Matheus Leite
Product Designer
PUT DOWN THE PHONE. PICK UP
THE FUTURE.
I founded Magic Decks, turned 48 life skills into a card game for children, and built everything around it.
01. THE SITUATIONParents, teachers and educators talk a lot about skills like empathy, resilience and communication. Yet most of what exists stays in theory: books, talks and training for adults, with very little that turns those skills into everyday practice for children.
At the same time, Europe was debating phone bans in schools and screen time for children. Education had shaped my life, and that of my co-founder, Marina Saraiva, well beyond the classroom. I turned to what AI doesn't replace: the human skills children will need.
I CREATED HERÓIS DO AMANHÃ TO TURN THOSE SKILLS INTO SOMETHING CHILDREN PRACTISE, NOT JUST HEAR ABOUT.
It began as a product design deck. Then a friend asked: why not ChatGPT?
02. THE CHALLENGE
DEEP ENOUGH TO MATTER. LIGHT ENOUGH TO USE.
Skills like empathy and resilience take years to build, and children learn them through the adults around them. But those adults are short on time and rarely trained to teach them. A parent at the end of a long day, a teacher with a full curriculum: both want to help, and neither can add another heavy task.
The deck had to carry something deep and still feel light, wherever it was played: at the kitchen table, in a class of 25, or with a camp group of mixed ages. That meant every card had to be simple enough for a child, clear enough for an adult to use with no preparation, and short enough to fit into an ordinary day.
Magic Decks was a side project, built after my 9-to-6 job.
03. THE JOURNEYProduct
Turning abstract skills into a game you can play anywhere.
The 48 skills
How it works
In their words
Experience
Designing everything around the adult who buys, opens and plays the deck.
Who she is
The essence
Acquisition
outcome
The numbers, the lessons and where it stands today.
Key numbers
What I learned
Where it stands
PRODUCT | THE 48 SKILLSFROM ME,
TO US,
TO THE WORLD,
TO THE PLANET.
I started from the OECD and UN frameworks on skills for the future and cut them to 48 that a child aged 6 to 12 can practise in 5 to 10 minutes.
Personal Superpowers:
how I face challenges
Responsibility, Perseverance, Gratitude, Patience, Courage, Creativity, Curiosity, Self-esteem, Mindfulness, Critical thinking, Problem solving, Goal setting, Adaptability, Resilience, Mind-body connection, Tech ethics, Personal boundaries, Lifelong learning
Adventure Companions:
how I live with others
Friendship, Kindness, Empathy, Respect, Honesty, Teamwork, Community, Family, Compassion, Cooperation, Communication, Tolerance, Acceptance, Inclusion
World Explorers:
how I understand the world
Diversity, Equality, Equity, Global awareness, Cultural understanding, Democracy, Civic education, Financial literacy, Sportsmanship, Media literacy
Planet Guardians:
how I protect it
Sustainability, Environment, Safety, Animal welfare, Healthy habits, Patriotism
Registered as a literary and artistic work with IGAC, Portugal's cultural rights authority (no. 1110/2025).
Analysed as an educational resource in master's coursework at the Faculty of Psychology and Education Sciences, University of Porto (FPCEUP), 2025.
Marina Saraiva, my co-founder, rewrote every card in everyday European Portuguese, so anyone could read it aloud without having to explain it.
PRODUCT | HOW IT WORKSI wanted every Magic Decks product to be modular, one card system that could grow into several versions.
I designed three formats on the same base: a Diary; a Game*; a Dictionary.
*I chose the game for launch because it needs more than one player. Every round shows the product to someone new, and it fits classrooms and family time.
The format never changes:
why the skill matters, a situation from a child's everyday life, and an exercise that takes 5 to 10 minutes.
Each card is designed to help children understand a skill in a simple, visual and practical way.
-
shows which group the card belongs to.
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the image helps bring the skill to life.
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the name of the skill you'll work on.
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explains, in clear and friendly language, what the skill means in everyday life.
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A practical activity that takes children beyond theory, so they can try out the skill.
Keeping one fixed format was a deliberate choice. It meant any adult could pick up any card and run it straight away, and it let the same deck work at home, in schools and in group sessions without adaptation.
The same card, Friendship, from first draft to final version. The biggest change was white space: colour shrank to a single band that shows the theme. The illustration became simpler, and the exercise came last, turning the card into something to do. The type never changed. Everything else did, until it worked.
