Carbon Five Roll Call: Mandy Valladares, Senior Product Designer
Carbon Five Roll Call is a new blog series introducing you to your next team of product managers, designers and software engineers. Learn more about us and how we can help support your next project. Meet Mandy!
Name: Mandy Valladares
Title: Senior Product Designer
Hometown: San Francisco, CA
Carbon Five Office: New York
Emoji of choice: 
Tell us a little bit about your background and area of expertise:
While studying architecture early on in school I stumbled across a User Experience Design course and fell in love with it. After taking that class I told myself, “If I could get paid to do this, it would be an absolute dream!” It was exciting to be able to make something people would use in their daily lives, and also be able to learn from those users to iterate and make it even better.
Six years later, I am now a Senior Product Designer at Carbon Five consulting for various companies across a wide spectrum of products. Before coming to Carbon Five I designed for a mobile advertising company, spent four years in Fintech (financial technology), and then moved into the agency and consulting world.
One of my favorite spaces to solve problems for are mobile apps. Staying up to date with the latest platforms, uncovering new patterns, visually designing, and creating navigation paradigms is most fun for me as a designer.
A few clients you’ve worked with include:
It’s been almost a year working at Carbon Five and within that span of time I’ve had the pleasure of working with:
- Compass
- Ad Council
- Twenty—“Hello World” iOS & Android app
- Covalto—Android app
- Sesh Therapy—iOS & Android app
What’s the coolest thing about Carbon Five?
By far the coolest thing about being at Carbon Five is seeing how we support start-ups and companies deliver an MVP within a short timeframe. It’s been the biggest learning experience for me to see how we leverage agile, design thinking, and ruthless prioritization to create the “smallest” product that holds up in the market. It has helped me learn how to be a strategic designer, and also become a thinking partner for products in their beginning stages.
Share one MUST DO recommendation:
I’m a big fan of stand-up comedy and one of my favs to re-watch on Netflix is Iliza Shlesinger’s “Elder Millennial.” Highly recommended if you need a good laugh while also feeling empowered as a millennial 😉.
Blog posts by Mandy:
New to Mobile App Design? Six Things to Know for Your Next Mobile Project
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We’re hiring! Looking for software engineers, product managers, and designers to join our teams in SF, LA, NYC, CHA.
Learn more and apply at www.carbonfive.com/careers
