About « Jusley Smaly - Product Designer

I am a designer from Brazil with over 20 years of experience designing for digital media. I help companies make sense of complex systems and turn that understanding into better decisions.

20 years of experience

I design digital products for complex realities.

I look beyond the interface to understand the system behind it — the people, processes, technology and business that shape it.

My role is to make that complexity clearer — finding the connections, framing the right problems, and turning them into digital products that work in the real world.

Professional experience

Discover my professional trajectory.

Gerdau

Senior Product Designer

May 2025 - Present

At Gerdau, one of the largest steel producers in the Americas, I design digital experiences for enterprise sales operations within SmartSales, a strategic Salesforce–SAP ecosystem used by commercial teams across multiple business units. As Lead Product Designer for the Flat Steel business, I led discovery with sales representatives, pricing specialists, and managers to modernize a highly complex Make-to-Order quotation and ordering experience. My work centers on translating legacy enterprise workflows into an intuitive UX strategy that supports large-scale industrial sales and digital transformation.

Syngenta Digital

Senior Product Designer

Aug 2024 - Apr 2025 · 9 mos

At Syngenta, a global agricultural leader, I contributed to sustainable agriculture through the Seeds Modernization initiative. I designed intuitive interfaces for agricultural operations and led the UX strategy to modernize supply chain workflows, improving efficiency and decision-making for farmers and agronomists. By focusing on how that decision-making actually happened in the field, I helped develop tools that support Syngenta’s mission of advancing global food security.

Boticário Group

Senior Product Designer

Aug 2022 - Jun 2024 · 1 yr 11 mos

At Grupo Boticário, I led UX and service design initiatives to improve financial solutions for suppliers, including receivables anticipation and credit analysis. I conducted discovery research, mapped service blueprints, and developed experience prototypes to enhance customer journeys. By integrating data, business KPIs, and user insights, I helped drive continuous product improvements while ensuring design consistency across the company’s ecosystem.

UG & Co.

Senior Product Designer (Contract)

Jan 2022 - Aug 2022 · 8 mos

At UG & Co., I led the design of sustainable products that celebrate the Amazon’s biodiversity while supporting local communities and bioeconomic growth, including the Origens Brasil® traceability network for ethical trade with indigenous communities. My work included designing eco-conscious products and brand identities aligned with sustainability values, grounded in research conducted directly with local communities. Through prototyping and close collaboration with ecologists and community leaders, I helped create solutions that merge traditional knowledge, sustainability, and design.

Contabilizei

Senior Product Designer

Apr 2022 - Jul 2022 · 4 mos

At Contabilizei, I led a user acquisition research initiative for the Growth team to address declining performance in SEO and paid campaigns. I conducted qualitative and quantitative research to refine product concepts, collaborating with engineers, product managers, and designers to align UX, business, and technical goals. I also developed new ways to share research insights, promoting knowledge democratization and driving data-driven experiments to uncover improvement opportunities.

Tag/Stone Co.

Senior Product Designer

Jan 2021 - Feb 2022 · 1 yr 2 mos

At Tag/Stone Co., I led the company’s first design team in a highly regulated, API-based B2B environment. I built the company’s first design system, designed user-friendly interfaces to simplify API access, and created documentation that was later adopted by other teams. Working closely with engineers and product managers, I helped bridge Design, Product, and Engineering while mentoring designers and improving customer interactions.

Bradesco - Sapient/AG2

Product Designer (Freelance)

Aug 2020 - Dec 2020 · 5 mos

As a Product Designer for Bradesco’s investment platform, I collaborated with cross-functional teams to enhance the user experience end-to-end, from discovery to final interface design. I conducted qualitative and quantitative research, built personas, journey maps, and prototypes, and led usability testing to validate design decisions. By integrating research and iterative prototyping, I helped refine the product experience and align it with business goals.

VEGA I.T.

Product Designer (Contract)

Apr 2019 - Dec 2019 · 9 mos

At Vega I.T., I designed digital solutions for the hospitality industry, focused on operational efficiency and guest experience. My work included an integrated maintenance system to centralize hotel work order management, and a virtual smart key that enabled guests to access their rooms directly from mobile devices. Through research, benchmarking, and design thinking sessions, I shaped interfaces centered on usability, accessibility, and clear information architecture.

