Hello.

Michael is an incredibly talented, AI-native product designer. At Balsamiq, he drove AI adoption and product innovation that made sense for our users, flexing across tools without losing focus on goals. He excels at disciplined design thinking—exploring solutions, incorporating research and feedback, and choosing the best path. Everything he touches gets better for the user. He's a UX expert who co-authored a book on the subject and works effectively with cross-functional teams. Any product team would benefit from working with Michael.

He is an exceptional designer. Michael has a remarkable ability to understand the challenges and design a solution around them. More importantly, he's always open to discussion, iteration, and review, which made the implementation process incredibly smooth and, honestly, made my job much easier. I can confidently recommend him to any team looking for a professional, highly skilled, and collaborative senior designer.

If you have been doing information architecture or interaction design for a few years chances are you have used one of Michael Angeles’s products. Michael has been quietly contributing invaluable products and tools to the user experience community.

Michael is one of the most thoughtful and forward-thinking product designers I’ve worked with. He brings a calm, collaborative energy—genuinely open to feedback and focused on improving designs. He helped push our company forward in AI long before it was popular, with early experiments that shifted our roadmap and strategy. Any team working in AI or early-stage product development would be lucky to work with him.

Michael’s approachable, clear communication, he showed me ways I could apply design thinking to developing administrative, HR, and operations practices and procedures. He has a growth mindset, and a willingness to stretch himself into new skill and knowledge areas. I knew anytime Michael was on a project with me, I could anticipate quality work, innovative, well-considered ideas, and joyful laughter.

Working with Mike genuinely changed how I think about design. He didn’t just do great work—he made the work better for everyone around him. He has this rare mix of craft, clarity, and flexibility that makes any challenge feel approachable. What I’ve always admired is how easily he moves between creativity and structure—diving deep into design details one moment, then improving a process or guiding a teammate the next. He’s got this genius vibe that’s backed by substance, discipline, and real heart.

Michael is the epitome of a lifelong learner. His gift is an ability to learn at an incredible rate, due to his curiosity, drive, and brain plasticity. The way he has fully embraced AI and the vibe coding revolution is amazing. While many of us are lost in the woods, he has already woven it into his daily work and is pushing the boundaries with alpha features. While Michael is extremely humble, spend more than just a few minutes with him and you'll realize that he's a rockstar in disguise.