Design, one layer deeper.
I design products, then go one layer further and build them, from the first conversation to shipped code. Product designer in Seattle; I co-founded Versum Health, and designed and built EZ Recipe and PDF Penguin.
See the workSelected work.
Four projects, each opened in layers: the problem people had, the insight inside it, and the outcome at the core.
Versum Health
Uninsured patients put off dental care, and dental students can’t find the patients they need to graduate.
Live site: Versum Health (opens in a new tab)Layer 2 · The insight · 2025
“I had to pay people off the street a lot of money just to get them a free cleaning.”
A practicing dental hygienist, on getting through school Layer 3 · The coreLive MVPPatients search and book; students manage schedules and messages.
EZ Recipe
Recipe apps assume you’ll go shopping. Home cooks start from what’s already in the fridge.
Live site: EZ Recipe (opens in a new tab)Layer 2 · The insight · 2025
Cooking communities kept asking how to use what they already had.
Layer 3 · The coreLiveAt ezrecipe.app, reworked after real use so the recipe shows before its picture.
PDF Penguin
Getting a table out of a PDF meant selecting areas by hand or writing parser rules first.
Layer 2 · The insight · 2025
I was the first user: every tool I tried asked for setup before it gave me anything.
Layer 3 · The coreMVP in 2 weeksDrop in a PDF, say what you need in plain words, get clean JSON.
Layer 2 · The insight · 2025
Musicians had already built their own workarounds.
Layer 3 · The coreLoop in 2 tapsA hi-fi concept inside Spotify’s own design language, with saved loops.
Code is the smallest doll.
How I work, outside in: past the mockup, until it ships.
- Listen
- Talk with the people who have the problem, on every side of it, before any sketch.
- Frame
- Name the real problem, then agree on what better means.
- Design
- Flows, states and prototypes, put in front of real people.
- Build
- Then I ship it myself: React and AI APIs, down to the last detail.
The innermost layer
Hi, I’m Michael. There’s one more layer.
The work is the outside. Open the doll to meet the person who made it.






