Application for
I'm Leonie Pfalz — a design leader who cares about building great teams, raising the quality bar, and partnering with Product and Engineering to make things people genuinely love. 17 years of leading design across marketplaces, platforms, and complex product environments.
Here's how my experience maps to what you're looking for.
You need someone who can set the design direction for their area — defining what good looks like, holding the quality bar, and shaping what gets built and why.
At Deliveroo, I led the rider vision — analysing the full rider experience to identify where the biggest opportunities were, then turning that into a clear design direction the team could act on. At Unmind, I ran research across three completely different audiences (employees, managers, and HR leaders) to define what each one needed and shape the product strategy around that. At Just Eat, I led the vision process for the consumer experience, working closely with Product, Engineering, and Data partners to define where we were headed and why.
You want someone who leads from the front on quality — who understands how design decisions translate to implementation and partners effectively with engineering.
At Just Eat, I led the redesign of the entire design system as Just Eat and Takeaway.com merged — rethinking components, patterns, and standards to work across two previously separate product organisations. At Unmind, I partnered with Ragged Edge to define the overall brand identity, visual language, and product identity across all three audiences — making sure every part of the product had a distinctive, cohesive personality. I care about the details that make something feel considered, not just functional.
You want a people-first leader who coaches designers at every level and builds a culture of craft, curiosity, and continuous improvement.
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 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 works as a true partner in the product triad — shaping decisions from the earliest stages, not just executing them — and who can align stakeholders around a shared direction.
At Unmind, I started a Voice of the Customer programme that changed how the whole company prioritised — user feedback shaped what everyone built, not just what design thought was important. At ImmobilienScout24, I led the product vision and strategy work — bringing together Product, Engineering, and Design around a shared direction and getting buy-in from senior stakeholders across the business. In both cases, the impact came from building trust and making the case clearly, not from having authority over the outcome.
You need someone with a company-wide lens — who can raise design quality across a complex product and ensure coherence with broader design standards.
At Just Eat Takeaway.com, I led the design system that brought consistency across a global organisation after one of the biggest mergers in the food delivery industry — two companies, multiple markets, and completely different design languages that needed to become one. 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 — while pushing hard on accessibility because everyone deserves a good experience.
You want a leader who's building a point of view on how AI changes both the products we design and the way we design them.
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%.
Skyscanner makes something genuinely complex — searching the world's travel options — feel simple and trustworthy. 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 travel accessible means thinking about the first-time flyer overwhelmed by options, the family searching for the best deal, the solo traveller who just wants to get somewhere new. 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 great travel experiences work the same way — 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, creating a culture of craft and curiosity, 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 and did the best work of their careers.
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 millions of people rely on every day. Travel is exactly that kind of challenge: it's personal, it's complex, and the gap between a frustrating experience and an effortless one is often just good design.
I'm drawn to Skyscanner because 160 million travellers already trust it — and there's still so much opportunity to make the experience even better. I'd bring experience leading design teams in complex product environments, strong partnerships across Product, Engineering, and Research, and a habit of using real feedback to shape what we build and why. I'd love to be part of what comes next.
I'd love to discuss how I can contribute to Skyscanner's design team. I'm based in London and happy to work from the London office.
leoniebrewin@gmail.com