Hi, I'm Manel Leiva,
Senior Product Designer
I design complex B2B products and the design systems behind them.
I’ve spent over fifteen years designing digital products, from co-running a UX studio to working in B2B SaaS teams. My work spans product workflows, interfaces, and design systems, with a focus on making complex tools understandable and usable.
Selected Work
Data management layer
Led design and customer testing to replace JSON-based configuration with a guided interface for finance teams. The squad's engineers estimated reported spending roughly half the previous time on standard dataset configuration.
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AI agent, Remuner
Designed a chat agent that answers questions about pay directly, with the calculation and plan rules behind every number. Deciding what it could answer, and what it had to refuse, was most of the design work. Released to every customer.
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Design system, Abacum
Built and got a production design system adopted across five product squads. Token architecture, component library, ESLint enforcement, and the governance to keep it alive.
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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.
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Design system, Remuner
Built the component library and token system from scratch as the sole designer, alongside regular product work. The system covered the full product surface. The CTO noticed without being prompted.
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My career spans co-running a UX studio, teaching design, and working inside product teams. Studio work took me across retail, media, services, and early-stage products; more recently, I’ve focused on financial and data-heavy B2B software.
I work from discovery through delivery, using research to clarify the problem and working with engineers to understand feasibility and constraints. I also build the shared foundations around that work: design systems, review practices, and ways for teams to contribute.
Teaching UX and digital design, and mentoring designers, has made explaining decisions part of my practice: why an approach fits, what it costs, and what remains unresolved.
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.
Alongside product delivery, I built the component library and token architecture, organized shared design files, and introduced product-planning and design–engineering refinement practices.
Worked first in Integrations and later in Engine, covering integrations, datasets, dimensions, mappings, financial models, and the modeling language.
Selected work included the self-serve Dataset Manager and formula-language research and design. Alongside squad work, I co-led the Abax business case with the Head of Design and drove system development and governance across five 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.