Servant Design Leader, Mentor, Product Designer, and Forever-Student
I am a seasoned Product Designer and Product Design Leader with a diverse and accomplished work history over 20+ years.
Currently serving as the Sr. Director of Product Design at Order.co, a thriving series B financial SaaS+ start-up based in Austin, TX (remote), I lead the design and research efforts for the organization. In this role, I successfully built and scaled a robust product design, marketing design, and user research practice to support the Product and Engineering teams. Additionally, I played a pivotal role in educating the executive team on the value of a Design System and spearheaded its creation in close collaboration with engineering leaders. Within a four-month period, I skillfully assembled and hired a full team of design professionals. My responsibilities encompass overseeing three individual contributors, as well as driving design strategy across the company, spanning both product and marketing/branding. By adeptly managing team focus and priorities, I consistently deliver against quarterly OKRs.
Prior to my role at Order.co, I held the position of Group Design Manager at Blizzard/Activision’s Austin, TX (remote) office. There, I led design managers responsible for Blizzard.com and all franchise properties. My work revolved around overseeing a team focused on a scalable design system that enabled templatized web properties, and I also contributed to the Product organization’s transition to operating with OKRs.
Clients
American Airlines
Amazon
Blizzard-Activision
Charles Schwab
Experian
General Assembly
Hewlett Packard
Lowe's Home Improvement
Mercedes-Benz
Pepsi Co.
The Bump
The Knot
Order.co
Services
Hiring & Scaling Teams
Design Leadership
Strategic Planning
Team Management
Project Management
User Research
Design Standards & Guidelines
Prototyping & Testing
Cross-Functional Collaboration
Budget & Resource Management
Metrics & KPIs
Advocacy
Legal & Compliance/WCAG
Earlier in my career, as the Senior Director of Product Design at The Knot Worldwide, I played a key role in leading diverse teams across user research, design systems operations, and embedded product design in Austin, New York, and Omaha. During my tenure, I strategically guided The Knot Registry eCommerce product from its infancy stage to a fully-scaled product, collaborating closely with Product Management and Engineering leadership.
I also enjoyed a tenure as a Creative Director at Projekt202, where I skillfully managed UX Designers and led creative teams on projects for top-tier clients such as Amazon, Mercedes-Benz, PepsiCo, and Hewlett-Packard.
Further enriching my expertise, I had the opportunity to share my knowledge as a Part-Time UX Design Instructor at General Assembly in Austin, TX. During this time, I successfully taught design thinking and user research methodologies, enabling students to apply these principles to their projects.
Early in my career, I honed my craft as a Senior UX Designer at American Airlines, where I contributed to cross-sales projects and worked on various initiatives, including the American Airlines mobile app, AAdvantage mobile app, and conceptual prototypes.
Learn about me from the woman who knows me best, my mother.
Testimonials
Tom Jaklitsch - CTO @ Order.co
Mike is a proven, experienced design leader perfect for any org scaling their design practice. In his time with Order.co, Mike demonstrated an impressive ability to build out core components of our design and research function:
Mike guided the build-out of our User Council, which has become a core way for our Product team to get fast and accurate customer feedback, and also stood up a dedicated research function and role in the org
He led our product team in developing a full journey map and exercise to identify highest value areas of the user experience to improve at our offsite, which then guided our team's thinking for the coming quarters
He hired top-quality design talent that integrated effectively in our product teams, that always held him in very high regard
He himself has great technical ability and eye for design/user experience
Christine Brown - VP Product @ The Knot Worldwide
Mike is one of the strongest design leaders I've encountered in my 10+ years of working in product. He built out a top-tier design organization during his time at TKWW and in the process raised the bar for our entire team. He's energetic, curious, and always focused on figuring out solutions that are in the best interest of the user. I appreciated his partnership and hope to work with him again in the future.
Aaron Miller - Senior Product Designer @ Procore Technologies
I had the pleasure to be managed by Mike for three years. He is a top notch Design leader and possibly one of the best communicators I’ve seen and have worked with in my career. He is someone who genuinely cares about you as a person and takes interest in helping you grow in your career and succeed. Mike will be missed and if our paths cross again I’d gladly work with him again!
David Lifson - Cheif Product Officer @ Buoy Health
Mike is a great design leader who I really enjoyed working with. He’s the guy you want at the helm when you need a design team built up from scratch - he’s top notch at hiring and design thinking process / culture. He also has the courage to be contrarian, asking what users really want, calling out unsaid assumptions, and voicing the hard questions. I hope to work with Mike again one day.
Chris Hadley - Design Manager @ Procore Technologies
As a people manager, there are few like him. Whether it's fighting for deserved compensation or sticking up for someone in a meeting, Mike always looked out for us. He has a knack for asking the right questions that help you find the better solution without dictating it. I consider myself extremely lucky to have been influenced by Mike's character and leadership.
Alex Van Dorn - Senior Product Manager @ Order.co
Mike is one of the most talented leaders I’ve ever had the pleasure of working with in the Product space.
He is always calm and level headed even in the most stressful of moments. He will always go above and beyond his role expectations to help those around him feel like they’re enabled to do their best work. For that reason he is a strong mentor to many, myself included.
I would highly recommend Mike for anyone looking for a confident, highly-experienced design leader.
Jeffrey McCord - Senior Product Designer @ IUNU
Mike is the kind of Design leader you want on your side. He's thoughtful, he goes deep into a problem, and he surprises you with sharp insights not only into design, but business, people, and rooting out the hard questions that need to be asked.
And at a time when I desperately needed a mentor, Mike somehow magically appeared with this arsenal of wisdom and a truly generous spirit of wanting to help others in their careers.
Everyone I know who has worked with Mike is effusive about his talents as a leader. I continue to connect with him today when I struggle to find that elusive clarity that one seeks with tricky design or career problems.
Jaclyn Toporek - Lead Product Designer @ Order.co
Mike is an amazing people manager and design leader. I reported directly to him for almost 3 years at TKWW. During that time Mike really helped transform me as a designer, giving me confidence and helped to carve out my career path in design systems.
Mike helped me lead the design system at TKWW, while he was also managing the Registry product. He did an awesome job at constantly stressing the importance of a design system to our entire organization, helping it grow and succeed.
Over time, Mike helped transform the culture of our design team. He has hired amazing people, brought in the right tools and processes, and overall fostered a very positive and collaborative environment.
I am excited to see what Mike does next - any company would be lucky to have him!
Thais Amaral - Product Designer @ WhatsApp
Mike is an incredible design leader and a rare human. In the 3 years I reported to him at XO Group/The Knot Worldwide, I’ve become a stronger and more confident designer and I owe a lot of that to him.
He always pushed me and the rest of the team to stretch and grow, while showing that he cared about us personally and believed in our potential.
I also learned a lot just by being around him as he has a wealth of knowledge about design, future thinking, relationship building, collaboration, OKRs and so many other things (he’s one of those people you could talk to about anything and he’ll teach you something you didn’t know).
I never had to fight to feel heard in the organization because Mike did such a great job at advocating for the value of our work and building bridges between design and other disciplines.
When tough conversations came up, Mike would always make everyone feel heard while focusing the conversation on what’s really important.
As Mike worked on expanding our team, I was very impressed by each new hire he’d bring in. What a talent for building a team of skilled but humble and empathetic designers!
I will really miss working with Mike and look forward to seeing the great things he'll accomplish next.