I'm a Lead Product Designer, indoor gardener, and perpetual student of human behavior.

"I got to watch Maria evolve a ton during our time together at Runwise. She came in as a brand designer and was immediately handed a huge project to rethink and rebrand Runwise, but what impressed me most was how quickly she became so much more than that! She turned into this unique mix of designer, product thinker, storyteller, and builder, with a really strong understanding of design psychology and how to communicate ideas clearly. She also never let engineering slow her down.

I watched Maria go from zero terminal experience to working with multi-threaded coding agents and shipping full-stack apps with real integrations 🤯. She was also one of the first people I worked with who really understood how to use AI to amplify her own skill set, even building custom agents that helped the rest of the company create better on-brand work. That mix of taste, storytelling, curiosity, and ability to actually ship is incredibly rare."

"If you think back about your career and the people you've gotten to work with, most of us have worked with a lot of amazing people. But there are always a few that stand out. Maria is one of those for me.

I got to work with her at Refine Labs and was blown away by her talent. And then got to work with her again at Runwise where I watched her completely transform the brand and feel of the product and company.

Her talent is just on another level. And I don't mean just her incredible eye for design and ability to take someone's idea and turn it into something magical, I mean her ability to take others through a process of discovering and shaping ideas to find their best potential at reaching the goal outcomes.

I've seen her guide executives and lead teams of creatives and work with customers and push back when she believes things could be better. I just can't imagine there are too many others out there with her set of strengths.

And on top of all that, she's just an awesome person. Can't say enough. :)"

"Maria is easily one of the best designers I have ever worked with. An analogy I would always use to describe her is she felt like the fairy godmother from Cinderella casting her wand on anything to make it look effortlessly beautiful. What impresses me the most about her is her work ethic and standards she sets for herself; she never accepts design just being “good enough”, she works until they’re great.

No matter how busy she is, she never shies away from helping a teammate and she is a fantastic teacher. She also is a great student herself and quickly mastered the latest AI tools, totally leveling up her skills as a designer to the point where she can directly contribute to the code base meaningfully. She is an incredible asset to any team and someone you can expect to continually grow and only get better."

"Maria has redefined my expectations on what a Designer can do. To any Designer in the future who finds my expectations difficult, you have Maria to blame. To call her a Designer is a massive under-representation — she is a humble master of visual communication in the most comprehensive way. Be it ads, websites, product UX/UI, sales decks, internal presentations, brand explorations, stylescapes (I only know what this is because of her), you name it — she can effectively communicate and amplify the most nuanced ideas and user experiences. She makes the complex simple."

"Maria has somehow managed to strike the balance between being an absolute joy and an absolute force to work with. Her smarts, savvy, and design style make her a powerful addition to any team, and her design skills are best in class. In addition to collaborating on brand strategy, website creation, and visual identity work for the broader business, Maria was also a design partner for our B2B SaaS / subscription product — contributing to everything from UI/UX work on the product and platform itself (prototypes, wireframing, interaction design, solving userflow issues) to the visual system and user experience for the assets users derived the most value from."

"Maria has wowed me since day one with her ability to think outside the box, be a team player, and inspire her peers! Her ability to do web, branding, motion, and AI DESIGN well speaks volumes. Every challenge or hurdle I've seen her overcome with grace, strength, and a new skill set. She's been such an inspiration to our team and I am so proud of everything she's accomplished here at Refine Labs. I know Maria will continue to be a rockstar in every room she steps into!"

"As a copywriter, having a positive relationship with designers is critical to bringing complex concepts to life. Maria is that magical designer who can not only take a concept and run with it, but give it a fresh and creative spin that makes it even STRONGER. She has a fundamental understanding of design principles and best practices — and knows exactly when to either follow or BREAK those rules in order to create genuinely interesting work that compels people to lean in a bit closer."