UX & AI design leadership, human centered by design.
AI-forward design leader w/ 25+ years in product design. Entrepreneur, tech dad, surfer, and fish taco lover. As a player-coach, I help startups and global brands deliver customer-focused, data-informed design at velocity while thriving as a premier cross-functional partner.
Work
What worked for them, can work for you.
Portfolio
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AI Design
Integrated AI-driven solutions into product design, and vibe-coded UX to create intuitive, adaptive user experiences for a fashion technology, Series A startup.
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Platform Modernization
Modernized a 10-year-old SAAS product, built a scalable design system that raised developer efficiency by 60% with +27% in user favorability.
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eCommerce @ Scale
Designed UX for Walmart’s DVDs, Blu-rays, and first online video streaming service, reaching millions of users.
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Agile UX
Integrated product acquisition Codestream in just 5 weeks, launching a feature that let developers click errors to jump to the exact line of code.
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Multimodal UX
Led design across eCommerce, mobile apps and TV platforms driving 4X revenue, 3X MAUs, and filing 12 design patents.
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Personalization
Led New Relic’s customizable navigation redesign with dark mode, flexible content, and full accessibility compliance.
Testimonials
“Simply put, Mike is one of the best design leaders I’ve hired. I worked closely with Mike for more than 5 years and every day I was happy that he had joined the team. Through business ups and downs, through strategy evolutions, Mike always maintained a great attitude, a focus on building and improving products for our customers, and a great working environment for his team. Five stars - would hire again!”
— Corporate Vice President, Product @ Walmart
“Mike solves business problems and transforms ambitious requirements into effective visual solutions.”
— Executive Director @ Chase
35 more recommendations on LinkedIn
About
Lifelong Passion for Creative
I’ve always looked beyond pretty by integrating functionality, utility, and focus. Design is an organic adventure that I approach as a curious explorer with refined design skills and creative courage.
Entrepreneurial Barrier Busting
At my development agency, TopLingo, we rejected cookie-cutter websites for custom apps and eCommerce solutions. We grew, we scaled, I exited successfully and through it, never stopped learning. I even found time to pick up an MBA adding perspective and new skills.
The Corporate Path
My agency led me to work with clients and C-Level executives from Chase, HSBC, Air New Zealand, and 3M. Post-agency, I was recruited by Walmart, and promoted quickly to Head of Design for their streaming subsidiary Vudu. My journey working for large organizations does not end here.
Data-Informed Design
It begins by thinking beyond the design, to leveraging user research frameworks that test problems and harvest opportunities. Accomplished by leveraging a disciplined start-up mentality and rapid iterative approach that won’t waste time looking for the future in the rear-view mirror.
Team Building with Integrity
My vision is to lead by example, move fast, building progressive and successful design teams of the future. Teams comprised of talented people mentored, not marginalized, embracing evolving processes that build amazingly cool stuff, that inspire, build strong products and add value in the years ahead.
What Inspires Me and Always Will
Customer-focused design that exceeds expectations, breaks barriers, solves problems and raises the bar has never been easy but doing it has never failed to delight and motivate me. I never tire of solving user problems, or the quest to overcome it.
