Bianca Pinheiro
← All work

Co-founder · Product Designer & Strategist

Pagu App

Timeframe

2023 — 2025

Scope

0→1 Product · Germany & Brazil · Community Platform

Role

Co-founder · Product Designer & Strategist

Designing a community-first platform to create safe, inclusive spaces for FLINTA individuals through real-life connections and events.

260+

Research participants

82%

Feel unsafe in mainstream spaces

70%

Seek deeper, non-romantic connections

0→1

Product built from scratch

01 — Context

A community-first platform for FLINTA individuals, across Germany and Brazil.

Pagu is an early-stage product that combines community, events, and a digital platform — designed around real-life connection and psychological safety.

02 — Challenge

Mainstream platforms weren't designed for safety, belonging, or this community.

  • 01Lack of safe, inclusive platforms for FLINTA individuals.
  • 02Existing digital products misaligned with actual community needs and behaviors.
  • 03Real-world barriers to participation — safety, trust, accessibility.

Research insights — identity

Survey results pie chart showing how respondents identify themselves
Of 57 survey respondents, the majority identified as cis women, with meaningful representation across trans, non-binary and intersex identities — confirming the need for a platform that holds space for the full FLINTA spectrum.

03 — Approach

Three strategic pillars to design trust into a product from day one.

01

Research

What I did

Ran a global survey with 260+ participants and in-depth qualitative interviews focused on safety, belonging, and behavior patterns.

Why it mattered

Ensured the product was grounded in lived experience rather than assumption — critical when designing for marginalized groups.

02

Business strategy

What I did

Defined the product vision, value model, and competitive positioning between community, events, and platform.

Why it mattered

Created a defensible path to growth without compromising on community-first principles.

03

Product design

What I did

Prototyped core features, shaped the brand identity, and designed the end-to-end experience from onboarding to events.

Why it mattered

Turned strategic intent into a tangible, testable product experience the community could shape.

Research — geography

Treemap of respondent locations and word cloud of relationship interests
Respondents concentrated in Brazil and Germany — the two communities Pagu was designed to bridge — and consistently named friendship, leisure and casual connection as top motivations, well ahead of romance.

Research — behaviour

Bar chart of how women meet other women and donut chart of preferred languages
In-person events, friends and apps were the dominant ways respondents met other women — validating the hybrid model of community + events + platform — across Portuguese, English and German speakers.

Information architecture

A sitemap built around safety, profile review and real-world events.

Sitemap of the Pagu platform showing public pages, auth flow with profile approval, and authenticated profile area
The flow places a manual profile-approval step between registration and access — a deliberate friction point to protect the community before opening the door to events, profiles and feedback.

04 — Outcomes

A product foundation aligned with the community it serves.

  • 01Clear product foundation and differentiation in a crowded social space.
  • 02Strong alignment between community needs and product direction.
  • 03Defined, scalable business model combining platform and events.

Brand & identity

A symbol that looks at people — not at profiles.

Pagu brand mark variation 1
Pagu brand mark variation 2
Pagu brand mark variation 3
Pagu brand mark variation 4

The core symbol of Pagu is a circle with a star, inspired by the iris of an eye.

The iris represents

  • — Presence and attention
  • — Humanity, intimacy, and closeness
  • — Being seen and seeing others
  • — Care and awareness

Pagu exists to look at people as they are — not as profiles, categories, or data points. The symbol reflects a space where individuals are recognised, not optimised.

The star inside the circle adds

  • — Direction and guidance
  • — Possibility and orientation
  • — Individual brilliance within a collective

Together, the shape communicates soft strength — protective but open, simple but symbolic, intimate without being exclusive.

The dual palette — deep purple paired with warm sand — balances depth and warmth: grounded enough to feel safe, bright enough to feel inviting.

05 — Leadership impact

Bridging research, business, and design with a community-first lens.

  • 01Connected research, business model, and design into one coherent direction.
  • 02Built the product with a community-first mindset, not an extractive one.
  • 03Positioned safety as a core UX principle — not a feature or disclaimer.

06 — Key learnings

What designing for marginalized communities taught me.

  • 01Designing for marginalized groups requires trust, care, and slow decisions.
  • 02A community-first approach genuinely challenges traditional platform logic.
  • 03Belonging is a product outcome, not a feature you can ship.

More case studies

Global Head of Design

SMS Group GmbH

Transforming design from a fragmented function into a scalable, outcome-driven product capability across Europe and LATAM.

Read case →

UX Strategy Consultant

Loot Studios

Defined a scalable UX strategy to transform a fast-growing subscription website into a structured digital product.

Read case →

Let's collaborate

Have a complex product challenge?

I partner with teams to bring clarity, strategy, and structure to ambitious work.

Work with me →