Claudia Martinho | Founder, Work in Progress Lab | Redefining Performance Through Human Insight | Leadership & Decision-Making Under Pressure
There are moments in a professional life when progress no longer looks like acceleration. It looks like pause. For Claudia Martinho, that realization emerged gradually through years of leading strategy for global brands and observing how pressure reshapes decision-making. What emerged from that reflection is a leadership philosophy rooted not in urgency, but in clarity; not in output alone, but in the human systems that make sustained performance possible.
Today, Claudia’s work brings together brand growth, human behavior, and nervous system awareness, guiding leaders and teams to think more clearly and operate more effectively under pressure. Her work is grounded, science-led, and deeply human, designed for people navigating transition, responsibility, and change without losing themselves in the process.
Curiosity, Responsibility, and the Roots of Insight
Claudia’s journey began in Lisbon, Portugal, where she studied Public Relations, Advertising, and Applied Communication, completing her master’s degree while working part-time throughout her studies. That early balancing act was formative. It instilled a sense of responsibility, consistency, and self-reliance, values that continue to anchor her approach to leadership today. From the outset, Claudia was less interested in surface-level outcomes and more compelled by underlying motivations. Marketing offered her an entry point into the professional world, but curiosity soon became her compass. She found herself asking not just what people did, but why, what shaped decisions, behavior, and momentum beneath the surface.
Her first major professional chapter unfolded in large, complex organizations, including early roles at Barclays. There, she learned structure, discipline, and stakeholder management, while also discovering that effective strategy depends as much on human understanding as on execution. That realization drew her toward research and consumer insights, where she could explore behavior with greater depth and rigor. At 30, Claudia made a defining decision. She moved to London during a period when Portugal was still deeply affected by the financial crisis. The move required stepping into uncertainty, but it also reinforced a personal truth. Growth often demands courage before clarity. London became both a professional proving ground and a personal home, shaping her worldview and expanding her perspective.
Beyond career milestones, Claudia credits the people around her, her parents, friendships across different life stages, her husband, and her son, for shaping her leadership sensibility. Building a family while navigating demanding roles deepened her empathy and sharpened her awareness of how pressure shows up not only in organizations, but in bodies, relationships, and daily life.
From Global Brand Strategy to Human-Centered Leadership
Over the next fifteen years, Claudia built an international career in consumer insight and strategy, working across categories, cultures, and markets. Her work spanned some of the world’s most recognized brands, including senior leadership roles at Coty and Galderma, where she led global consumer marketing insights and category strategy for luxury skincare and fragrance portfolios.
In these roles, Claudia operated at the highest levels of decision-making. She advised leadership teams, shaped long-term strategy, and translated complex data into direction and action. Yet as her responsibilities expanded, a pattern became increasingly clear. Across organizations, there was often a gap between stated intentions and lived behavior. Values were articulated, strategies were sound, yet outcomes frequently fell short. The reason, Claudia observed, was rarely a lack of intelligence or ambition. More often, it was pressure. She reflects:
“Behaviour is shaped less by what people say and more by the conditions they operate within,”
This insight marked a turning point. Rather than focusing solely on what leaders should do, Claudia became deeply interested in what enables them to think clearly in the first place. She began exploring neuroscience, nervous system regulation, somatic practices, and trauma-informed frameworks, not as a departure from strategy, but as its natural evolution. Her leadership philosophy crystallized around a simple premise. People do their best work when expectations are clear, decision-making is consistent, and there is space to think rather than constantly react.
Redefining Performance Through Human Insight
In 2025, Claudia founded Work in Progress Lab, a calm, science-led practice supporting individuals and organizations at moments of transition, pressure, and leadership crossroads. The Lab reflects her belief that growth does not mean doing more. It means returning to yourself with honesty, awareness, and intention.
Through Work in Progress Lab, Claudia works with leaders, teams, and organizations to embed human insight into performance, culture, and decision-making. Her work blends behavioral science with nervous system education, helping people move from data to clarity to action without sacrificing wellbeing.
Alongside her advisory work, Claudia is a mentor with Women in Research and co-host of wiPodcast, where she explores growth, leadership, and what it means to be a work in progress in real life.
“Sustainable performance doesn’t come from doing more,” she often notes. “It grows from clarity of direction, focus on impact, and effort that builds over time.”
Vision for the Future: Clarity as a Leadership Advantage
Looking ahead, Claudia is focused on advancing a more nuanced understanding of leadership in an increasingly complex, AI-enabled world. While technology continues to accelerate speed and output, she believes the true differentiator will be the quality of human thinking.
At the heart of her philosophy is a grounding belief. “This too shall pass.” It is not a call for optimism, but for presence. A reminder that leadership is not about eliminating difficulty, but about learning how to move through it with awareness, steadiness, and trust.
Editorial Note
Claudia Martinho’s story reflects a shift many leaders are quietly navigating today: a move away from urgency as a default and toward clarity as a strategic advantage. Her work challenges conventional definitions of performance by showing how insight, self-regulation, and human awareness are not soft skills, but essential leadership capabilities in complex, high-pressure environments. As organizations rethink how they lead, decide, and grow, Claudia’s perspective offers a grounded reminder that sustainable impact begins not with doing more, but with thinking more clearly, and creating conditions where people can perform without losing themselves in the process.
