carolpoll

Hi, I’m Carol. I help Seed to Series B founders and product leaders uncover UX opportunities and bring clarity to their product. If your product feels messy, inconsistent, or hard to explain, I can help.

6 @MiroHQ templates for International Women's Day, for leaders, womens and mothers ready to go out on my weekly notes tomorrow 💪 Subscribe here to get them: carolinapoll.myflodesk.com/iwd-miro-templ…

It's official, I'm leaving Substack: open.substack.com/pub/carolinapo…

Want to do something the design community? Delete your ADPList account.

The worst dark pattern is the free trial that requires you to input a credit card. The amount of money earned on people forgetting to cancel must be gigantic.

Praise rarely helps you make better decisions. Friction does. The moment you ask “Where did this get confusing?” the tone shifts — and real insight starts to appear. Do you actively look for friction when testing ideas?

One of the biggest traps in early product work is polite agreement. It sounds nice. It feels validating. But it doesn’t tell you the truth. If your feedback feels “positive but vague”, it might be a false positive. Have you run into this?

Design, strategy, facilitation, motherhood… it all overlaps more than I expected. If you’re building something and waiting to feel “ready” to share, you probably don’t need to wait.

Writing online changed my relationship with my work. Not because of reach or followers. But because it forced me to slow down and notice patterns. What feels messy. What matters. What’s just noise.

I’m Carolina. Brazilian, living in Germany, designer since 14, mother, visual thinker, and someone who believes clarity is the most underrated growth tool. Writing started as an experiment. It became a way to think better and connect more honestly. I’m glad you are here.

I realized something this week. I’ve been writing online consistently. Sharing thoughts about design, clarity, and building products. Connecting with thoughtful people. And yet, many of you don’t really know me.

I just published a full breakdown of my first year writing online — including analytics, mistakes, and patterns. open.substack.com/pub/carolinapo…

This year, I wrote 48 posts, reached readers in 66 countries, and had over 300k impressions across platforms. None of it was overnight. All of it was slow and steady.

The fastest way to distort user feedback is to start with an explanation. People respond to your enthusiasm, not their reality. Start with their experience, not your idea.

I’ve been reflecting on my first full year of writing online. The numbers weren’t huge. It wasn’t fast. But the doors that opened because I stayed consistent? Worth every blank page and every tiny post. If your growth felt slow this year… that’s the real story for most of us.

My @MiroHQ recap reminded me of something simple: behind every sticky note, workshop, and template, there were people. Founders who came in overwhelmed. Teams who needed a reset. Designers learning to lead. Feeling grateful for the work and the humans.

Here’s the full story: open.substack.com/pub/carolinapo…

I shared a story about how I help founders map their real friction points, narrow their scope, and put their energy where it actually creates impact. It’s one of the simplest ways to save time, money, and momentum.

Most early-stage products aren’t slowed down by a lack of features. They’re slowed down by unclear priorities. When everything feels urgent, nothing moves.

Early-stage teams often rush into building because it feels like momentum. But you don’t learn whether the idea is good — you only learn whether the execution “kind of works”. Real validation happens before a single line of code. By watching what people do, not what they say.

Prototypes don’t have to be pretty. The best early prototypes are almost embarrassingly simple. A rough flow. A clickable outline. A sketch on a board. You’re not testing polish — you’re testing direction.