Product Design, Strategy, AI Engineering

Fifteen years, told backwards.

Scroll through time to travel back through every role, every team and the place where it all began.

Associate Director, Product Design

MX2020 – 2026

End-to-end design for a white-label mobile banking product used by millions. Client app-store ratings were raised from 2.0 to 4.5+, and a Flutter replatform of 30+ features that lifted UEQ-S from average to excellent.

Co-Founder / Head of Design

VIA Design2022 – 2026

End-to-end design leadership for startups and small businesses, run concurrently with MX. Discovery through detailed design, prototyping and delivery.

Lead Product Designer

Amiggi2022 – 2024

Led design for RadAI, an AI radiology platform that improved report quality by 60%. Clinical workflows built on progressive disclosure and human-in-the-loop patterns.

Product Design Lead

Strides Development2021 – 2023

Designed and shipped 10+ products for concurrent clients, supporting successful VC fundraising rounds. Discovery workshops through production-ready prototypes.

Director of User Experience Design

Amare Global2018 – 2019

Led marketing-site improvements that drove 600% year-over-year growth, and designed backend sales tools that cut support calls by 90%.

Senior User Experience Designer

j2 Global2016 – 2018

Modernized eFax on iOS and Android, which drove 400% year-over-year user growth and a 4.7★ App Store rating. Also designed the Windows 10 faxing app from concept to launch.

Director of Creative and UX

Colony Logic2013 – 2015

Led design for the CLX sales-automation platform and its brand as an in-house agency, earning multiple 2015 HERMES Platinum and Gold awards.

Senior UX & Visual Designer

Gumiyo Mobile2010 – 2013

Creative direction and UX/UI for Toyota, the LA Times, the Chicago Tribune, RE/MAX and other major mobile properties, reporting to the CEO and COO.

Production & Design

IKEA West · Idea Hall · One Eighteen2007 – 2010

In-store and digital communications, large-scale signage, print campaigns and web UX, with PROTOS and HERMES awards along the way.

My Product Design Lifecycle

Plan it, build it, prove it. The loop every project runs.

Plan

Research, strategy and assumption-mapping before a pixel moves.

Build

Design systems, prototypes and code, shipped in tight loops.

Measure

App ratings, UEQ‑S scores and adoption. Proof the design worked.

My Product Design Stack

Tools of the trade, enabling me to design, strategize and engineer super cool stuff.

  • Figma
  • Figma Make
  • Adobe Creative Suite
  • Lovable
  • Claude
  • Claude Code
  • ChatGPT
  • Gemini
  • Grok
  • VS Code
  • GitHub
  • GitLab
  • Jira
  • Vercel
  • Flutter
  • React
  • Maze
  • Strella
  • UserTesting
  • Level Access
  • Axe DevTools
  • Final Cut Pro
  • Mac
  • iOS
  • Android
  • Windows
  • Figma
  • Figma Make
  • Adobe Creative Suite
  • Lovable
  • Claude
  • Claude Code
  • ChatGPT
  • Gemini
  • Grok
  • VS Code
  • GitHub
  • GitLab
  • Jira
  • Vercel
  • Flutter
  • React
  • Maze
  • Strella
  • UserTesting
  • Level Access
  • Axe DevTools
  • Final Cut Pro
  • Mac
  • iOS
  • Android
  • Windows
A young Michael working at a drafting table under an architect's lamp while his dad leans in over his shoulder to watch.

Once an artist, always an artist.

In their words

This is at the forefront of LCS (Lung Cancer Screening) programs. Your user experience and interface design is amazing. Very nice job. By streamlining the process and providing radiologists all these tools we have seen an improvement of 60% impression evaluation and recommendations to next steps which will help diagnose cases and save lives.

Dr. ChristensenDirector of the Duke University LCS Program and Chair of the ACR Lung-RADS Committee

I had the pleasure of working with Michael for several years at Colony Logic, where he led our brand redesign and launch as well as our product UI and UX. He often collaborated with creative partners to concept and create innovative and big marketing ideas, produced layouts to communicate initial ideas and then followed through to deliver flawless executions. He took complex concepts and products and brought them to life, simply and beautifully, utilizing a variety of internal and external resources.

Andy VogelCOO, Colony Logic

Michael is an excellent addition to any team! He is not only an amazing product designer, he also incorporates user perspective through interviews, research and pure knowledge. He adds value by contributing with a mindset of a product owner and puts effort to make sure the product will succeed in all phases from planning to go-live. We have worked together in six different projects that started from the ideation phase and include mobile, widgets and web. In all projects Michael has been fundamental to the team!

Henrique AzevedoGroup Product Manager

When it comes to user experience and user interface design, Michael is an expert. As a Product Manager, I had the pleasure to work with him on a large redesign project, which was an educational and fun experience. Michael is always open to new ideas and proactive when it comes to my design change requests. He's an innovative thinker, with a deep understanding of the latest and greatest design standards. Michael is a smart, attentive listener who will execute your product vision exactly the way you want.

Sheela WashingtonProduct Manager

Michael is an expert in what he does. He has a good eye for design as well as functionality with regards to user experience. I love bouncing design ideas or questions off of him because he always gives me great feedback. He is well organized, detail-oriented and efficient. Since he joined the team, our mobile apps user base has increased significantly due to the streamlined sign up user experience.

Helen PhungProduct Manager

Michael is an extreme pleasure to work with. Not only is he an exceptional UX designer, he's a delight to be around. His UX designs have helped our mobile team win various awards since he's been on board. Michael's keen eye for perfection and unwavering passion for branding and design has helped promote incremental mobile app growth. If you need any design change, he'll turn it around before you can shoot him an email with what you need. He sets the bar when it comes to professionalism.

JR BatasProduct Marketing Manager