Michael Pico Jr.
I don't design from the brief. I design from the problem.
STAFF PRODUCT DESIGNER
My job is to think through what nobody's asked yet, to stay in the seat of the user who doesn't know anything, because that's the argument that moves a C-suite. I own the work from zero to one. Strategy, system, and shipped outcome. Not just the screens. The decisions that make the screens possible.
I've done this in fintech, iGaming, and healthcare — regulated environments where bad design has real consequences and good design has to prove itself in the data.
SELECTED WORK
iGaming
Platform
Four products. Five stakeholder groups. One regulatory environment that couldn't move. I built the foundation that made all of it possible.
Coin Cloud
Wallet
Abandonment wasn't random — it was concentrated. We found the address, fixed the trust, and measured every decision against real money moving.
Avila
Design System
A fully connected design-to-code pipeline. Token defined once in Figma, transformed to CSS, consumed by components.
About Me
I'm a dad first, with two sons, a wife, and a household that keeps me honest about what actually matters. It is this responsibility that shapes how I design more than any framework or methodology ever could. It has taught me to anticipate needs before they're expressed, create calm in moments of uncertainty, and build things people can actually trust.
My great-great-grandfather was Pío Pico, the last Mexican Governor of Alta California. I grew up knowing the name, but I understand it better now: a man who made consequential decisions with imperfect information, and fought to protect what he'd built as the world changed around him. That's the inheritance I carry into every product I touch.
Las Vegas is home. When I'm not designing, I'm at CrossFit, grinding through a Hyrox block, or logging Peloton miles. Showing up every day, as a designer, a father, a husband, is the work underneath the work.