Mike Nomura

Product Designer

Intention at the rootClarity through every layer

My recent work protects businesses and people

Projects are generalized to protect confidential details. Schedule a call and I’ll walk you through the designs and the thinking behind them.

01 Approach

Simple rules for tangled problems

I set intention at the root with clarity on what the real problem is, who it’s for, what we know and what we don’t. Then I carry it through every layer, from how decisions are made and systems take shape to how the team works together and lands each pixel.

Gnarly problem spaces have a way of drawing me in. They’re high-stakes systems where teams, policies and tools pull in different directions, some users are actively working against you and mistakes have real-world consequences. I take them apart alongside the people who know them best, uncover the core elements that everything rests on and rebuild them into something teams can align on.

Nature expresses its variety through a handful of rules repeated at every scale. I bring the same approach to how I think through a problem and to the product itself, setting a few core rules everything else can follow. When those rules are right, emerging needs find their place without a redesign and the system grows without losing its shape.

In practice

Teams stop re-solving the same problems once I pull together a shared picture of the system and define the structures to build on. With that clarity, they keep moving on their own.

02 Projects

What I’ve done recently

Projects are generalized to protect confidential details. Schedule a call and I’ll walk you through the designs and the thinking behind them.

02.1

Evolving an enterprise access platform

Meta · Design Lead

Problem — As additional capabilities were built into the platform over time, the information grew denser and the controls more specialized, leaving less-technical access managers unsure how to complete their tasks.

Solution — I extended the information architecture to surface actionable insights and workflows at various altitudes, making space for coarse actions while fine-grained controls can keep evolving.

Highlights

  • Simplified routine tasks for less-technical access managers
  • Leveraged AI to streamline key access workflows
  • Set a structure the team could keep building on
An access overview for a fictional team: an alert about unused viewer access, a 30-day chart of viewer assignments, a timeline of access ending soon and a table of people, groups and systems.
Summary of what needs attention before the detail. Generalized with fictional data.

02.2

Unifying legacy tools into a coherent access system

Meta · Design Lead

Problem — Different types of access lived in separate legacy tools, splitting what should have been a complete picture. Access managers context-switched to piece things together, and the team carried the cost of maintaining multiple platforms.

Solution — I merged the disparate tools into a single consistent platform built on simplified foundations, so every type of access could be managed through the same efficient workflows.

Highlights

  • Gave access managers one view of everything they manage
  • Increased task completion and efficiency while reducing risk
  • Cut the platforms the team maintained down to one
A table of access grants for a fictional resource, showing access type, date granted, last activity and end date, with filter and add-manager controls.
One actionable table structure for all access types. Generalized with fictional data.

02.3

Defining a pattern system across enforcement touchpoints

Meta · Design Lead

Problem — Advertisers with restrictions on their accounts were confused by unclear messaging and inconsistent interactions across ad surfaces, and often left unsure of their status or what to do next.

Solution — I defined a restriction pattern across advertiser surfaces and interaction types, so each moment consistently clarified an advertiser’s status with a path to resolution or additional information.

Highlights

  • Closed gaps surfaced by end-to-end system audits
  • Aligned teams on standardized messaging and components across apps
  • Cut implementation time from weeks to days
Three mobile screens for a fictional business: a profile showing a promotion is unavailable, a prompt to finish setup before continuing, and a hub listing current restrictions with a way to request a review.
Restriction pattern across touchpoints. Generalized with fictional data.

03 Practice

Where I lean in

03.1

Understand complex systems

Problems that cut across teams often lack a shared understanding. I go deep with the people closest to them, surface what’s actually true and turn it into shared artifacts everyone can react to and work from.

Toolkit

  • Root cause framing
  • Product and system audits
  • User journey maps and service blueprints

03.2

Build platforms from zero to one

A blank page can be overwhelming without an established structure or constraints to work from. I absorb context, apply design fundamentals and anticipate what might lie ahead to design foundations that new products can grow into.

Toolkit

  • Research translated into user stories
  • Information architecture and foundations
  • Design thinking and workshop facilitation

03.3

Standardize across surfaces

Inevitable cycles of expansion and contraction can leave a tangle of terminology, tools, policies, components and surfaces. I seek unifying patterns to rebuild standards with the flexibility to keep growing.

Toolkit

  • Pattern recognition
  • Design systems
  • Cross-team standards

03.4

Prototype and build with AI

AI features are easy to demo but only mature with each loop of real use and feedback, growing layer by layer around a solid core. I delivered my last team’s first LLM-powered feature, used AI to fix long-standing quality issues and built this site with Claude Code using a loop that checks its own visual output.

Toolkit

  • Claude Code
  • Figma AI
  • Google AI Studio

04 Principles

How I work

04.1

See the wholeFind the elements

Systems look different from every vantage point. I hold the whole and the finest detail together to connect the dots between them and across teams. I go to the root and deconstruct the problem into its elements until the patterns emerge.

In practice

Redesigns of an ad platform had failed repeatedly before I joined. I uncovered a false assumption the company held about advertiser strategies. Reorienting around how advertisers actually choose ad placements simplified the product, expanded what campaigns could offer and unblocked engineering.

04.2

Make the abstract concreteKeep the concrete malleable

Designers can envision what others can’t yet see. I turn that vision into something people can gather around to poke, stretch and argue with until we reach a shared path forward. My decisions are tied to reasons rather than ego, so designs change when the evidence does.

In practice

A team in a highly complex and ambiguous problem space found itself stuck playing whack-a-mole. I facilitated workshops to consolidate understanding of a dynamic and adversarial ecosystem, establishing directional truths about where to strategically act next.

04.3

Build in qualityDon’t dress up shortcuts

Quality isn’t polish added at the end. It’s what intention looks like once it reaches the surface. I take a beat up front to set a strong foundation, so the team can move fast without rebuilding later.

In practice

The ask was to redesign a dashboard, but users’ real pain came from the metrics underneath it. Partnering closely with user research, I led a design effort to rebuild the measurement, which evolved into a core metric for the organization.

04.4

Design for peopleDesign with people

Empathy shouldn’t stop at the edge of the product. I consider the experience of the people I collaborate with as carefully as the people using what we build, understanding their goals and challenges so I can best support them.

In practice

A cross-functional research intern needed a manager mid-project, so I stepped into the role and connected their work to a gap the broader team had. Our collaboration seeded a long-term initiative that became a core platform for the organization.

05 Experience

Where I’ve learned

2023–2026

Meta · Security

Staff Product Designer

  • Internal platforms used company-wide
  • From zero to one through AI integration
  • Mentorship program for designers across the org

2018–2023

Meta · Integrity

Senior Product Designer

  • Risk and friction tradeoffs
  • UX standardization across a family of apps
  • Hundreds of hiring interviews and interviewer trainings

2016–2018

Auction.com & Ten-X Homes

Senior UX Designer

  • Institutional asset management platform
  • Auction-day management tooling
  • Residential real estate consumer solutions

2007–2016

Ad tech, Consumer & Agency

UX Designer, Manager & Consultant

  • Advertiser-centric ad platform rebuild
  • Premium access consumer platform redesign
  • 3+ years building and leading design and front-end teams

06 Connect

Let’s walk through the work

My recent work protects businesses and people

Projects are generalized to protect confidential details. Schedule a call and I’ll walk you through the designs and the thinking behind them.

Schedule a call

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