Hi! I'm Valeria. Originally from Italy, where I started my design career and earned my PhD in Systems Design. I moved to California 11 years ago, and I've now settled in Redondo Beach, a lovely coastal LA town.

I'm currently Design Director at HubSpot, leading UX for the Customer Journey Product Line - the team reimagining how millions of businesses onboard, activate, and grow with HubSpot. My day-to-day is a mix of strategy, design leadership, and shipping AI-native onboarding and growth experiences. I lead a team of 21 designers and researchers, and I care a lot about both the work and the people doing it.

Before HubSpot: 4 years at LinkedIn as a Design Manager, where my team shipped a portfolio of products for the hiring marketplace, including four 0→1 launches. Before that, 2 years at IBM in the San Francisco studio, leading UX for Data Science Experience (now part of Watson Analytics) — a 250-person team across 8 time zones. The work won a Red Dot and a Fast Company Innovation by Design honorable mention.

Further back: a few years as a UX consultant for Start Ups and design studio owner, and 6+ years as a researcher and lecturer at universities in Europe and beyond.

What I love: ambiguous, systems-level problems where design can make something feel obvious - and using AI to move faster, think sharper, and help customers do the same. I genuinely care about the people I work with and the customers I design for. Drop me a line if you'd like to chat about design, AI, growth, or anything in between.