92dpi - Agency

UX/UI Designer / Full-Stack Dev (Founder)

Jan 2012 - Feb 2019 · 7 yrs 2 mos

As Founder and UX/UI Designer / Full-Stack Developer, I created the first digital agency in northern Brazil, at a time when the region was dominated by large, offline-focused traditional agencies. I led the development of corporate and e-commerce websites, managed digital marketing and performance campaigns, and designed visual identity systems for businesses entering the digital space. To meet growing client demand, I built and directed a remote team, scaling operations while strengthening client communication and project delivery.

Calderaro Communication Network

Designer

Jan 2001 - Dec 2011 · 11 yrs

At Calderaro Communication Network, one of the largest media groups in northern Brazil, I started my career as an intern and grew into the role of Art Director, leading a team of 5 designers. I created and evolved the group’s first digital newspaper portal, and led integrated marketing campaigns spanning print, TV, web, and radio. I also designed and implemented the group’s visual identity system, standardizing branding across logos, uniforms, and marketing materials.

See my full linkedin profile

Education

01

High School

1995 - 1997
Data Processing Technician
Fundação Mathias Machiline

02

College

1999 - 2006
Bachelor in Industrial Design
Universidade Federal do Amazonas

Jusley is a skilled and experienced designer who understands the importance of design as a utility and necessity. A great mentee, learns quickly and achieves results in a short time.

- Thiago Leite - Senior Product Designer, FullStack Labs

Excellent person, in addition to the expectations that accentuated professional quality and expertise in the project that together together.

- Daniel Silva - Service Designer and Ux/Ui

Jusley is an experienced, analytical and very qualified designer. His deliveries are well thought out, grounded and assertive. Working with him was a pleasure and at the same time learning.

- Marcus Ferreira - Design Coordinator | Product Designer | Mentor | Speaker

I don't look at products in isolation — I look at the systems around them. Understanding how those pieces connect is what lets me frame the right problem before I start designing.

People and systems

A product exists within a network of people — users, teams, partners and decision-makers. Their needs, incentives and relationships shape what the product becomes. I map those relationships before I map any screen.

People

Technology and data

Technology sets the real boundaries of a product — legacy systems, data quality, integrations nobody wants to touch. I design inside those limits, not around them, because that's usually where a product's hardest problems live.

Technology

Business and context

Every design decision carries a business consequence, whether anyone names it or not. I look at the goals, the operating reality and the pressure in the room, and use that to frame the problem before proposing a direction.

Business

Career journey

How I got here.

01

Foundation

It started with industrial design and visual communication — learning to observe, structure and communicate an idea before worrying about the medium it would live in.

02

Digital

The web changed the questions I was asking. Communication became interaction, and I started thinking in terms of products people would navigate, not just look at.

03

Experience

Research and usability moved to the center of the work. The question stopped being just what to design, and became why — and for whom.

04

Product & Systems

The products got bigger — more stakeholders, more technology, more moving parts. I started seeing each one as a piece of a larger system, not a standalone screen.

05

Perspective

Today, my perspective has less to do with any single discipline and more with connecting design, technology, business and context — because that's what better decisions in complex products actually take.

How I work

None of that thinking matters until it turns into a decision. This is how I work.

Context first

Before I draw anything, I want to understand how things actually work today — who's involved, what depends on what, and why the current setup ended up broken in the first place.

Framing

A request usually points at a symptom, not the actual problem. My job is figuring out what's really being decided here, and turning that into a question the team can actually answer.

Working alongside

I stay close to product and engineering throughout the work, not just at the handoff. Decisions made together, with real constraints on the table, hold up better once they meet the system.

Learning loop

I'd rather test a rough version with real people than polish something unproven. What happens after launch matters just as much — I keep watching results and adjust the next decision from there.

To me, success isn't a polished screen — it's a decision that still holds once it leaves my hands and meets the business, the team, and the people using it.

Companies where I worked