Taxfix
Role
Design Manager
Year
2022
Taxfix is Europe's leading mobile tax app — a fintech unicorn that raised $220M and reached a $1B+ valuation by making tax filing simple for millions of people. I joined during a critical scaling moment: the design team was growing from 15 to 50 designers, with a single design manager, right as delivery pressure from investors peaked.
Scaling through hyper-growth
$1B unicorn
3 design teams
3 continents
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The Challenge
Hyper-growth of the product & the design team.
The organisation needed structure — role clarity, feedback loops, knowledge sharing — without slowing down. And in parallel: a global expansion to four new markets, three continents, in six months.
Outcome
- Four high-fidelity, user-tested market prototypes in a single quarter — one since launched
- Research practice adopted 100% across product teams
- Research embedded as a core step across all product teams
- 3 direct reports promoted
My Role
The role was equal parts leadership and delivery.
On the leadership side: managing three teams — research, incubator, and new markets with ten designers, copy writers and researchers. Recruiting three design managers, and building the rituals a scaling design org needs — critique sessions, design summits, a buddy system pairing designers across teams.
On the delivery side: leading the design of Taxfix's expansion into four new markets across three continents — Brazil, Australia, the Netherlands, and Switzerland — adapting a product built for German tax law to fundamentally different regulatory and cultural contexts.
The Approach
Team growth and global expansion at speed needed a repeatable system.
Country playbooks. Every market started from a proven template, not a blank page. The Italy and Spain work seeded it; Brazil, Australia, the Netherlands, and Switzerland ran on it simultaneously — regulatory, cultural, and product adaptations captured once, reused everywhere.
Design sprints as the rhythm. High ambiguity, hard deadlines. Sprints took teams from question to tested direction in days — evidence-based decisions at investor pace.
Knowledge travels through people. A designer from a market that had already succeeded moved onto global expansion — lessons carried by a person, not a handover doc. One researcher embedded in each product team, buddy-paired across teams, so insight moved sideways instead of staying siloed.
Rituals hold the culture. Critiques, design summits, buddy pairings — lightweight structures that
From fifteen designers to fifty while enhancing design culture through rituals and structure. Design for four new markets delivered through the most intense scaling phase of the company.
Matteo Remondini
Lead Product Designer, Taxfix
Pelin built a solid design culture, managed multiple teams smoothly, and fostered effective collaboration between designers, engineers and product managers. She leads with kindness — a precious and powerful gift.
Arielle Farinas
UX Researcher, Taxfix
Pelin always left me feeling motivated to level up in my projects and deliverables after our 1:1s.
Commercial strategy to north star vision
Zalando Lounge • 3 years product strategy
Designing for growth at scale
Zalon by Zalando • +26% CR • +18% subscriptions
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Taxfix
Role
Design Manager
Year
2022
Taxfix is Europe's leading mobile tax app — a fintech unicorn that raised $220M and reached a $1B+ valuation by making tax filing simple for millions of people. I joined during a critical scaling moment: the design team was growing from 15 to 50 designers, with a single design manager, right as delivery pressure from investors peaked.
Scaling through hyper-growth
$1B unicorn
3 design teams
3 continents
The Challenge
Hyper-growth of the product & the design team.
The organisation needed structure — role clarity, feedback loops, knowledge sharing — without slowing down. And in parallel: a global expansion to four new markets, three continents, in six months.
Outcome
- Four high-fidelity, user-tested market prototypes in a single quarter — one since launched
- Research practice adopted 100% across product teams
- Research embedded as a core step across all product teams
- 3 direct reports promoted
My Role
The role was equal parts leadership and delivery.
On the leadership side: managing three teams — research, incubator, and new markets with ten designers, copy writers and researchers. Recruiting three design managers, and building the rituals a scaling design org needs — critique sessions, design summits, a buddy system pairing designers across teams.
On the delivery side: leading the design of Taxfix's expansion into four new markets across three continents — Brazil, Australia, the Netherlands, and Switzerland — adapting a product built for German tax law to fundamentally different regulatory and cultural contexts.
The Approach
Team growth and global expansion at speed needed a repeatable system.
Country playbooks. Every market started from a proven template, not a blank page. The Italy and Spain work seeded it; Brazil, Australia, the Netherlands, and Switzerland ran on it simultaneously — regulatory, cultural, and product adaptations captured once, reused everywhere.
Design sprints as the rhythm. High ambiguity, hard deadlines. Sprints took teams from question to tested direction in days — evidence-based decisions at investor pace.
Knowledge travels through people. A designer from a market that had already succeeded moved onto global expansion — lessons carried by a person, not a handover doc. One researcher embedded in each product team, buddy-paired across teams, so insight moved sideways instead of staying siloed.
Rituals hold the culture. Critiques, design summits, buddy pairings — lightweight structures that
From fifteen designers to fifty while enhancing design culture through rituals and structure. Design for four new markets delivered through the most intense scaling phase of the company.
Matteo Remondini
Lead Product Designer, Taxfix
Pelin built a solid design culture, managed multiple teams smoothly, and fostered effective collaboration between designers, engineers and product managers. She leads with kindness — a precious and powerful gift.
Arielle Farinas
UX Researcher, Taxfix
Pelin always left me feeling motivated to level up in my projects and deliverables after our 1:1s.
