuinely good.
I'm drawn to Monzo's mission to make money work for everyone. I'd bring experience building teams that care deeply about their work, close partnerships with Product, Engineering, and Data, and a habit of using research and real feedback to figure out what to build and why. I'd love to be part of what comes next.
I'd love to discuss how I can contribute to Monzo's payments vision. I'm based in London and happy to meet in person or remotely.
leoniebrewin@gmail.com