Design Leader
Design at scale.
Player-coach.
Product strategist.
Strategist. Maker. Design leader. 15 years building teams and products. Now exploring what great design looks like in the age of AI.
Design Leader
Strategist. Maker. Design leader. 15 years building teams and products. Now exploring what great design looks like in the age of AI.
About me
AI raises the floor for everyone. But not the ceiling. In this era, taste and judgement are the real currency — knowing what's worth building, and caring enough to build it right. I've spent 15 years leading teams and staying close to the craft. That's what I bring to the work.
What I do
Design at scale means getting design a seat at the table — not just delivering outputs from a distance. It means shaping product direction alongside PMs and engineering leaders, making sure user insight drives decisions before a single pixel is placed.
I'm a player-coach — and it's always been how I lead. I hire for talent density, mentor closely, and stay in the work alongside my team — not managing from a distance. I've led 25+ designers across agencies and in-house teams, and I still believe the most powerful thing a design leader can do is help someone grow into a version of themselves they didn't know was possible.
The best design decisions I've made weren't about how something looked. They were about what to build at all. I sit at the intersection of product thinking and design craft — knowing what we should be building, how it connects to where the business is going, and how all the pieces fit into something coherent.
Selected work
15 years · 15+ clients · 8+ industries
Building the design function from zero at a hyper-growth compliance startup.
Joined as the first design leader on a platform still shaped largely by engineering priorities. Reoriented the product around user journeys, information architecture, and ease of use — shifting from developer-led to genuinely UX-led thinking. Hired a team of four, built the design system from scratch, and now own the full product experience end to end.
Took design from an afterthought to a strategic function — across one of the world's largest logistics platforms.
Doubled the team from 6 to 12 in six months and restructured it into three focused functions: Product Design, Design System, and Research. Advocated design out from under Technology and into Product — a structural shift that changed how design influenced decisions at every level.
Finansforbundet
Led the digital transformation of Denmark's leading financial union — 8 new digital products built from scratch for 50,000 members.
Matas
Redesigned Denmark's leading loyalty app for 1.3M members — from transactional points to a relationship-led experience rated 4.6 on the App Store.
Danske Bank
Designed the Nordics' first pocket money solution — giving kids a real debit card and the tools to manage, save, and spend responsibly.
Varier
Helping people move more at work by turning smart furniture into an active lifestyle platform.
Pensionsinfo
Making Denmark's pension savings tangible and accessible — redesigned for couples planning their future together.
Coop
Designed a grocery e-commerce concept to challenge the market leader for Denmark's largest supermarket chain.
Sleepacy
Reimagined how a mattress brand sells sleep — e-commerce site and Sleep Services app built from scratch.
BroBizz
Innovated a seamless self-service platform simplifying road toll management for drivers across Scandinavia.
Dansk Metal
Built a job-finding app in 12 weeks — cutting through the complexity of unemployment for union members.
Alka
Redesigned insurance for the digital age — engaging customers long before they ever need to file a claim.
Canvas
A skincare platform that matches you with people who share your skin profile for hyper-personalised recommendations.
Bolius
Helping older homeowners make smarter decisions about their homes, finances, and retirement.
Jill
A health support platform that treats people like humans, not patients — making guidance feel personal and approachable.
California Psychics
A dual-sided marketplace app connecting psychics and clients — redesigned for a modern mobile experience.
Beyond the work
Work takes up too much of your life to spend it with people who make it miserable. The culture I care about building is one where we bring a bit of ourselves to work. Where we tell stories, form real relationships, and show up for each other. Vulnerability creates safety. Safety creates the conditions for genuinely great work.
Someone once called me a guardian of positivism — I'll take it. I genuinely believe that energy is contagious, and that a team with the right attitude consistently outperforms one without it. "Yes, and..." over "no." I've finished three Ironmans and race competitively in Master A. The "never, ever give up" attitude that gets you across that finish line is the same one that keeps a team moving when things get hard.
I'm fascinated by things that are excessively well made — in the digital and physical world. When you can feel that someone truly cared about making an experience as good as it could possibly be. That's what I want to build. Not for the sense of accomplishment — but because users choose you over the competition when you genuinely solve something in their lives.
Mikkel is a rare breed of design leader who doesn't just manage pixels—he scales product vision. As Head of Engineering, I had a front-row seat to his impact. He built a comprehensive, cutting-edge design system entirely from scratch, completely elevating our frontend velocity and aesthetic standards. Mikkel has an unparalleled eye for talent, single-handedly recruiting a world-class design team that consistently punched above its weight. He was absolutely instrumental in shipping critical, high-stakes features for both our Formalize and Whistleblower software. Beyond his craft, Mikkel was the ultimate bridge between Product, Design, and Engineering, always dismantling silos to find the absolute best solution for the product. Any company lucky enough to land him next is getting a transformative leader.
