I'm Mercedes Oliva. Staff Product Designer.
I make teams faster without breaking things.
That's it. Originally from Argentina, studied Visual Communication Design, based in Barcelona. Over 18 years: MercadoLibre, PayPal, PepsiCo, Bitpanda—mostly fintech and SaaS.
My work: systems design, product strategy, experience architecture.
Translation: I figure out what to build, why it matters, and how you measure if it worked. I build the foundations so 2 designers move like 5. So 15 markets operate at the speed of one.
The rare thing: design that enables organizational velocity.
Let’s make it visual!
Here are a few projects I’ve really enjoyed working on
A few highlights of my work with different companies:
Product
Ship
ARR
Growth
Active
Pilots
Pearl faced an impossible choice: launch Voice (AI clinical assistant) to capture market or redesign a legacy platform. We did both in parallel.
Shipped Voice in 1 month. Used its patterns to build a Design System rooted in clinical UX clarity. Applied that system to redesign the entire platform.
Result: Voice grew 67% MoM, with 7+ now in active pilots and rollout — it was the strategy that made both ship simultaneously.
What I owned
Voice product strategy & design · Design System architecture (0→1) · Platform redesign strategy · Launch execution · Mentorship & team scaling
Why it mattered
App installs
+1000%
App logins
x5
Click-through rate
x3
Shifted thinking from "email optimization" to "mobile-first entry point."
Redesigned the transactional receipt email, millions sent daily, as a deliberate
engagement engine.
Coordinated with 9 teams to define strategy, content, and scalable
layout that drove app adoption.
What I owned
Receipt redesign · Mobile-first strategy · Cross-team coordination
· Engagement framework
Why it mattered
Receipt emails were invisible to users—just transactional noise. No engagement meant low app adoption post-purchase. By treating the receipt as a product moment instead of a notification, we turned millions of daily touchpoints into acquisition and retention channels.
What I owned
Product vision · Design system architecture · Executive strategy
Why it mattered
15+ markets with vastly different regulatory and cultural constraints needed a unified but flexible system.
Design rework
vs. isolated design
Delivery speed
via components
System adoption
of components used
Treated as a systems problem: Instead of designing three separate products (Academy, Broker, Enterprise), built a scalable design system that flexes across different visual languages and audiences without losing coherence.
Each product launched with unified brand identity but distinct visual expression.
What I owned
Product vision · Design system architecture · Cross-product collaboration · System strategy
Why it mattered
Three products launching in parallel would have meant tripled design work and inconsistent brand. A unified system became the source of truth for 20+ designers, enabled independent product launches, and reduced rework and maintenance burden.
72 → 48 hours
Coverage
localized workflows
across region
Designed from on-site research, not assumptions.
Spent time shadowing warehouse workers, understanding real workflows. Translated complex stock processes into intuitive interfaces for non-technical users.
Collaborated with Logistics, Engineering, and Operations to scale across 5 countries with localized but consistent workflows.
What I owned
WMS design · Research-backed architecture · Multi-device system (handheld + desktop) · Regional localization
Why it mattered
Warehouse workers had no digital experience. Processes were manual, slow, error-prone. Clarity and simplicity were survival—a confusing interface meant operator frustration and operational bottlenecks. The system became the foundation for Mercado Libre's regional logistics optimization.
Beyond the Projects
Words from colleagues
I have been fortunate enough to work with
Mercedes has been a key player on our team in Checkout, she’s an amazing visual designer and advocate for user needs. Her ability to generate new ideas and execute handoffs quickly made our team a powerhouse this year! She can plug and play anywhere in PayPal, quickly assessing the needs and problems at hand, she’s been an amazing partner and anyone she works with would also agree!
Laura Martinez
Sr. Design Manager @ PayPal
Contact
Send me your thoughts, ideas, or questions. I’ll be in touch within a day :)