Whether the direction is unclear, the system is tangled, or the team is stuck, I help figure out what to build and stay in the work as it ships and scales.
Multi-year embedded partnership with a US-based payments platform, working as the only designer alongside product leadership. Design infrastructure was scattered and inconsistent across platforms. Built the design architecture, documentation, and processes that helped the team shift to predictable monthly shipping.
One of Central Europe's largest insurance brokers with no internal design capability and past failed attempts to build one. Led the engagement from pitch to embedded partnership, managing a team of six across their core data system, design system, and business applications. Built leadership buy-in for design investment alongside the CTO.
One of Europe's largest beauty retailers had a concept for salon-based customer acquisition but nothing behind it was defined. Led the strategic and UX work, designed the full journey architecture, and managed alignment across dozens of stakeholders. The engagement expanded into pricing strategy, reservation systems, and product improvements.
An existing subscription retention process that underperformed on metrics and frustrated users with aggressive tactics. Reshaped the full cancellation and renewal flow alongside a colleague designer, shifting the approach from pressure tactics to honesty and positive motivation.
Hired as a product manager for a fintech startup with a limited MVP and no go-to-market strategy. Initiated brand definition, customer research, and designed the product experience across multiple countries. Proposed and shaped a standalone ticketing spin-off that is still on the market.
A Czech-owned consumer finance company launching a bank in Kazakhstan. The plan was to adapt the existing Czech banking UI, but discovery showed local banking behaviours were fundamentally different. Led the full design effort from scratch, then hired the first additional designer.
2 to 4 days per week, ongoing. Months, not weeks.
I join the team for an extended period and work as a core contributor alongside founders, product leads, and engineers. Not as an advisor checking in weekly. Present in the work, in the decisions, in the details. Most of my best engagements have been this way.
Understanding a product and its constraints deeply takes time, and that depth is what makes the contribution genuinely useful. The role typically spans product management, design leadership, stakeholder coordination, and delivery oversight. Whatever the situation requires.
Focused engagement, 4 to 8 weeks.
Definition before development. Before significant time and money goes into building, I help a team get clear on what the product needs to be. That means research, problem framing, workflow mapping, and a concrete direction the team can act on with confidence.
The work here is thinking, not building. But it is what makes the building go right.
Defined scope, flexible duration.
Execution-heavy. I lead or substantially contribute to UX, flows, information architecture, prototyping, and design systems. This is not advisory. I am doing the work.
I work comfortably alongside engineers, understand the technical constraints, and can make product decisions that respect them. I am not a coder, but I am not a stranger to a codebase either.
Part-time, ongoing alongside the external build.
You have a team or an agency doing the build, but no one senior watching the product as a whole. I work on your side. Reviewing what is being delivered, challenging decisions that do not serve the product, and making sure the result is what you actually need.
Two decades on the delivery side means I know exactly where external builds go wrong and what to watch for.
Working with Antonín was a fantastic experience. He skillfully led his team to develop a unified design system for our backoffice and client-facing apps, handled our numerous and sometimes contradictory requests with ease, and laid solid foundations for future projects.
If you are building something new, fixing something that is not working, managing an external team, or trying to get your design capability to the next level, the best starting point is a short conversation.
