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
Problems solved
- Leading an ordering and loyalty app for 30 restaurant brands, and the design team across the platform Product Manager for the app, and line manager for the design team behind every product.
- From career transition to the right next job: designing everything in Sök jobb towards one vision Sole designer for Sök jobb: designed the product vision and led the design towards it, from guides and the match profile to job ads, AI support and the advisors’ candidate search.
- Redesigning the match profile, so its use rose from 30 to 50 percent Sole designer, from research to development-ready design. Complete profiles rose from 80 to 93 percent.
- A new way for companies to find candidates at TRR, where the match is right for both sides from the start A totally new service, from interviews with 30 companies to concept tests, story mapping and launch.
- Simplifying time and pay reporting across companies and agreements Sole designer: one reporting service in place of several systems, with a design system behind it.
- Bringing customer insight into early product decisions Building and rolling out a shared CX/UX insight model for early discovery, piloted across five projects.
- Leading product development so restaurants could grow, and Baemingo with them Product Manager responsible for the roadmap of the whole restaurant platform.
- Sending parcels without a label: towards a scalable logistics flow Research, flow mapping and concepts that gave PostNord what it needed to decide the next step.
- One way in to three brands: navigation and design system for a vehicle logistics site From the first sketch to a site ready to launch, built with Eurotransport’s team.
- Redesigning a marketplace for car buyers and car dealers Sole UX/UI designer, from user flows to finished UI and the design system behind it.
- A swipe-based app matching job seekers with companies Product designer for a native app for fair, bias-free recruitment, with a design system to scale.
Core expertise
-
UX & Product Design
designing digital experiences from insight to implementation
- User flows
- Information architecture
- Interaction design
- Prototyping
- User testing
- UI design
- Design systems
- Accessibility
-
Discovery & Concept Development
understanding problems and exploring opportunities
- User research
- Problem framing
- Research strategy
- Opportunity mapping
- Ideation
- Concept development
- Validation
-
Service Design & Customer Experience
connecting the digital experience to the service around it
- Customer journeys
- Service blueprinting
- Ecosystem mapping
- Customer insights
- Operational feasibility
-
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.