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Matthew Mitchell - home

About

I’m a product designer who enjoys making complex things feel clear, useful, and intentional. I believe versatility is one of a designer’s greatest strengths, and over the past nine years, I’ve worn many hats as a designer for companies across fintech, healthcare, and retail services. I bring curiosity to every project, taking the time to understand the problem and ask the right questions.

Among the many hats I currently wear at Cardinal Financial, I’m a co-lead for Northstar, our unified AI-driven design system. I’m passionate about exploring how AI can bridge the gap between design and code by connecting systems, tools, and workflows to help designers and developers work together more seamlessly.

And if you’re wondering about all the butter yellow across my portfolio, it taps into a few of my favorite activities: cooking (nothing like a stick of butter to baste a steak), snowboarding (nothing like a butter trick to start the season), and sketching on Post-it Notes (nothing like that butter yellow box to get the creative juices flowing).

Illustrated self-portrait: a head opening up with brains and shapes floating out of it

Skills & tools

Product & design

  • UX design
  • UI design
  • Design systems
  • Component libraries
  • Interaction design
  • Responsive design
  • Information architecture
  • User flows
  • Wireframing
  • Prototyping
  • Accessibility

Research & strategy

  • Design thinking
  • User-centered design
  • UX research
  • Analytics
  • User research
  • Cross-functional collaboration

Tools & AI workflow

  • Figma
  • Miro
  • Cursor
  • Claude Code
  • MCP server integration
  • Storybook
  • Chromatic
  • GitHub
  • ChatGPT
  • Adobe CC
  • HTML/CSS (basic)

Outside of work

Outside of work, I’m a proud girl dad and an enthusiastic collector of hobbies.

Snowboarding
I’ve been snowboarding since childhood and still feel most at home somewhere on a mountain. Vail, Keystone, Breckenridge, and Winter Park are a few of my favorite spots. I can’t wait for my daughter’s first shred day, even if she chooses skiing. I’ll try not to take it personally.
Cooking & Baking
Years of restaurant work during college turned into a love of cooking almost every day and baking whenever I can. The food is usually worth it. The mountain of dishes is still under review.
Sketching & Creative Play
I’ll grab a Post-it Note whenever I feel like sketching a quick illustration or capturing an idea that pops into my head. I’ve been doing this since long before FigJam and Miro became part of my professional workflow. For me, it’s less about process and more about having a small, low-pressure space where I can create and express myself. Plus, it’s much harder to lose an idea when it’s stuck to something.
The Outdoors & Staying Active
I’m in my happy place when hiking through the mountains or going for bike rides with my wife and baby girl riding shotgun. I grew up playing sports and have been a regular at the gym for more than a decade, although parenting has introduced a very different kind of endurance training.
Shows & Movies
My watchlist is a mix of Stranger Things, Disney and Pixar, the MCU, anime, action movies, and comedies. I also grew up on Harry Potter, which means I’m already prepared to introduce my daughter to entirely too many fictional worlds.
Green Thumb
Before our daughter arrived, we had over 100 houseplants. We’re down to five now because we have one much more important little sprout to keep alive.
LEGO
I loved LEGO as a kid, lost touch with it for a while, and recently found the magic again through sets from Stranger Things and One Piece. Apparently, the hobbies you loved as a kid are just waiting for you to have shelf space again.
Games
Xbox, PlayStation, Switch, Meta Quest, and board games have all had their time in the rotation. These days, parenthood is the main campaign, but when we manage to fit in a game, it’s usually something like Ticket to Ride.
A Very Important Chocolate Beer Search
I’m a craft beer fan, and I’ve dabbled in homebrewing, but a great chocolate beer is the real prize. Untitled Art, Southern Tier, and Equilibrium currently lead the rankings, but the search continues. It’s important work.

Contact

Let’s talk.

If you are hiring, collaborating, or just want to argue about design systems, I read everything.

mattxmitch@gmail.com