Emil Holst Petersen
Cross-functional partner at FormalizeHead of Engineering, Formalize
Mikkel has strong user-focused design thinking and a lot of energy in how he works. Across multiple product cycles, he always pushed for high quality in design iterations and made collaboration between product, design and engineering very smooth. What I appreciated most was his ability to create alignment and momentum in a stage where the product organisation was still forming. His empathy, team-first mindset, and practical way of working made him a very strong partner in building how we worked across functions.
Simon la Fontaine Svenstrup
Cross-functional partner at FormalizeStaff Product Manager, Formalize
Mikkel brings a rare combination of strong design craft and the ability to simplify complexity. He consistently found ways to break messy problems down into simple, practical concepts — his storytelling made alignment feel easy. Together we co-created a design system, defined page recipes, and established UX principles that gave teams clarity and direction, enabling a full navigation and UI overhaul delivered without compromising quality. As someone responsible for raising the bar on experience, I've worked with many strong profiles. Mikkel stands out. He raises the standard in a way that lasts, both in the product and in the team.
Patrick Rischel
Cross-functional partner at MaerskSenior Digital Product Manager, Novo Nordisk
formerly Senior Platform Product Owner, Maersk
Mikkel was one of the first leaders I'd worked with who truly understood the strategic value of research. He didn't just make space for it — he integrated it into how the team operated, and made sure our findings shaped direction rather than just informed delivery. Mikkel is one of the best strategic designers I've had the pleasure of working with. While his design expertise is exceptional, his true strength lies in his leadership. He has a rare ability to bring out the best in people, creating an environment where individuals grow, take ownership, and thrive. Working with Mikkel makes you a better and braver designer, a strong believer in teamwork, and a more confident professional. His quiet optimism and endless curiosity are as contagious as they are powerful.
Viki Ølgod Frandsen
Direct report at MaerskLead UX Researcher, Maersk
It was an absolute pleasure to have worked with Mikkel on the same design team. He created a highly supportive environment where the UX team could thrive, guiding us with both empathy and clear strategic vision. One of his greatest strengths is his ability to tackle messy, complex UX problems and help guide the team toward simple, impactful solutions. He is an exemplary leader who genuinely cares about his people.
Leo Wan
Direct report at MaerskLead Product Designer, Maersk
Experience
Case study · 2021–2024
Making design matter inside one of the world's most complex logistics platforms.
The Platform
Maersk Supply Chain — the operational backbone for the world's largest container shipping network. 350+ stakeholders, 20+ product teams, 260 engineers.
My Role
First dedicated UX/Design Lead. I set the vision, built the team of 12 product designers, and shifted design from a Technology-centric function to a Product-centric one.
The Big Bet
In 2017, Maersk committed to becoming the world's first integrated logistics company — pivoting from moving containers to running customers' entire supply chains. The Supply Chain Platform was the digital product at the centre of that strategy.
I was brought in as the first-ever Design Lead to build that capability from scratch.
Before
Move containers from A to B
Maersk's value was in its ships and routes. Customers booked a container; Maersk delivered it. Revenue was tied to volume shipped.
After
Run the customer's entire supply chain
Maersk manages freight, customs, warehousing, and last-mile — end to end. Revenue tied to value delivered, not containers counted.
The Starting Point
Terminals, spreadsheets, internal web tools, and manual workarounds — a constellation of legacy systems that operators lived in every day, with no single product holding it together.
The Challenge
Fragmented experience
Apps across separate tabs, different structures, no coherent flow. Users felt they were using 10 products, not one.
No task guidance
Users could complete tasks but had no path to follow — the interface didn't know what they were trying to do.
Information overload
Everything surfaced upfront regardless of context. No prioritisation, no filters that worked — just noise.
Workarounds as workflow
Without end-to-end ownership, users left the platform to get work done. The source of truth lived in email and Excel.
One platform, three user types
Customer Service, Shippers, Consignees — fundamentally different needs, one undifferentiated experience.
No design foundation
No design system, no research practice, no shared components. Starting from zero in a highly complex domain.
Engineering-dominated org
260 engineers, 20+ teams, no design processes. The risk wasn't irrelevance — it was becoming a bottleneck.
Highly technical domain
Logistics ops are dense and specialised. Designers had to earn credibility through domain fluency, not just craft.
Distributed team
12 designers across 6 nationalities and multiple time zones. Building a shared culture had to be intentional.
The Transformation
The biggest shift wasn't a product or a tool — it was the role design played in the organisation. When I joined, design was downstream of engineering. When I left, design had a seat at the product strategy table.
Before
Design as delivery service
After
Design as strategic partner
The Playbook
The Work
List pages
Detail pages
Creation flows
Rolling it out was a change effort as much as a design one — managing stakeholders, advocating, convincing, and anchoring new ways of working in documentation and best practice to create streamlined, consistent, quality output.
The Result
6 → 12
Product designers, hired and structured into focused practices
3
Dedicated practices — product design, research, design systems
20+
Product teams building on the design system
350+
Stakeholders aligned behind one platform vision
4.25 / 5
Gallup team engagement — above the 3.90 platform average
