Mike is Product Design Leader with:
- 31+ Years of Digital, Visual, UX/UI, Graphic & Consulting
- 29+ Years of UX Design & Interactive Web
- 23+ Years of UX Lead Product Design
B I 0
Mike grew up in Iowa, where corn is king, and yes, he ate lots of it.
Mike served four years in the United States Marine Corps and caught the travel bug, and he has never been the same since. After his Honorable Discharge, he attended the Colorado Institute of Art and the Rocky Mountain College of Art & Design in Denver, Colorado.
A few years after graduating, Mike moved to San Francisco, CA, where he lived & worked for two decades… it was the right time and place. He had honed his tradecraft, tools & experiences at the innovation/tech capital of North America at the time.
During Mike’s time off, he loves traveling to Europe, Asia & Southeast Asia. Mike is an avid motorcyclist and has traveled by motorcycle all over the South of France, South Vietnam, and every state in the Western US. Mike also enjoys camping, overland expeditions in his Jeep, and spending time and activities in the great outdoors.
W H Y M I K E ?
Mike is cross-functional and collaborative; he loves exercising both sides of his creative and analytical brain to solve complex problems across all forms of communication — mobile, tablet, iPad, desktop, web, and IoT software applications.
A G I L E & D E S I G N T H I N K I N G
Always have Empathy for the End User, Identify Pain Points, Gather Data, Record Evidence, Expand on those Discoveries, Pave the Journey, Collaborate, Design, Collaborate again, Revise, Design, Build, Test, and Iterate the entire process again and again, improving your Product while constantly Championing the End User.
R O L E S
UX Product Owner, Technical Design Director, UX Strategist, UX Consultant, UX Designer, IoT Designer, UI Designer, Interaction Designer, Information Architect, Creative Director, Visual Designer, Logo Designer, Icon Designer & Graphic Print Designer.
L E A D E R S H I P
Mike has held many leadership roles throughout his career. During his Marine Corps service as a Non-Commissioned Officer, he influenced, led, and mentored junior Marines in training, tactics, and daily activities—experiences that proved invaluable in combat.
He has also mentored and led fellow team members on numerous UX projects, including Senior Designers, Junior Designers, Visual Designers, Content Strategists, Information Architects, Developers, and Engineers. Most recently, he led a UX team within the FBI, where he instituted an Agile and Design Thinking process that remains in use today.
Mike’s leadership philosophy is simple: he will never ask someone to do something he wouldn’t do himself. He rolls up his sleeves, dives in to help work through challenges, and stays as late as needed to get the job done—so the team can reflect on and celebrate their shared success.
A G E N C I E S & C L I E N T S
He’s an artist and designer who has juggled these roles with renowned agencies such as Archer Design, EVB, Grand River, Hot Studio, Moore & Price Design, Odopod, Publicis Modem, Razorfish, Real Branding, Sequence, Singlebound Creative, The Linus Group, and YW Design, among others. His work and client collaborations span a wide range of industries and markets.
Mike’s client roster includes companies such as Atari, Bank of the West, Best Buy, Bing, BlackBerry, Charles Schwab, Cisco, the Department of Defense, the Department of Justice, Electronic Arts, Google, Gymboree, Intel, John Deere, Men’s Wearhouse, Microsoft, PG&E, Sam’s Club, SEGA, Sony, State Farm, and Wells Fargo, among many others.
U S A B I L I T Y T E S T I N G
User testing has been his greatest teacher—whether in a million-dollar facility or out in the field conducting guerrilla user testing. In one instance, we recruited participants who didn’t match our anticipated demographic. They weren’t typical computer users, yet they provided some of the most valuable feedback we’d ever received—insights far beyond what we could have imagined.
That experience opened our eyes to the immense value of user and usability testing—reminding us that true understanding often comes from unexpected voices..
D E L I V E R A B L E S
Analytic Reports, Usability & User Testing Reports, User & Stakeholder Interviews, Competitive Analysis, Use Cases, Audit Reports, Personas, User Goals, Sitemaps, Creative Briefs, UX Briefs, Strategy Briefs, User Interfaces, Icons, High- & Low-Fidelity Wireframes, Wireflows, Interaction Flows, User Flows, Task Flows, Flowcharts, Responsive Flows, Journey Maps, Storyboards, Product Roadmaps, Prototypes, Feature Matrices, Design Guidelines, Brand Development, Mockups, Design Assets, & Final UX Specifications.
S T O R Y B E H I N D T H E N A M E
It started in the early 2000s, when I was working at a startup in the SF Bay Area. I joked about how much food the company kept feeding us for lunch and dinner, saying I was sitting all day, accumulating calories, and might be getting fat. My colleagues got a kick out of it, laughed, and nicknamed me “Fatty.”
Around the same time, I wanted a table for my 1950s-style kitchen and decided to have a custom diner booth built to match its retro aesthetic. I also wanted to create a website to showcase my work and experiences—so FattysDiner.com was born.
Since then, I’ve moved five times, and I still have my diner booth to this day.
Contact Mike today!