Simona Maschi's main focus is on designing and visualising future scenarios of everyday life. She has been a senior researcher and assistant professor at the Milan Polytechnic University since 1996, and worked on EU-funded projects with such companies as Bosch-Siemens, Biologica, Philips Design, DeSter and Dàlt. Key research projects were SusHouse (on developing and evaluating strategies towards sustainable households), HiCS (Highly 'Customer-ised' Solutions, on defining industrialised solutions for delivering food to people with reduced mobility), and SDI (Italian Design System, on understanding the values of the Italian design practice in order to drive its future innovation). She was also in charge of developing EU- funded research proposals and taught strategic design.
In 2002 she was a visiting scholar at Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago and in 1997 she interned with Material ConneXion.
Before 1996, she worked as an interior designer for residential and commercial clients within her family's furniture business.