in product
design
2021 — 2026
Catawiki
Head of Product Design
2019 — 2021
Tiqets
Senior Product Designer
2017 — 2019
TravelBird
Senior Product Designer
2015 — 2016
GameHouse
Head of User Experience
2011 — 2015
Booking.com
UX Designer & Team Leader
Work
Most recently Head of Product Design at Catawiki, with nearly twenty years of experience in digital products across companies including Booking.com, TravelBird, and Tiqets.
The four projects here span 2021 to 2025: a multi-year overhaul of how sellers list their objects, a strategic redesign of the core buying experience, Catawiki's first production AI product, and an organisational framework for design growth. Together they reflect how I think about design leadership: creating conditions for good decisions, across teams, across time, and at the intersection of design, product, and business strategy.
The thrill of the auction
Frontline AI customer support
Object-based submission
UX competencies framework
To read more about my experience, you can have a look at my CV below.
View my CVAbout me
I'm a design leader with almost twenty years of experience in digital products. Most recently, as Head of Product Design at Catawiki, I oversaw UX and content design across the organisation and partnered with senior leadership to improve marketplace experiences. My focus is on clear strategy, strong collaboration, and practical execution that drive measurable impact.
My experience spans Booking.com, GameHouse, TravelBird and Tiqets, where I've worked across mobile, web, marketplace flows, subscription products and partner tooling. Over the past decade, my leadership roles have focused on strengthening design culture, introducing design foundations and competency frameworks, and hiring and mentoring designers as teams grew. My earlier background in computer science continues to ground my approach in structured problem solving and systems thinking.
Outside work, I'm a mum of two and the human of a very opinionated cat. I'm a coffee enthusiast, regular at CrossFit, reader and watcher of sci-fi and historical fiction, and an adventurous traveller whenever life allows.
Referrals
Samuel Zwaan
Group Product Manager Fulfilment at Catawiki
December 2025
I've had the pleasure of working closely with Simona at Catawiki, and she is one of those leaders who consistently raises the level of both people and outcomes. As Head of Design, she combines sharp strategic thinking with a genuine care for customers and teams.
Simona is deeply involved in some of Catawiki's most important initiatives, including complex domains such as logistics, where she brings clarity to ambiguity and ensures design plays a meaningful role in solving real business and customer problems. She is a strong partner across product, engineering, and operations, and is trusted in critical decision-making moments.
She is also an outstanding hiring manager. Simona has built a strong design organization by setting a high bar, creating a thoughtful hiring process, and creating an environment where designers can grow, take ownership, and do their best work. The quality and good vibes of the team are a direct reflection of her leadership.
Working with Simona has made my own job better and impactful, and Catawiki is significantly better because of her presence.
Patrick Toolan
Head of Product at Tiqets
April 2021
Simona is a star designer in the very best ways; she is conscientious, empathetic, structured, data-driven, knowledgable, and flexible. Her taste is always both astute and in tune with the company's vision. When Simona and I disagreed, we were always able to understand the reason for the difference of views, and come to a conclusion that improved business outcomes. Her work has longevity and continues to improve the Tiqets user experience and business long after implementation. I really hope to work with Simona again, and would fully recommend her for any type of team from large to small.
Steven Loncle
Senior Product Manager at Tiqets
April 2021
When starting at Tiqets I joined a great team where Simona was the designer. We had the opportunity to define together a roadmap and build cutting-edge features for our suppliers. Simona was essential in our success. Her method and critical thinking helped us to create simple and beautiful interface. And not to mention she is fun to work with!
Yannis Abelas
Senior UX Designer at Tiqets
November 2021
Simona is a great UX designer and very fun to work with. I had the chance to work with her at Tiqets during a transformative time for the company, and it was a pleasure to collaborate on challenging design projects with her. She is a very capable and hands-on designer that knows how to deal with any challenge that comes her way and efficiently collaborate with stakeholders in the company. Last but not least, she is definitely a person you want to have in your team, great communicator, always fun to be around, and with a great sense of humor!
Joris Zaalberg
Head of Design at TravelBird
October 2018
I've had the pleasure of working with Simona for almost 2 years at TravelBird. I thoroughly enjoyed collaborating with her as well as managing her. Simona achieved a lot in her time at the company, both developing a completely new extranet solution for our partners, as well as being instrumental in developing a completely new check-out experience for our customers.
Simona really takes ownership of a challenge, involving people of all disciplines in the process, and using her strong communication skills to guide the team to the right solutions. She uses her interaction design skills, and her technical knowledge to create design that are both very usable, and very feasible.
She's a strong team player and her personality is an asset to any team.
Zsolt Stelkovics
Senior UX Designer at TravelBird
November 2018
I've been working with Simona at TravelBird for almost 2 years. Her work as a Senior Product Designer was essential in the improvement and growth of the product. Her designs saved considerable amount of time and money for the company. Projects led by her made it easier and faster for partners to work with us. Creating an entirely new check-out experience for customers improved conversion rate significantly.
Her experience in UX design makes her confident in taking ownership of a project and leading the team. She is convincible with good arguments, she always makes sure her ideas and opinion are backed up by metrics and data. Her feedback was always thorough and clever, her excellent communications skills made her a valuable asset to the team.
All in all she is a great person to work with, I enjoyed collaborating with her and would definitely like to work together again.
Sebastián Galiano Molina
Senior Product Manager at TravelBird
November 2018
Simona is an outstanding Product Designer. She can put together both quantitative and qualitative data to make great experiences that users love. Simona is pragmatic and a hard worker who is not afraid of taking decisions to make the product evolve.
Besides all that, she is fun to work with and an excellent person. I would work again with her without a doubt.
Noel Verschaeren
Senior Frontend Developer at Booking.com
January 2014
I had the pleasure to work with Simona in the user-profile team of Booking.com. Simona will not avoid tackling usability challenges, understands the user and always comes up with a data-driven user-focussed solution.
I can recommend Simona for her design-scales, commercial awareness and always a focus on business goals, and not less important: a nice working atmosphere!
Jos Rozemuller
Frontend Developer at PocketPartner
July 2010
Simona is very motivated when it comes to webdesign. Everytime when I see a new design, I'm very excited about it. Her designs are not a rip of, of other websites, but everytime she makes unique designs.
Contact
Happy to talk about design, teams, or anything in between.