Miguel Pérez-Holdsworth
Product designer · Design researcher · Front-end · Since 2008

Let's measure before we redesign.

I set up the A/B test, the usability study, or the evaluation harness first. Then I ship the design and hand your team the system that runs it.

Talk to me →
Love With Food, 2015. A/B tested. Method in UX Collective, 2019.
How the work runs

The part most projects skip comes first.

  1. 01
    Measure first. The hypothesis, the number that would change our minds, then the instrument.
  2. 02
    Design from the evidence. Personas from factor analysis, journeys from interviews, concepts as testable hypotheses.
  3. 03
    Build it, or build alongside. Front-end in your toolchain, and the spec I'd want to build myself.
  4. 04
    Leave the system. The repository, the protocol, the design system, the training. Your team runs it after I'm gone.
  5. 05
    Put a clock on it. Every rule expires on a schedule unless it earns its place again.
the frame · on a review clock THE DESIGNPEOPLETHE MODEL line of interaction released toobserved intocompiled into

The two arrows that touch people are crossings, so they come with consent, a meter, and a way to say no.

Work · 2008 to now

Key outcomes.

8 of 8top-task completion, up from fewer than 1 in 3Love With Food account redesign · 2016 · unmoderated study, coded
4,300+GitHub stars, 2,600+ live sites a decade onsmoothState.js · 2014 · verified via API and BuiltWith, 2026
−26%design spend, capacity doubledInovalon · 2018 · founded the Design CoE
48→72%expert agreement, with a NO-GO on the recordSonder · 2020 to now · 13 fidelity cycles
17 of 17
2024 – now Colorado Digital Service
State payroll modernization and sign-in for myColorado; assumption mapping credited in the State's case study.
oit.colorado.gov, 2024 →
Research · Design · Leadership · Employer
2025 – now GameLab
48 pre-registered experiments, 34 falsifications, tournament evaluation, citations enforced in CI.
Evaluation · Self‑initiated
2020 – now Sonder
LLM-assisted synthesis benchmarked against expert coding; 48% → 72% agreement over 13 fidelity cycles.
Evaluation · Research · Front-end · Self‑initiated
2023 – 2024 Tenasol
Brand identity, product UI, investor decks, and website for an AI text-analytics startup ahead of its raise.
Design · Client
2022 – 2023 Opportunity@Work
Community-centered engagement and action research, as Senior Manager of Design Research.
Research · Leadership · Employer
2021 – 2022 Turo, via Huge
A 400-participant monadic ad test and ten listening sessions; a repeatable campaign-evaluation method.
Research · Evaluation · Client
2021 Autodesk, via Tomorrow Partners
Coded interviews, storyboards, and stage diagrams for a ten-stage generative-design workflow.
Research · Design · Client
2020 – 2022 Whistle Labs
Research through redesign; the flight-risk-owner loyalty segment reshaped the homepage and the campaign.
Research · Design · Client
2020 FAIR UXR
A free eight-lesson course on FAIR research repositories, launched on Instagram.
Research · Self‑initiated
2019 – 2020 Arrow Electronics, via ClientSolv
39 interviews, 1,600+ observations, 50+ insights, eight profitability levers in 90 days.
Research · Leadership · Client
2017 – 2019 Inovalon / Avalere Health
Founded the Design Center of Excellence; $687k vendor contract replaced, spend −26%, capacity ×2.
Leadership · Design · Research · Employer
2017 City of Philadelphia
19+ interviews and an intercept survey on the open-data portal, ending in a press conference.
phila.gov, 2017 →
Research · Design · Employer
2016 CID Entertainment
A 90-day market-entry strategy and Curadora, an MVP that converted prospects to paying customers.
Design · Front-end · Research · Employer
2014 – 2016 Love With Food
Responsive redesign with a 60% sign-up lift by A/B test; account top-task completion from under 30% to 8 of 8.
UX Collective, 2019 →
Research · Design · Front-end · Employer
2014 smoothState.js
Open-source page transitions; 4,300+ stars and 2,600+ live sites a decade on.
GitHub →CSS-Tricks, 2014 →
Front-end · Self‑initiated
2011 – 2014 WebLinc Commerce
Lead front-end for Free People, BHLDN, Terrain and others; design-system program, i18n playbook, onboarding.
Front-end · Leadership · Employer
2008 Efencea
A PvP tower-defense game on BYOND, co-created at 16; first playable in eight days, still live.
byond.com, since 2008 →
Design · Self‑initiated
On the record

“We trusted him to interview our customers on our behalf to get a true unbiased voice-of-the-customer.”

Director, Business Development · Arrow Electronics · 2020

“The quality of work was extremely high, especially given the short timeline.”

Founder · Tenasol · 2024

“A transformative force multiplier.”

Hiring manager · Avalere Health / Inovalon · 2019

“Easily one of the most brilliant product designers I've worked with.”

Director of Product Management · CID Entertainment · 2016

“…his dedication to growing the skills and careers of the developers he led.”

Direct report · WebLinc Commerce · 2014

“I'd hire him in a second, and you should strongly consider doing the same.”

Colleague · WebLinc Commerce · 2014
Next step

Write to me.

Tell me a little about the problem. We'll work out the next step, whether that's a screen, a panel slot, or a scoping call.

mail@miguel.design →