The illustrations aren't mine. All of them come from Freepik (now Magnific).
Every skill card ends with an open exercise. Draw an action card, and it fills the
gap.
Some children talk easily. Others go quiet in a group but come alive with a pencil in their hand. The five actions give each child a way in, so every skill can be felt in the form that suits them best.
PERSONAL SUPERPOWERS
CREATIVITYUsing your imagination to create new things. For example, doing an art project at home after school.
Description
Exercise: (action)
Example
Write…
Describe…
+ something
new and unique.
Act out…
Draw…
Imagine…
a short story, a poem, a word that doesn't exist yet.
an invention, out loud, so others can picture it.
a made-up animal or machine, while the others guess what it is.
a place, a creature or an object no one has seen before.
close your eyes, picture it in detail, then share it.
Same card,
new turn,
new game.
Every skill can be played through five different actions, so the same skill never has to be played the same way twice.
PRODUCT | IN THEIR WORDSTHE DECK, IN OTHER PEOPLE'S HANDS.
EXPERIENCE | WHO SHE ISTHE CHILD PLAYS.
THE ADULT DECIDES.
Children play with the cards, but an adult finds them, buys them, opens the box and chooses when to play. So I designed the whole experience around that adult: who she is, how she finds us, and why she comes back.
I launched with a clear picture of my buyer: a mother looking for screen-free time with her kids. The market showed me a different one.
The first signal came two months after launch. Flávia Louret, a primary school teacher who received one of our launch kits, used the "Respect" card to start a class exercise: three ways to show respect at home, at school and in the community. Her pupils wrote down their own commitments. Then she left a comment on our post:
“My students never forget the Magic Decks cards! They’re part of our morning routine. We always start the day with a card! Thank you for such a valuable resource!”
More followed. At fairs, mothers loved the deck but asked how to use it at home. Teachers didn't ask. They took it and used it. A Lisbon summer camp put it into its programme on the first day, and a tutor started group activities with her students the day the deck arrived. Teachers already knew how to turn a skill into an activity, and that was exactly what the deck asked for.
So in September 2025 I moved the primary buyer from the mother to the educator. To make that shift with intent, I mapped three profiles:
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Primary school teacher, 30–50. What moves her is real impact on her pupils. What stops her is time: she has none left to prepare activities beyond the curriculum. She wins when a resource is ready to use and comes with concrete activities. She uses the deck daily, as a "card of the day" in class or in therapy sessions. She finds new resources on Instagram and in teacher groups, decides alone and fast, and buys 1–2 decks.
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Mother of one or two children aged 5–12, 30–45. What moves her is seeing her children grow up with values. What stops her is the fear of choosing something wrong for their age. She wins with an emotional hook and a clear age guide. She plays at home, at weekends and on holidays. She often discovers the deck through her child's teacher or on Instagram, decides alone and with her heart, and buys 1–2 decks, often as a gift.
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Head of teaching or activities, 35–50. What moves her is leaving a mark on her institution. What stops her is red tape and the lack of a school pack. She wins with proper invoicing, volume pricing and clear teaching criteria. She runs weekly or themed sessions across classes. She hears about the deck from a colleague who already uses it, decides as a group and needs to justify the purchase, and buys 5–10 decks at once.
Teachers like Flávia also showed me how the deck really lived: part of the daily routine, not a game for special occasions. That turned an occasional purchase into a habit.
The full profiles: jobs to be done, behaviour and the insight behind each one.
LITTLE TIME.
BIG INTENTIONS.
A teacher between classes, a mother at the end of the day, a coordinator between meetings. Different lives, same equation: they wanted to do something meaningful for children, with almost no time to do it.
So every word had to be quick to read and easy to trust.
EXPERIENCE | THE ESSENCETrust starts
with a clear
point of view.
This was ours.
ANALOG ARTIFACTS FOR
more hUMAN RELATIONSHIPS 💛
OUR VALUES:
Six ideas that shaped every card, every box and every word.
01. FRIENDLY
Creativity thrives in warmth. Every interaction should feel like a welcome.
02. INTENTIONAL
Nothing we create is accidental. Beauty and purpose go together.
03. CLARITY
We communicate openly, so every step is clear and trust can grow.
04. SPECULATIVE
We dare to imagine what analog artifacts can still become.
