This is me!
My name is Juan Manuel, but people always call me by my last name, Pastén (Pastén in Spanish sounds very similar to “pastel,” which means “cake” in Spanish).
Here are some random facts about me:
I like to workout but I prefer pizza 🍕 or tacos 🌮
I love to read 📚, but what I love the most is to buy books or walk into a bookstore 🙈
I wish I had studied Industrial Design 🪑 (I studied Computer Engineering)
I love spaces with natural light ✨
I like to see the black sky at night 🌌 and anything related to the universe 🪐
I'm a big fan of Formula 1 🏎️ (I cheer up to the rookie Fernando Alonso, Carlos Sainz and Checo Perez)
My favorites designers and role models are Mauro Porcini and Kevin Bethune
I love my dog 🐶❤️
My design principles
Ethics
Design has power, and with power comes responsibility. Every decision we make affects people and the planet. I believe in designing with honesty, empathy, and respect, always putting human and environmental well-being first.
Connection
When working with my peers, I aim to create a friendly, safe, and open communication channel with everyone. That's why I always try to make and have a professional and personal partnership with the team members.
Collaboration
Everyone on the team is a designer; they design features, stories, code, test cases, etc. Everyone designs a part of the experience; that's why having a close collaboration with the rest of the team and the user is an essential part of creating products. The goal is to deliver a great product.
Curiosity
Curiosity is something that people lose when growing up. As adults, we should always keep that curiosity spark. We should see everything as if it were the first time, always ask questions, and be excited about everything we don't know.
Experimentation
Having a curious mind makes you try and do things differently. That's why we should always experiment, to apply the new knowledge with excitement, even if it is something small, to see if it worked, how it can be improved, and what we would do differently next time.
(Where I've worked)
Experience
Sr. Experience Designer - NYC, USA
September 2021 - Present
At Thoughtworks, I work as a Senior Experience Designer Consultant across multiple client engagements in healthcare, government, and fintech. I lead the full design process, from discovery and user research to concept development, prototyping, usability testing, and developer handoff.
I collaborate closely with product managers, engineers, and business stakeholders to define experience strategy, align on priorities, and deliver solutions that are both user-centered and technically feasible. I facilitate workshops and co-creation sessions to bring teams together around shared problems and opportunities.
Beyond individual projects, I contribute to design systems, mentor junior designers, and help raise the overall quality of design work across teams. I care deeply about accessibility, ethical design, and creating products that make a real difference for the people using them.
Product Designer and Co-founder - Mexico
August 2015 - Present
Brackets is a sports tournament platform I co-founded and have been designing since 2015. The product includes a web platform for tournament administrators to manage teams, players, matches, and live stats, and a mobile app (iOS and Android) for athletes to follow brackets, results, and live game progress.
As the product designer and co-founder, I own the full design process, from defining product strategy and planning new features to designing flows, prototypes, and interfaces. I work closely with my co-founder, who leads development, and we make product decisions together based on user needs and business goals.
I conduct research with real users, including administrators and athletes, to identify opportunities and validate ideas. I use AI tools to prototype faster, explore concepts, and present ideas to my co-founder, which has significantly improved how quickly we can evaluate and move forward with new features.
User Experience Designer - Tijuana, Mexico
May 2018 - August 2021
Worked closely with Product Managers and cross-functional development teams to design key digital experiences, including Login, Account Registration, User Profile, and the Asset Manager App. My work covered defining design strategy, mapping user flows, creating wireframes and high-fidelity prototypes, and collaborating with the UX research team to plan and conduct usability tests.
I partnered with multiple scrum teams to deliver mockups optimized for different screen sizes and supported implementation to ensure designs were built with quality and consistency. I also led a Design Thinking program within the Digital Engineering Organization, helping embed a human-centered culture across teams.
User Experience Designer - Tijuana, Mexico
July 2013 - March 2018
Digital product consultancy based in Tijuana, serving clients across Southern California. I worked with clients like Playboy, San Diego Airport, Figo Pet Insurance, the University of Mississippi, and many more. I explored and implemented UX design across mobile and web platforms, collaborating with development teams to define user flows, build interactive prototypes, and deliver quality digital experiences grounded in usability research.