aldo padilla
Now...
I lead product and experience design at AccelOne, where most of my work lives where AI meets everyday use: voice agents that act on someone’s behalf, computer vision that replaces manual work, and the platform that decides which models a company can trust with its knowledge.
How I work...
I design systems, not screens, and I work as a product leader as much as a designer. Driving value for users and for the business is both an acumen and a craft, and I live in both. I set the outcomes and the metrics, then care just as much about how it feels to use. I open a problem as wide as it goes, then drill down to the one thing that has to happen next. I move between the room and the screen: a live event’s floor plan and a chatbot’s conversation flows can belong to the same project. And when what users need and what the business needs pull apart, I look for the version where both win.
Across cultures...
I’ve built digital products and experiences in the US, Canada, Mexico, London, the Middle East and across Latin America. The method starts with setting my own assumptions aside, then goes to the field: interviews and ethnography with people across the full range of a market. For an overseas client designing products and experiences across cultural pillars like cuisine, literature, art and music, that meant speaking with nationals, residents and expats. I’ve led the strategy, research and testing teams that do this work. It shapes what we ship. On Spin by OXXO, onboarding that built confidence in one market created drop-off in another, so the design changed by market rather than shipping one flow everywhere. It also shapes how teams work together. I’m bilingual, and I draw on intercultural communication frameworks, including high and low context, to read how a team exchanges information and to adapt to it.
Before...
Experience Design Director at R/GA for Samsung, Fossil, Google and Walmart. Venture Head of Design at BCG-X (formerly BCG Digital Ventures), building new businesses from Monterrey to the Middle East. Founding team at allUP. Product and experience design for WordPress and Day One at Automattic. Work across North America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia, in English and Spanish.
Off the clock...
I’m an explorer of life, ideas, humanity, art and craft. I balance building in the digital world with building by hand: off-grid projects, film photography, long days outdoors.
Education...
Electronics Engineering at Cal Poly. Communications and art direction at CSU Fullerton, where I studied intercultural communication with Stella Ting-Toomey. M.S. in Business from VCU Brandcenter, focused on Experience Design and Creative Technology. I’ve taught interaction design at the School of Visual Arts and lectured at USC and CSU Fullerton.
“His superpower is putting the user always in front of the business and being the user’s advocate.”
“Everyone leaves the room with a much deeper sense of understanding, clarity, and simplicity.”
“He’s able to see a problem from a strategic viewpoint, but then also not lose sight of all of the myriad details that need to get done.”
“He builds a process where the outcome is brilliant ideas.”
“He’s a systematic thinker, but also a creative problem solver, and he can switch between different levels as projects evolve.”
“On top of being an amazing designer, he’s also a great product manager.”
“Trustworthy is the word. You’re always able to rely on him.”
“Equally effective leading design and product teams. It’s really a special combination.”
“I know when he says something’s gonna happen, it just happens.”
“His unrelenting quest to answer the question of why.”
“When Aldo gets stuck, he always finds a way.”
“You always know that Aldo will know what to do.”
“He was able to look far away into the future on how the product will evolve.”
“He’s able to take a strategic view of a problem and bring the team along and the client along for the journey.”
“How quickly he can deliver a mockup or a sample or a prototype, and how that changes what we learn… has been huge.”
“Aldo has a great instinct for what works, what doesn’t, what’s interesting… what feels timely and contextual.”
“We wouldn’t have been able to do it without Aldo’s commitment.”
“Everything that I’m doing right now is an effect of what I’ve experienced and learned from Aldo.”
“He doesn’t make you feel like he’s the main manager, but he’s part of us.”