Margarida Fonseca and Pedro Ribeiro to lead Hyphen’s new UX Consulting practice
Margarida Fonseca and Pedro Ribeiro to lead Hyphen’s new UX Consulting practice
The Portuguese company specializing in UX (User Experience) has appointed Margarida Fonseca and Pedro Ribeiro to lead its newly created UX Consulting department. The new unit strengthens Hyphen’s end-to-end offering, combining strategy, AI-driven innovation and a strong focus on accessibility to support organisations in creating and evolving digital products and services in Portugal and internationally. The company currently has a team of over 130 professionals and clients across Europe, the Middle East and the United States.
Lisbon, January 27, 2026 – Hyphen, the largest UX company in Portugal, has appointed Margarida Fonseca and Pedro Ribeiro as heads of its UX Consulting department. They will be responsible for creating and developing this strategic area, which covers the entire lifecycle of digital products and services.
Margarida Fonseca brings over 20 years of professional experience, having started her career as a Web Designer and worked across both corporate environments and agencies throughout her career. Before joining Hyphen, she was a Project Manager at Tangível and Head of Project Management at Isobar.
Pedro Ribeiro began his career 17 years ago in Web Design and has since held roles in UX, project management and multidisciplinary team leadership at companies such as Tangível, Inetum and WyPerformance.
The new unit enriches Hyphen’s traditional UX outsourcing offering, enabling the company to address scenarios where clients require strategic intervention and measurable impact on concrete projects. The team leading this department largely transitions from Tangível, a company that has shared a close journey with Hyphen in recent years, bringing consolidated know-how and immediate operational capacity.
“The creation of the UX Consulting department responds to the growing need of our clients to access deep, specialised expertise in user experience. This area stands out for its ability to consistently balance user needs with business goals, its accumulated international experience, and a strong focus on innovation and real impact,” says André Esteves de Carvalho, CEO of Hyphen.
For Margarida Fonseca, accepting the challenge is the result of a mix of trust, ambition and a desire to build:
“I’ve known André Carvalho for 25 years and recognise his genuine entrepreneurial drive. Building a consulting and project department here is a challenge that excites me because it requires a shift in mindset. And leading it alongside Pedro makes it even richer: we have complementary styles and interests, which allows us to build something better than we could individually.”
Pedro Ribeiro highlights culture and human scale as decisive factors:
“Hyphen stands out for its rare combination of ambition, culture and strategic vision. Leading this area with Margarida is, in itself, a huge motivation. We have strong complementarity and aim to reflect that diversity in how we lead the team, day to day and in the results we deliver.”
Hyphen’s UX Consulting department will coordinate projects across the full digital lifecycle
These include:
- Qualitative and quantitative research, such as usability testing and surveys
- Customer journey mapping and service design
- Product design and design systems
- UX writing, plain language and content design
- UX strategy and governance (maturity models, metrics, DesignOps and ResearchOps)
The new practice is built around three key pillars:
Accessibility as a signature – Hyphen integrates accessibility from the ground up. Not as a final audit, but as a core way of thinking about design and business.
AI as an accelerator – A strong focus on strategic UX capable of addressing the growing complexity of digital products in a context where Artificial Intelligence is transforming how they are conceived and used. The goal is to integrate AI in a useful, transparent and human-centred way, generating real value for users and organisations.
International positioning – The new area aims to strengthen Hyphen’s presence beyond Portugal through partnerships, international networks and higher-impact projects.
“Margarida Fonseca and Pedro Ribeiro are recognised leaders, capable of balancing vision, rigour and pragmatism. They take on this challenge alongside an experienced and cohesive team, enabling Hyphen to accelerate the consolidation of its UX Consulting practice with maturity, scale and impact from day one,” concludes André Carvalho.
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