Michael
James
Clarke

Product Designer based in Toronto · Growth, subscription and retention

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Experience

Staff Product DesignerHelloFresh

08/2025 – Present

Maternity leave cover

Owning growth strategy across a portfolio of nine brands — acquisition, referral, subscription and retention treated as one system rather than four separate funnels. Leading a dedicated AI squad that runs autonomously inside HelloFresh. The squad works as an incubator: rapid prototyping, shipping and iterating in a startup environment, then bundling proven features and handing them to the other nine brands.

Led the redesign of Refer a Friend, a $12.7M acquisition channel down 24% year over year. Owned the approach: built the direction from the funnel data and the loyalty cost model and pitched it to leadership, then rebuilt the referral model itself, cutting a 21 step journey for the referred friend and reworking a five year old offer into three mechanics you progress toward. Invites per active user rose +12.1%, and the wider rebuild closed the US year over year gap from −26% to −13%. Live across 13 markets, ten weeks from kickoff to first launch.

Owned experience strategy and experiment design for Factor Plus, a paid membership that opened at 1.8% adoption against a 10% target and cleared it at full rollout, averaging 10.4%. Argued for measuring behavior change over adoption, which surfaced a loyalty gradient: +9.8% 52 week CLV in the strongest cohort, turning negative past an identifiable threshold. Members ordered roughly 3x more than a matched control, cancellation fell between 63% and 85% depending on band, and by my last read the membership was 9% of active customers placing 13% of all orders.

That segmentation model is now the standard read for membership across HelloFresh brands, and the framework the next brand launch is built on.

Lead Product DesignerMLSE

10/2024 – 09/2025

Maple Leaf Sports and EntertainmentCompany-wide layoff

Led a major UX overhaul across MLSE’s sports apps, including Toronto Maple Leafs playoff updates that drove a 43% spike in users and propelled the app to the #1 spot among sports apps in Canada on the App Store.

Redesigned critical user flows to boost discoverability of schedules (+20.6%) and highlight content (+24.8%), while optimizing revenue-driving features within CMS limitations.

Implemented a self segmentation screen to personalize the user journey and surface relevant content based on fan context (in-arena, at home, tailgate).

Simplified the sign in experience by eliminating fragmented login paths, reducing friction and improving accessibility.

Senior Product DesignerHousecall Pro

07/2022 – 05/2024

Company-wide layoff

Led the foundation team consisting of 8 developers, tech lead and PM.

Owned the end to end design strategy for our in house e-signatures product, driving activation, adoption and revenue across the platform.

Collaborated cross functionally with account and fintech teams to integrate e-signatures into key workflows, achieving a 66% adoption rate within the first 3 months. This led to an average of $1.32M in additional approved work, a 27% increase in finalized approvals, and reduced approval turnaround time from days to just ~37 minutes.

Championed the creation of project templates. An 87% adoption rate within the first month and over 50% increase in project efficiency and creation.

Lead Product DesignerIBM Canada

03/2022 – 10/2022

Fixed-term conference contract

Spearheaded the creative direction, UX, and branding for IBM’s inaugural Weavesphere conference, completing the project within a strict 6 month requirement.

Developed the brand identity, website, marketing materials, and pitch decks. Collaborated with IBM’s developers to ensure pixel-perfect execution.

The conference surpassed targets with over 5,000 attendees (200% of the goal), 200 speakers (400% of the goal), and 150 startups (300% of the goal). Met all deadlines and quality standards, achieving a 95% stakeholder satisfaction rate.

Senior Product DesignerVish

06/2021 – 06/2022

Layoff

Oversaw the creation and maintenance of a ground up design system, including components, libraries, and patterns, driving a 75% increase in design efficiency.

Collaborated with developers to ensure flawless integration, reducing post-launch design issues by more than 50%.

Led continuous refinement and design reviews, contributing to a 20% reduction in support tickets by addressing key usability challenges.

Senior Brand and UX DesignerSawmill Creative

03/2020 – 05/2021

Layoff

Developed an automation tool that standardized email communications for the largest client, boosting design efficiency by over 55% resulting in a 40% increase in monthly workload.

Led the creative direction for multiple web development projects, achieving a 100% client approval rate and driving a 30% increase in repeat business.

Co-Founder and MakerHook & Stem

01/2016 – 03/2020

Co-founded Hook & Stem, a woodworking home decor shop, driving over $1 million in revenue within the first three years.

Designed and built 100% of products, selling 100,000+ items with a 5-star average rating across 2,000+ reviews. Secured partnerships with West Elm, Wayfair, and other notable retailers, boosting monthly visitors by 10%.

Delivered a 10,000-piece custom order for Shopify, resulting in a 4% increase in new customers.

Education

User Research and InsightsOCAD University

2021

Practice

Focus
UX Strategy · Systems Thinking · Craft Mastery · Growth Strategy · Experimentation and A/B Testing · Design Systems · Rapid Prototyping · Research and Synthesis · Multi-brand Coherence
Growth
Experiment design and readouts, cohort and lifecycle segmentation, offer and incentive economics, and the platform work that decides whether a team can test at all.
AI practice
Daily across the workflow rather than at the edges of it: synthesis and strategy pressure testing, and working prototypes built in code to test a flow before it costs engineering time. Judgment about where the output still needs a human hand is the part that matters.
Tools
Claude and Claude Code · ChatGPT · Gemini · Cursor · Figma Make and Figma AI · v0 · Lovable · Midjourney · NotebookLM · Perplexity · Figma · FigJam · Adobe CC · HTML and CSS · Webflow · SwiftUI · SwiftData · Xcode · Amplitude · Mixpanel · FullStory

Ask me about anything related to photography, including the time I had the privilege of photographing Patrick Adams’ (from Suits) wedding.