Other Projects
Commercial strategy to north star vision
Zalando Lounge • 3 years product strategy
Designing for growth at scale
Zalon by Zalando • +26% CR • +18% subscriptions
Let's work together
/
Taxfix
Role
Design Manager
Year
2022
Taxfix is Europe's leading mobile tax app — a fintech unicorn that raised $220M and reached a $1B+ valuation by making tax filing simple for millions of people. I joined during a critical scaling moment: the design team was growing from 15 to 50 designers, with a single design manager, right as delivery pressure from investors peaked.
Scaling through hyper-growth
$1B unicorn
3 design teams
3 continents
The Challenge
Hyper-growth of the product & the design team.
The organisation needed structure — role clarity, feedback loops, knowledge sharing — without slowing down. And in parallel: a global expansion to four new markets, three continents, in six months.
Outcome
- Four high-fidelity, user-tested market prototypes in a single quarter — one since launched
- Research practice adopted 100% across product teams
- Research embedded as a core step across all product teams
- 3 direct reports promoted
My Role
The role was equal parts leadership and delivery.
On the leadership side: managing three teams — research, incubator, and new markets with ten designers, copy writers and researchers. Recruiting three design managers, and building the rituals a scaling design org needs — critique sessions, design summits, a buddy system pairing designers across teams.
On the delivery side: leading the design of Taxfix's expansion into four new markets across three continents — Brazil, Australia, the Netherlands, and Switzerland — adapting a product built for German tax law to fundamentally different regulatory and cultural contexts.
The Approach
Team growth and global expansion at speed needed a repeatable system.
Country playbooks. Every market started from a proven template, not a blank page. The Italy and Spain work seeded it; Brazil, Australia, the Netherlands, and Switzerland ran on it simultaneously — regulatory, cultural, and product adaptations captured once, reused everywhere.
Design sprints as the rhythm. High ambiguity, hard deadlines. Sprints took teams from question to tested direction in days — evidence-based decisions at investor pace.
Knowledge travels through people. A designer from a market that had already succeeded moved onto global expansion — lessons carried by a person, not a handover doc. One researcher embedded in each product team, buddy-paired across teams, so insight moved sideways instead of staying siloed.
Rituals hold the culture. Critiques, design summits, buddy pairings — lightweight structures that
From fifteen designers to fifty while enhancing design culture through rituals and structure. Design for four new markets delivered through the most intense scaling phase of the company.
Matteo Remondini
Lead Product Designer, Taxfix
Pelin built a solid design culture, managed multiple teams smoothly, and fostered effective collaboration between designers, engineers and product managers. She leads with kindness — a precious and powerful gift.
Arielle Farinas
UX Researcher, Taxfix
Pelin always left me feeling motivated to level up in my projects and deliverables after our 1:1s.
Other Projects
Commercial strategy to north star vision
Zalando Lounge • 3 years product strategy
Designing for growth at scale
Zalon by Zalando • +26% CR • +18% subscriptions
Let's work together
/
Taxfix
Role
Design Manager
Year
2022
Taxfix is Europe's leading mobile tax app — a fintech unicorn that raised $220M and reached a $1B+ valuation by making tax filing simple for millions of people. I joined during a critical scaling moment: the design team was growing from 15 to 50 designers, with a single design manager, right as delivery pressure from investors peaked.
Scaling through hyper-growth
$1B unicorn
3 design teams
3 continents
The Challenge
Hyper-growth of the product & the design team.
The organisation needed structure — role clarity, feedback loops, knowledge sharing — without slowing down. And in parallel: a global expansion to four new markets, three continents, in six months.
Outcome
- Four high-fidelity, user-tested market prototypes in a single quarter — one since launched
- Research practice adopted 100% across product teams
- Research embedded as a core step across all product teams
- 3 direct reports promoted
My Role
The role was equal parts leadership and delivery.
On the leadership side: managing three teams — research, incubator, and new markets with ten designers, copy writers and researchers. Recruiting three design managers, and building the rituals a scaling design org needs — critique sessions, design summits, a buddy system pairing designers across teams.
On the delivery side: leading the design of Taxfix's expansion into four new markets across three continents — Brazil, Australia, the Netherlands, and Switzerland — adapting a product built for German tax law to fundamentally different regulatory and cultural contexts.
The Approach
Team growth and global expansion at speed needed a repeatable system.
Country playbooks. Every market started from a proven template, not a blank page. The Italy and Spain work seeded it; Brazil, Australia, the Netherlands, and Switzerland ran on it simultaneously — regulatory, cultural, and product adaptations captured once, reused everywhere.
Design sprints as the rhythm. High ambiguity, hard deadlines. Sprints took teams from question to tested direction in days — evidence-based decisions at investor pace.
Knowledge travels through people. A designer from a market that had already succeeded moved onto global expansion — lessons carried by a person, not a handover doc. One researcher embedded in each product team, buddy-paired across teams, so insight moved sideways instead of staying siloed.
Rituals hold the culture. Critiques, design summits, buddy pairings — lightweight structures that
From fifteen designers to fifty while enhancing design culture through rituals and structure. Design for four new markets delivered through the most intense scaling phase of the company.
Matteo Remondini
Lead Product Designer, Taxfix
Pelin built a solid design culture, managed multiple teams smoothly, and fostered effective collaboration between designers, engineers and product managers. She leads with kindness — a precious and powerful gift.
Arielle Farinas
UX Researcher, Taxfix
Pelin always left me feeling motivated to level up in my projects and deliverables after our 1:1s.
Other Projects
Commercial strategy to north star vision
Zalando Lounge • 3 years product strategy
Designing for growth at scale
Zalon by Zalando • +26% CR • +18% subscriptions
Let's work together
/