# Melissa Quintanilha

> Fractional Design Leader | Strategic Leadership + Hands-On Execution for Startups

Location: Greater Seattle Area, United States
Profile: https://flows.cv/melissaquintanilha

After over 25 years in design — including 7 years at Microsoft and 10 years leading Dupla Studios — I've learned that great design needs both strategic vision and hands-on execution.

At Dupla, I've partnered with companies like Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Smartsheet, and MURAL, earning recognition as a 2024 IxDA Interaction Design Award finalist.

I now work fractionally with seed-stage startups — typically 5-50 people, seed to Series A — who need executive-level design leadership but aren't ready for (or can't afford) a full-time VP of Design.

What I love about working with startups: I get to bring design maturity where it matters most, see the direct impact of my work, and move fast without politics getting in the way.

𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗺𝗮𝗸𝗲𝘀 𝗺𝗲 𝗱𝗶𝗳𝗳𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗻𝘁:
→ Strategic + execution combo: I don't just give you strategy decks — I diagnose what needs to be built and design it in Figma when needed
→ Strong engineering collaboration: My CS background helps me bridge design and technical teams effectively
→ Pattern recognition: Working across multiple companies means I've seen these problems before and know how to solve them

𝗪𝗵𝗼 𝗜 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵:
Seed to Series A startups (5-50 people) who need both strategic thinking and hands-on design work — without needing to hire separate people for each.

𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝘄𝗲 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸 𝘁𝗼𝗴𝗲𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿:
→ I offer three engagement tiers — from strategic advisory to full design leadership — all with hands-on execution when needed. 
→ I diagnose before I prescribe. Every engagement starts with discovery to understand what actually needs to be fixed.

Working with software companies who value design as a competitive advantage. 
𝗟𝗲𝘁'𝘀 𝘁𝗮𝗹𝗸 → melissa@duplastudios.com

## Work Experience
### Founder & Fractional Design Lead @ Dupla Studios
Jan 2025 – Present
Focusing exclusively on fractional design partnerships for software companies—embedded, long-term work that bridges strategic vision and hands-on execution.

### Co Founder, Head of Design @ Dupla Studios
Jan 2015 – Jan 2025 | Greater Seattle Area
Award-winning UX studio with clients such as Microsoft, Amazon, Google, Smartsheet, and MURAL. Our work was recognized as a finalist for the 2024 IxDA Interaction Design Award.

### User Experience Design Instructor @ General Assembly
Jan 2016 – Jan 2016 | Greater Seattle Area
- Enabled the next generation of UX designers make the world a better place. 
- Co-instructor with Court Crawford for a full-time, 10-week immersive course on UX Design for adult learners. (UXDI)
- Sole instructor for the 1-week immersive UX Design program (UXD 1W)

### Senior User Experience Designer @ Microsoft
Jan 2013 – Jan 2015
- Designed future social experiences for home and work.
- Worked on research projects as well as across several Microsoft products, helping define the company strategy moving forward.
- Served as Microsoft liaison with ESDI (Escola Superior de Desenho Industrial, Brazil) for their participation in Microsoft's Design Expo 2014. ESDI's project won the award of Best Overall.
- Headed Microsoft Design Expo 2015, coordinating among 8 international design universities. 
- Served as Microsoft liaison with PUC-Rio (Brazil) for their participation in Design Expo 2015.

### Senior User Experience Designer @ Microsoft
Jan 2011 – Jan 2013
- Envisioned the next generation of automotive experiences
- Direct touch and remote interaction via voice, controller, steering wheel controls, gaze, gestures.
- Presented the Microsoft Automotive user experience vision to Fiat/Chrysler, Ford, Mercedes, BMW and IDEO.
- Selected to be featured as part of a series of Windows Embedded Automotive promotional videos (link below)

### User Experience Designer II @ Microsoft
Jan 2008 – Jan 2011 | System Center Service Manager
- Lead UX designer for enterprise-level software for management of IT services (desktop and web).
- Created and led a team of design integrators, transferring ownership of the UI layer to the UX team for the first time.
- Delivered WPF and Silverlight control libraries that were used across the whole product suite and killed the number of UX bugs by the hundreds.
- Active collaborator with user research by fast prototyping and attending usability and field studies.
- Built a process that outlines the interactions with the UX team and all other disciplines: from generative research, to prototyping and fit and finish.

### Interaction Designer @ Advanced Computing Center for Arts and Design (ACCAD)
Jan 2007 – Jan 2008
- Lead UX designer for project Synchronous Objects.
- About the project: Starting with world renowned choreographer William Forsythe's "One Flat Thing, Reproduced" as the research resource, the project reveals the deep structures of choreographic thinking in order to enrich cross-disciplinary investigation and creativity. The site invites a wide audience into understanding complex structures of interaction through an array of creative tools, expressive animations, and information graphics informed by the diverse team of collaborators from Computer Science, Dance, Design, Philosophy, Geography and Architecture.

### Master of Fine Arts graduate student @ Ohio State University
Jan 2005 – Jan 2008
My thesis project BuddyWall was presented at the SIDeR Conference in Sonderborg, Denmark, at the CHI conference in Florence, Italy and at the Design & Emotion conference in Hong Kong, China.

BuddyWall is a system comprised of a wall-mounted panel with mobile wireless objects that represent remote friends on a network. The purpose of this interface is to allow for communication among remotely located friends and to display an awareness of group presence and others’ availability through an ambient wall display. This project illustrates the transparency of a physical interface that provides aesthetically pleasing and emotionally engaging access to digital information for anyone.

### Interaction Design Intern @ Nationwide Insurance
Jan 2006 – Jan 2006
- Conceptualized, designed and built 2 interactive flash-based applications.

### Interaction Design Intern @ Siemens Corporate Research
Jan 2004 – Jan 2005
- Interaction design and wireframe flows for Siemens Building Technologies.
- Research and information visualization on a building's alarm data
- Designed and prototyped an internal communication tool for sharing project information across locations.

### Web Designer @ Agência Nacional do Petróleo
Jan 2003 – Jan 2004
Developed a framework and design language for a broad ecosystem of web apps that served over 1000 employees in 3 different locations.

### Designer @ Metatron
Jan 2001 – Jan 2003
- Print and web design work for a variety of clients
- Worked on site for a couple of engagements, one of the clients being Rede Globo, the largest TV network in Brazil.


## Education
### MFA in Interaction Design
The Ohio State University
Jan 2005 – Jan 2008

### BS in Computer Science
Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro
Jan 1997 – Jan 2003


## Contact & Social
- LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/melissa-quintanilha-6824361
- Portfolio: http://www.duplastudios.com

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Source: https://flows.cv/melissaquintanilha
JSON Resume: https://flows.cv/melissaquintanilha/resume.json
Last updated: 2026-03-30