05. MEMORABLE
We make things that last and become part of the stories people carry.
06. OPEN
We make the tools. You bring them to life and make them your own.
EXPERIENCE | ACQUISITIONONE VOICE,
FOUR STAGES.
Values only count if they show up where the adult actually is. So I mapped every channel into four stages, each with its own job, all
in the same voice.
How each channel was meant to move people from first contact to repeat purchase.
At this stage the adult isn't looking for a card game. She's looking for something to do with her kids this weekend, a way to cut screen time, or a new idea for Monday's class. So instead of selling the deck, I joined the conversations she was already having.
01. AWARENESSSTART A CONVERSATION,
NOT A SALE.
SOCIAL MEDIA: Eight editorial lines
Instagram, Facebook and TikTok ran on eight editorial lines, each with its own job: child development, family connection, impact for educators, inspiring stories, product highlights, questions for the community, testimonials and special moments. Every post had to belong to one of them. Nothing was published just to fill the calendar.
With no launch budget, I sent kits to 6 micro-influencers, mostly teachers and parenting accounts. Three posted.
MUNDO MÁGICO: A blog for real questions
The blog spoke to both buyers. For parents, it answered what they actually search for, like "Where to take the kids this weekend?". For teachers, it offered ready-to-use classroom activities and ideas for turning one card into a shared school ritual. Each post solved a real problem first and brought in the deck only when it helped.
By March 2026, the weekend guide had turned into a channel of its own. The Museu das Comunicações in Lisbon started sending us its monthly programme and press releases, asking us to help spread the word.
FAIRS: A living space for the brand
At fairs, the brand stopped being a feed and became a place: a welcoming stand and the deck open for anyone to try. I also filmed visitors answering one question: "If you had to teach a child one skill, which would it be?" Their answers became content for the weeks that followed.
One of the fair videos reached 25.6K views on TikTok, with 944 likes and 35 saves.
As a brand activation, I set up a colouring corner where the youngest could colour the illustrations from
Heróis do Amanhã. The smallest children stayed the longest, and parents kept asking for something for under-6s.
The corner became our second product, Colorir o Amanhã, a colouring book for ages 3 to 6.
Our first fair was in June 2025. By the next one, in July, Colorir o Amanhã was already on the table for sale. The brief came from the parents at the stand. My job was to listen and move fast.
02. CONSIDERATIONREMOVE DOUBT,
GENTLY.
She has found us and likes what she sees. Now she has questions: is it right for my child's age, will I know how to use it, is it worth it? The same channels changed their job, from inspiring her to reassuring her.
E-COMMERCE: A page built from real questions
At fairs I heard the same doubts again and again: how do you play, is it one deck or four, how long does it take. The product page answered them in that order: the four skill families, a step-by-step guide to playing and an FAQ in the brand's voice. The rules ended with a permission slip: "This guide is just a starting point. Adapt it to whatever works best for your family or group!"
The store launched around a single product. When Colorir o Amanhã and the Pack arrived, I rebuilt its structure and content to tell the story of a brand, without adding a single step to the path to purchase.
SOCIAL MEDIA: Other adults, in their own words
Reviews from teachers and parents did what no product description could: they showed the deck working in real lives.
EMAIL: A warm welcome
A welcome discount invited visitors to leave their email. An automated welcome sequence then introduced the brand, the people behind it and the deck, before pushing for a sale. From there, the weekly newsletter Instante Mágico kept us present, so the first purchase came from trust, not pressure.
03. CONVERSIONGIVE A REASON,
NOT PRESSURE.
She's ready to buy. My job was to remove the last small reasons to wait: price, payment, delivery and timing. Each one was a small decision, and together they changed the numbers.
PRICE & CHECKOUT:
Finding the real barriers
With add-to-cart at 0.63%, the problem could have been the product, the page, trust or the price. So I isolated one of them: price. For one week in March 2025, I split the store's traffic in two. At €24.90, 475 sessions led to 3 add-to-carts, 2 checkouts and no orders. At €19.90, 481 sessions led to 11 add-to-carts, 8 checkouts and 3 orders.
I kept the lower price, but 5 of those 8 checkouts still didn't end in an order. The next barrier was the checkout itself. So I looked at it through a Portuguese buyer's eyes and added MB Way, the payment app most people here use every day, along with clear delivery times before payment and a pickup option in Lisbon. MB Way alone went on to handle 61% of all paid orders.
