Hi, I’m Mikaela.
I help teams decide what to build, then lead the team and design the user experience
Match your needs with my skillsI’m a hands-on design leader. I bring together discovery and design craft, product thinking and people leadership, and I like staying close to the work while setting the direction.
I’ve led designers as a line manager, owned roadmaps and led product development teams as a product manager, and done the design myself, from early research to tested, development-ready UI. That mix lets me connect what users need, what the business is aiming for and what’s technically possible, and turn it into products and services that work.
I’m at my best where design has a real say in product decisions, teams work closely together, and good experiences make a difference you can see in the numbers.
- Discovery & design craft
- Product & service thinking
- Leading designers & development teams
Companies I’ve worked with
- Liber
- PostNord
- Bilwebben
- Byggföretagen
- TRR
- Baemingo
- Savvy Match
- Leeroy Group
- Viaplay
- Stockholm School of Technology
- Eurotransport
I don’t start with solutions. I start with understanding.
I’m curious about how people think, what they need and what gets in their way. I enjoy uncovering opportunities, questioning assumptions and turning complex challenges into digital products and services that feel simple to use.
I lead design and I do it too. I’ve been line manager for product designers, set how we work and run regular design critique, and I still map services, design flows, test prototypes and refine interfaces myself.
Lately I’ve been building AI-supported workflows for research and design: preparing and synthesising research, exploring concepts and getting to code-based prototypes faster. It leaves more room for understanding people and testing ideas, while human judgement stays in charge.
What matters most to me is making things people genuinely find useful, in a way of working where user needs and design really influence what gets built.
Experience in practice
- Research to UI
I’ve led UX work and done the design myself, from early research and concepts to tested interfaces ready for development.
- 30% → 50%
The share of users with a match profile on TRR’s digital services rose from 30% to 50% during my work there.
- 30 brands
Restaurant brands using the ordering and loyalty platform I led as Product Manager at Leeroy.
- Design & product leadership
I’ve led designers, product roadmaps and cross-functional teams.
“Thank you, Mikaela, for helping us at Liber raise our skills in customer insight work!”
Cases
Selected work
Leading an ordering and loyalty app for 30 restaurant brands, and the design team across the whole platform
At Leeroy I had two roles. As Product Manager for the ordering and loyalty app, I led its discovery, product direction and development. As UX Design Manager, I was line manager for the design team that supported all the products, from the app to the POS, kitchen display and back office, and helped them grow into product designers who owned discovery and their backlog. See case study
How we increased the use of the match profile and improved job matching
I took TRR’s match profile from research to development-ready design. A clearer, more guiding flow made the profile easier to find, create and keep up to date, with personal suggestions, timely reminders and broader matching. The share of users with a match profile rose from 30 to 50 percent. See case study
Bringing customer insight into early product decisions
I led the work of building and rolling out a shared CX/UX insight model for early discovery at Liber. It helps teams involve customers and users all the way through, focus research on what’s most uncertain, and use what they learn to shape product decisions. I tried it out and refined it in five live projects, and built the methods, tools and guidance to support the whole research process. See case study
Leading product development so restaurants could grow, and Baemingo could grow with them
As Product Manager at Baemingo, I was responsible for the product roadmap for the whole restaurant platform. The POS was the core: it took orders at the till, at the table, from the mobile app and from self-service, and the POS back office handled venues, menus, payments and sales follow-up. With a lot already in place and the company about to scale, I balanced three things on one roadmap: a stable platform without technical bugs, better user interfaces and flows, and new development for growth. I supported the developers and designers with roadmap priorities and sprint goals, with an extra focus on the user experience. See case study
Sending parcels without a label: towards a scalable logistics flow
I explored how AI and new logistics flows could make label-free parcels work at scale in PostNord’s parcel lockers. Through research, flow mapping, technical validation and concept work, I came up with two possible future solutions and gave PostNord what it needed to decide how to take the work forward. See case studyCore expertise
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UX & Product Design
designing digital experiences from insight to implementation
- User flows
- Information architecture
- Interaction design
- Prototyping
- User testing
- UI design
- Design systems
- Accessibility
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Discovery & Concept Development
understanding problems and exploring opportunities
- User research
- Problem framing
- Research strategy
- Opportunity mapping
- Ideation
- Concept development
- Validation
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Service Design & Customer Experience
connecting the digital experience to the service around it
- Customer journeys
- Service blueprinting
- Ecosystem mapping
- Customer insights
- Operational feasibility
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Design & Product Leadership
connecting design, product direction and delivery
- Design direction
- Product strategy
- Roadmaps
- Prioritisation
- Cross-functional leadership
- Facilitation
- Coaching
Things I come back to
Understand the problem first.
Good solutions start with understanding what people are trying to achieve, what gets in their way, and what the wider context demands.
Decide how success is measured.
Being clear about the outcome helps teams make better choices and tells us whether what we design is actually working.
Leave out what isn't needed.
I look for the simplest experience that solves the problem well, without adding complexity just because we can.
Let design influence the direction.
Design isn’t only about finding the best solution to a defined problem. It helps us discover opportunities, challenge assumptions and decide which problems are worth solving in the first place.
Tools I’ve designed and built
NewTools I’ve built, free to useAccessibility Checker and FixerI like turning everyday problems in my work into practical tools. Try the ones I’ve built for accessibility and research synthesis – they’re free.
AI is part of how I research, prototype and build, with my own review and judgement throughout.
Backstage
The thinking behind the work: design, research and building products.
Latest article
Design principles for AI-supported products
Eight principles for designing AI support that people understand, trust and stay in charge of, and how I use them when I build with AI.
Let’s create something that matters.
Open for new opportunities.
I’d love a role where I can combine hands-on design with helping to set the direction: figuring out what users really need, exploring ideas together and making digital products and services that make a real difference.
Whether it’s hands-on design, discovery or leading a bigger piece of work, what matters most to me is being part of a team where design and user insight really shape what gets built.
Have something in mind? Let’s talk.