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MICHAEL CULLINAN · PRINCIPAL UX DESIGNER

Hi, I'm Michael.
I design software for
people doing hard work.

Hi, I'm Michael. I design software for people doing hard work.

Principal UX Designer with 10+ years turning complex expert workflows into clear, scalable enterprise systems. I bring research, accessibility, systems thinking, and AI-enabled prototyping together to help teams move from ambiguity to confident product direction.

View Case Studies

Design, AI & Prototyping Stack

Design, AI &
Prototyping Stack

Design, AI & Prototyping Stack

A few projects I'm proud of.

What I've shipped, what I learned,
where the design got pushed back on hardest.

Reformulator

An AI-assisted UX workflow that turned five workshops into a working interactive prototype scientists could pressure-test in three weeks.

Distilled into a 5-step UX flow

5,800-line working prototype, no coding

3 Usability Forums, real domain experts

Read Case Study

Reformulator

An AI-assisted UX workflow that turned five workshops into a working interactive prototype scientists could pressure-test in three weeks.

Distilled into a 5-step UX flow

5,800-line working prototype, no coding

3 Usability Forums, real domain experts

Read Case Study

View all case studies

Proven Impact at Enterprise Scale

A decade in UX — including seven years leading design across 25+ global brands at Estée Lauder. Strategy, systems, mentorship, and an AI-enabled practice that compounds team velocity.

faster concept-to-validated-prototype cycles Built an AI-enabled design workflow (ChatGPT, Claude, Firefly, Vite, Vercel) that compresses synthesis → prototype → validation.

Estée Lauder Companies

"A rare ability to translate highly technical and regulatory requirements into clear, human-centered experiences that business and engineering teams can align around with confidence."

David Kaufman

R&D/PLM Systems

Design Director, 3Lateral

"Mike excels at bringing ideas from our smartest and brightest to life, balancing the needs of users with our own business goals."

Chris Hickey

CEO, Ring Lead

reduction in cross-team ramp-up Established design standards, modular component system, and documentation practices adopted across the Concept-to-Market platform.

Estée Lauder Companies

Design lead across 4–6 product teams · 25+ brands

Owned UX strategy for a portfolio of cross-functional initiatives within the Concept-to-Market platform; influenced roadmap scope at the platform level and shaped review standards adopted across teams.

Estée Lauder Companies

"A clear leader in user interface design, visual design and prototyping concepts… raised the bar even higher for Dopamine's high quality work."

Andrew Zimmerman

Director of Behavioral Insights

Design Director, 3Lateral

Faster than traditional hiring

Ashlynn Gouse

Head of Product, Logitech

How I Work

Where do you tend to add the most value?

Usually around the second or third sprint of an initiative — once the team realizes the problem is messier than the brief implied. I'm useful when the requirements are still moving and someone needs to translate technical, regulatory, and business constraints into something the team can actually decide against. (At Estée Lauder this looks like Concept-to-Market workflows; before that it was data-heavy SaaS at RingLead.)

Where do you tend to add the most value?

What does your AI-enabled practice actually look like?

What kind of team do you work best with?