The A/B test in Shopify, March 2025: same store, same product, two prices.
PRODUCT: The Pack do Amanhã
The colouring book born at our first fair became the deck's companion. Together they formed the Pack do Amanhã: one gift for families with children of different ages, from 3 to 12. Once the Pack had its own page and ads, the average order rose from €15.64 in June to €24.35 in November 2025. We sold 25 Packs.
The Pack's product page: two products, one gift, one checkout. The deck had an automated flow asking buyers for a review after delivery. I never found the time to build the same for the Pack, so it sold without a single review.
A small gap, but one I would close first.
04. LOYALTYKEEP THE DECK IN MIND, NOT ON THE SHELF.
A deck bought once and played once is a failed product. This stage was about keeping it on the table, not on the shelf, and giving each family a reason to come back.
Pause invitation: a short ritual to slow down
Theme of the edition: one line that sets the tone
Opening reflection: a short, everyday story for adults
A question for the reader
Card of the week: one skill, one practice
On this day: a historical moment linked to the skill
From Mundo Mágico: two articles from the blog
Weekly inspirations: watch, read, listen, try
Invitation of the week: the only commercial moment
Final reflection and signature
NEWSLETTER: A ritual, not a promotion
Instante Mágico was a letter for adults, written to be read, not to sell. Every issue followed the same rhythm:
And every issue
ended the same way:
devagar,
com calma,
com alma.
Every edition landed at 7:07 on a weekend morning, just in time for a quiet coffee.
It started weekly.
When more sends pushed opens down from 48% to 26%,
I slowed the rhythm and they rose back to 46%.
OUTCOME | KEY NUMBERS
FROM DISCOVERY
TO DELIVERY.
Designing the product
and building the business around it, from December 2024 to May 2026.
+56%
10×
4.7×
−40%
site conversion rate,
from 0.63% to 2.97%
cart abandonment, from 87% to 52%
1M+
1.575
ad impressions across social media
Instagram followers,
up from 0
59%
355
average engagement on the Mundo Mágico blog
newsletter subscribers
visits to the online store
Portuguese districts and islands reached
3
171
products designed
and launched
decks sold in 18 months
cheaper to acquire a customer, from €127 to €12
average order value, from €15.64 to €24.35
16/20
8k+
* Every number on this page came from MagicView, a dashboard I built in Looker and reviewed at the end of every month.
OUTCOME | WHAT I LEARNED48 skills for children, and three lessons for the person who built it.
What Magic Decks taught me about building products, and how I work differently because of it.
01.
Scale on proof,
not on momentum.
After two record months, I ordered 500 units and halved the cost per deck. The bet made sense, but it was built on momentum. Now I only scale when each sale clearly pays for itself, month after month.
02.
KNOW WHO PLAYS,
BUYS AND SHARES.
Children played, parents bought, and teachers turned out to be the ones who spread the word. Listening at fairs and through customer surveys made that clear, and it reshaped who we designed for.
03.
Never depend on a single channel.
When the person running our ads left, sales stopped almost overnight. The channels we owned, like the newsletter and the blog, were still too young to carry the business. Now I build an owned channel from day one, and every handover gets a proper overlap.
OUTCOME | WHERE IT STANDSTHE STORE IS CLOSED. THE DECKS ARE STILL BEING PLAYED.
In early July 2026, I closed Magic Decks. After 18 months of building it in the evenings, next to a full-time job, I chose to stop rather than keep it running at half speed.
The remaining decks are still reaching children. If you're a teacher, educator, school coordinator or part of a social project that supports education in Portugal, and you'd like some copies, write to me at fala@matheusleite.work.
I'll gladly send as many as you need, while stock lasts, and you only cover shipping.
None of it happened alone. Thank you to:
Marina Saraiva, my co-founder, who gave every card its voice and was there for every late night.
The educators who believed first, and brought the deck into their classrooms, sessions and summer camps.
The people who opened doors: the shops, events and partners who gave the deck a place to be seen.
The people behind the scenes, who helped with advice, legal work, strategy and paid ads.
Family and friends, who travelled, carried boxes and showed up at the stands.
And to every family and classroom that made the deck part of their day.
Devagar, com calma, com alma. 💛
A fourth product, Reframe, a deck for adults, was ready to go into production when I decided to close.
