Mike Jerugim

Originally from Los Angeles, I began my professional journey in Hollywood working in post-production for film and television.

I then quit my day job when my band, Woven got signed to Interscope Records.

I spent the next few years recording, touring, and generally shoulder-rubbing with music industry movers, shakers, bigwigs & lunatics.

Opting out of spending the next 10 years crammed in to a tour van that smelled of feet and old yogurt, I pivoted & spun up my own web design and post-production house, Genessee Studios.

But life marches on, as do our plans. I decided to pack up everything and relocate to Montreal, Canada. This is where I began writing the next chapter of my journey as a Product Designer.

During this phase, I was lucky enough to work on some pretty impactful projects for companies like IBM, GE, LG, Microsoft, HP, Under Armour, Lenovo, Bandsintown, Decathlon, among many others.

You may have heard of one or two of those.

[ If not... let’s pretend ]

Yet still I felt the need to grow. After working and learning and growing within interesting projects in the AR/VR and Web3 spaces, it was time for the next step. I parachuted myself into Director of Design and Head of Design roles.

You know, leadershipy type stuff.

It became quickly apparent that I had no idea what I was doing. At all.

I decided it was time to improve. I dove into:

• Management essentials @ Harvard Buiness School Online
• Design Sprint Bootcamp with Jake Knapp & John Keratsky
• Product design strategy @ Future London Academy
• Accessiility training @ Abra Academy
• Apprenticed under prominent design leaders

I can now consider myself slightly less terrible at people management. Some might say I'm actually pretty decent at it.

[ references available upon request ]

In my current role as Lead Product Designer at Kooth Digital Health, I've been working on this.

I think it's cool.

My current areas of curiosity and focus include ethical use cases for AI/AL/LLMs, design systems, and aligning strategy, impact, and business objectives with user-centricty, data insights and general delightfulness.

If you haven't checked out my case studies yet, please feel free mosey on over here.
If you prefer links, here's a list of some project highlights from throughout my career, including a number of my own side-hustles and side-projects.

Enjoy responsibly.