Senior design and CX judgment on your team, before decisions ship, not after.
For companies past their first customers who need the standing of a design and experience leader, without the cost or timeline of a full time hire.
- 18Years in
design & CX leadership - 10Countries
- 50+Projects delivered
Who this is built for
The title on the door is different. The gap looks the same from every seat.
CEO / Founder
Growth is outpacing the judgment calls behind it. Every new market multiplies the risk of getting the experience wrong at scale.
CPO / Head of Product
Roadmap decisions keep getting made without a senior design voice in the room to say what should not ship yet.
CDO / Head of CX
You can see exactly where the experience is inconsistent. You do not yet have the mandate or the hours to fix it end to end.
CMO / Head of Marketing
The brand promise and the product experience are drifting apart, and customers notice the gap before your team does.
Head of Design
You are stretched across delivery and management, with no senior peer to pressure test a decision before it ships.
COO / Operations
Design and CX decisions are being made ad hoc across teams, with no single owner accountable for how they add up.
Why this keeps happening
"None of this is a talent problem. It's a seniority gap. Someone needs the standing to make the hard call on design and experience, consistently, before decisions ship, not after they surface in a retro."
Most growing companies are not ready to make that a full time executive hire. They still need the judgment. That is the entire premise of this engagement.
What actually changes
Three things a fractional design and CX lead does that a team without one cannot.
Reviews before launch, not after
Every significant release gets a senior design and CX pass before it goes live, catching what a fast moving team is too close to see.
A decision, not another meeting
Roadmap and stakeholder debates get resolved by someone senior enough to own the call, so priorities stop resetting every week.
Real mentorship for your team
Structured time with the designers and PMs already in place, not comments on a file, a working relationship that raises their own judgment over time.
How AI shows up in the work
Andrea also founded MXBO Studio's AI Experiences practice. In this engagement, that is practical, not decorative.
Research, synthesized in days
Customer feedback and support signals turned into patterns your team can act on the same week, not the next quarter.
Design QA between sessions
AI assisted review supports the standing checks, so smaller issues get caught in the gaps between embedded days, not just on them.
A concierge for your product
Where useful, an AI assistant trained on your own documentation, answering your team's scoping questions in minutes, asynchronously.
The engagement
Three ways to scope it. Pricing is set per engagement and shared on the call.
-
Starter
2 days a week
- Standing design & CX review session
- Roadmap and stakeholder alignment
- AI assisted research synthesis between sessions
- Async availability for time sensitive decisions
Scoped on the first call
-
Growth
3 days a week
- Everything in Starter
- A second review session for faster moving teams
- Direct involvement in design hiring
- Structured 1:1 mentorship for your design team
- A product specific AI concierge, set up for your team
Scoped on the first call
-
Enterprise
Custom scope
- Multi market or multi brand experience leadership
- Board and stakeholder facing presentation support
- Priced by proposal, never shown publicly
By proposal only
How it works
Four steps, starting with a conversation, not a form.
Message or book a call
WhatsApp works as well as the calendar. Either way, you're speaking with Andrea directly.
A short scoping conversation
About your team, your product, and where senior design and CX judgment is currently missing.
A scope proposal
Cadence, focus areas, and a first month checkpoint built in, so both sides can confirm fit early.
Embedded work begins
Reviewed monthly to keep priorities aligned as your product and team evolve.
Where this experience comes from
18 Years, 4 Regions, 50+ Projects
-
UAE / GCC
Carrefour (Majid Al Futtaim), noon, Prypco
Retail & ecommerce · Proptech & Fintech
-
United States
ETS EMEA, AirHelp (New York)
Edtech & assessment · Travel & legal tech
-
Europe / UK
Ocado, Mintel, English Study Online
Online grocery · Market research · Edtech
-
Australia
Woolworths, The Iconic & Zanui
Retail · Ecommerce & fashion
We take only 3 - 5 companies at a time
Andrea works with a small number of companies at any time, so each gets real attention rather than divided focus. That cap is deliberate, not a marketing device. Ask on the call how many active slots remain.
Who you would be working with
Andrea Melara
Head of Product Design & CX, Founder MXBO Studio
Andrea has spent 18 years inside product and retail teams, not around them, leading design and CX for businesses like Carrefour, noon and Woolworths before starting MXBO Studio. He still reviews the work himself rather than delegating it, works directly with the people building the product, and says plainly when something should not ship. Based in Dubai, he has led teams and been led by them across ten countries, which is mostly why the accent is hard to place.
Questions leadership teams ask
Before you book
- How is this different from hiring a full time design or CX executive?
- You get the same seniority of judgment without the full time cost, the long search, or the commitment before you know it's the right fit. Many clients treat this as the step before that hire, or as a permanent alternative to it.
- Does this conflict with the design team we already have?
- No. The work is oversight and mentorship, not production design. Your team keeps doing the work; this adds the senior review and judgment layer above it.
- How does this work across time zones and currencies?
- Sessions and reviews are scheduled around your team's working hours, not Andrea's. Billing is arranged in your local currency: AED, USD, EUR or AUD.
- What about confidentiality?
- An NDA is standard practice before any product or roadmap detail is discussed, and is signed before the scoping call goes into specifics if you'd prefer that order.
- What if it's not the right fit after the first month?
- The first month checkpoint exists specifically for this. Either side can end the engagement there with no further commitment.
- Can I just message on WhatsApp instead of booking a call?
- Yes, most first conversations start there. Use whichever feels lower friction.
Next step
If the gap is familiar, the first conversation is the fastest way to find out if this fits.
No form, no proposal before a conversation. Just a direct read on your team and your product, from someone who has owned this function inside businesses like yours.
Ready when you are.
Book a Conversation