United States

UX Design

UI/ Visual Design

Design Operations

Product Design

Michael Gurney

Senior UX Design Manager

Critical-thinking

Empathy

Presentation skills

Leadership

Negotiation

Design systems

User research

Figma

Miro

Adobe Creative Suite

Sketch

Midjourney

Introduce yourself, define mentoring expectations and goals. Learn and grow together.

General mentorship

Learn essential burnout prevention techniques and replenish physical and emotional energy.

Managing burnout

Talk to people who have learned to manage their imposter syndrome.

Dealing with imposter syndrome

Understand the process of training, motivating and directing your team members.

Managing people

How to create a positive workplace culture that drives collaboration and productivity?

Fostering a good team culture

Strategies for maximizing your design internship or co-op program.

Getting the most out of my internship

How to think about design career paths and what progression looks like for designers?

Design career path

Get actionable feedback on your resume or portfolio.

Resume and portfolio review

Practice HR, technical and behavioural interviews with mentors.

Practice mock interviews

Talk to people who've broken into the tech industry and learn their stories.

Breaking into tech

Learn the best ways to answer technical interview questions with frameworks

Acing technical interview questions

How to define an ambitious product vision and how to best communicate it to stakeholders?

Creating a product vision

In my role at BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment America Inc., I oversee all design efforts for the Games-as-a-Service business model, ensuring a cohesive user experience. I partnered with cross-functional teams to launch innovative gaming support and established design standards that enhanced product interactions. My leadership resulted in significant workflow improvements and a strong in-house creative capability, at times out-performing external agencies.

I played a pivotal role in shaping the user experience for Bless Unleashed by designing an in-game registration SDK and multiple UI Kits. My contributions to the commerce experience and marketing materials were crucial for the game's successful launch on Xbox One, surpassing revenue projections.

I oversaw the user experience design for the global company website, the annual customer conference mobile application, and the conference responsive website, ensuring consistency across platforms. My role also involved designing high-profile customer experiences, such as the company homepage, trust center, learning center (DSU), and free trial page, all while maintaining a focus on user engagement and brand integrity.

Responsibilities
• Craft high level marketing objectives with Chief Strategy and Marketing Officer
• Manage and grow a team of user experience designers
• Further expand upon annual customer conference brand guidelines
• Collaborate and align on goals, standards, and expectations with product design team leadership
• Gather feedback from stakeholders and quickly iterate on designs and prototypes

Accomplishments
• Initiated marketing UI style guide to be used on all global .com properties
• Improved creative asset management by introducing interactive experience redlines/specs
• Established standards for global homepage UX updates
• Strengthened UX design process by empowering team in workshops, defining user and business goals, and being solution-focused when faced with problems

I worked directly with the cofounder and Senior Director of Software Development to present the new mobile product offerings. I led the Discovery, Strategy, Design, and Testing phases for both native iOS and Android projects, using data-drive design as the foundation for decision making. My responsibilities included creating interface design systems for large-scale projects and ensuring that both business and user goals were identified and successfully achieved.

Responsibilities
• Created interactive prototypes to test user flows
• Strategized content and creative for large scale initiatives
• Conducted SWOT analysis
• Collaborated with creative director to structure new business presentations, review processes, discuss potential new creative offerings

Accomplishments
• Designed company's new white-label mobile product offering
• Improved efficiency and user satisfaction for company-wide quote tool through UXD process
• Decreased page load time and improved usability of company's conference website by re-platforming and restructuring information architecture
• Improved UI consistency by designing and evangelizing project style guides

I was responsible for designing adaptive emails and web experience for the loyalty program, which served 117 million enrollees, while closely monitoring program performance with the CRM team. I collaborated on live style guide explorations, focusing on both UX and UI design, to create a consistent and user-friendly experience.

Responsibilities
• Reviewed designs directly with Group Digital Creative Director
• Collaborated and designed live style guide explorations (UX and UI)
• Identified user pain points, and executed Intuitive design solutions
• Maintained and shared interactive loyalty program assets across teams
• Designed for desktop, tablet, and mobile devices
• Create redlines and design specifications for developer hand off

Accomplishments
• Revamped company's online style guide
• Improved effectiveness of loyalty program dashboard UI

I collaborated closely with the Information Architect to research, strategize, and conceptualize interactive solutions that align with user needs and business goals. In partnership with the Business Intelligence and Analytics teams, I worked on enhancing the user experience (UX) through data-driven insights.

Responsibilities
• Collaborated with Information Architect to research, strategize, and concept interactive solutions
• Pitched creative solutions that would increase brand recognition and improve brand identity
• Optimized webpage UI to better direct user focus and increase engagement
• Rebranded client's look and feel for online and offline presence
• Constructed style guides to maintain creative standards
• Guided design intern in project initiatives and creative process
• Designed solutions on Sitecore CMS platform

Accomplishments
• In part of increasing one client's online conversation rates by 247% through heuristic evaluation and optimizing UI
• Won additional business by presenting user centric design solutions
• Saved potentially lost accounts by presenting modern, well-informed web design solutions
• Improved project team collaboration by introducing design thinking workshops
• Introduced mobile first approach for large style web projects
• Set higher standard for project style guide creation

• Photographed the largest anime convention in the midwest (+23,000 attendees) with events including: costume contests, video game panels, and capturing overall convention atmosphere
• Enhanced, retouched, and resized photographs, using airbrushing and other techniques
• Packaged and delivered media files to Department Lead

Responsibilities
• Led Discovery, Information Architecture, Visual Design, and Quality Assurance phases for assigned Magento ecommerce projects
• Created user personas that would further inform UX process
• Fully designed entire ecommerce experience from homepage to 404 page for 26+ clients
• Constructed art direction with mood board explorations and competitive analysis insights
• Collaborated with Marketing team during discovery phase to set up effective SEO
• Prepared and transferred redlines, style guides, and assets to development
• Constructed style guides to maintain creative standards
• Stepped in as Project Manager in times of resource limitations
• Interviewed potential designers

Accomplishments
• Introduced interactive prototypes for efficient usability testing
• Expanded company's UX offerings and deliverables

• In charge of designing and sending out newsletters seen by 20,000-40,000 subscribers
• Redesigned several client websites to strengthen credibility and enhance usability
• Created interactive website prototypes to test usability using Adobe Fireworks
• Trained, educated, and led Intern Designer on job standards and practices

• Designed interactive marketing banners for the women's clothing line debut
• Assisted in creating company announcements with use of social media
• Created FBML, Twitter, and Fanpage updates for men's and women's clothing line
• Collaborated with team members and LA staff on new marketing initiatives
• Event marketing, promotional materials, and potential sponsorships

Michael Gurney🇺🇸

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