Michelle Matthews

Product Designer · Los Angeles, CA
mmatthews85@gmail.com · 347-852-8466
EXPERIENCE
Independent
Product Designer and Fractional Design Lead
2025 — PRESENT
Confidential: wearable and companion app, from research through beta and a design system. BetterSleep: growth squad lead on onboarding and retention. Imagine Pediatrics: virtual and in-home pediatric care for children with special health care needs. Kalya: meditation app pilot from design through production. Quilt: grief support community MVP. Radical Health: brand identity and marketing site.
Brightline
VP of Design and Research
2021 — 2025
Pediatric mental health care. Led the onboarding redesign and shipped it in 9 weeks: completion from 35% to 65%, account creation from 16% to 29%, member trust from 4 to 8.75 out of 10. Built the design function (team of 10), research practice, and design system across family, clinician, and billing surfaces, and led the rebrand.
Headspace
Design Lead, Healthcare
2019 — 2020
0-to-1 design for Headspace’s first clinically validated product, a 12-week coaching program for chronic migraine. Designed its modular content system, ran a service dress rehearsal and Cedars-Sinai co-design, and worked on the headspace.com redesign.
Soothe
Head of User Experience
2018 — 2019
First design hire for a two-sided wellness marketplace. Research surfaced a trust problem that led to a rebrand and redesign around safety.
Heal
Lead Product Designer
2017 — 2018
In-home primary care. Consumer apps on iOS, Android, and web, a provider iPad app, and an internal EHR.
Selected freelance
Product and growth design
2009 — 2017
Tone It Up: 0-to-1 fitness app, 100k+ paid subscribers. Storybook: redesign, 56% more content starts. Ferly: 60% lift in conversion.
EDUCATION
MSW, NYU Silver School of Social Work
BA, English and Gender Studies, SUNY Buffalo
Taught UX and inclusive design at UCLA
Before design: social worker and journalist
STRENGTHS
End-to-end product design
Mixed-methods research
Interaction and visual design
Design systems
Content design and plain language
AI-assisted prototyping
Designing for trust
CONTACT
347-852-8466
Los Angeles, CA