Hi, I'm Mike Barker — a UX designer who leads, a design leader who ships experiences that work
15+ years experience
Full-stack design thinking, human-first
End-to-end
From first brief to shipped product
Tech literacy
Comfortable pushing pixels, bits & prompts
Open for a conversation ⟶ hi@mike-barker.com
Featured projects
Canadian Tire
I transformed mobile commerce through process change
Role
Sr. UX Designer
Sr. UX Designer
Timeline
2018–2019
2018–2019
Project overview
I led the complete redesign of Canadian Tire's flagship mobile app while fundamentally changing how the company approached product design development. Introduced and implemented design sprint process, shifting the team from waterfall to iterative delivery.
I led the complete redesign of Canadian Tire's flagship mobile app while fundamentally changing how the company approached product design development. Introduced and implemented design sprint process, shifting the team from waterfall to iterative delivery.
Impact
Changed organizational capability—design sprint process continues to be used. Delivered complete app redesign while maintaining rigorous user research and testing standards. Raised app's App Store rating to 4.8 from below 3-stars.
Changed organizational capability—design sprint process continues to be used. Delivered complete app redesign while maintaining rigorous user research and testing standards. Raised app's App Store rating to 4.8 from below 3-stars.
lululemon
Reducing e-commerce friction & driving revenue
Role
Sr. Product Designer
Sr. Product Designer
Timeline
2022–2023
2022–2023
Project overview
Designed back-in-stock notification feature for the mobile app and web, to address critical pain point: guests couldn't purchase popular out-of-stock products, creating a dead-end shopping experience.
Designed back-in-stock notification feature for the mobile app and web, to address critical pain point: guests couldn't purchase popular out-of-stock products, creating a dead-end shopping experience.
Impact
Partnered with Product, UX research and development to build tactical feature with broader retention strategy. Beat first year sales target months early, increased account engagement, and reactivated dormant accounts.
Partnered with Product, UX research and development to build tactical feature with broader retention strategy. Beat first year sales target months early, increased account engagement, and reactivated dormant accounts.
Mountain Equipment Company
Research-Led mobile commerce strategy
Role
Sr. UX/UI Designer
Sr. UX/UI Designer
Timeline
2023–2024
2023–2024
Project overview
I led comprehensive research initiative to understand customer mobile behavior and inform strategic investment decisions. Conducted customer interviews and behavioral studies to identify pain points and opportunities.
I led comprehensive research initiative to understand customer mobile behavior and inform strategic investment decisions. Conducted customer interviews and behavioral studies to identify pain points and opportunities.
Impact
Delivered evidence-based strategy and feature recommendations that influenced mobile product roadmap. Provided leadership with customer insights to guide multi-year mobile commerce decisions.
Delivered evidence-based strategy and feature recommendations that influenced mobile product roadmap. Provided leadership with customer insights to guide multi-year mobile commerce decisions.
BC Transit
Strategic consultation for public transit digital experience
Role
UX Specialist
UX Specialist
Timeline
2023
2023
Project overview
I created comprehensive design strategy to improve website experience and accessibility for provincial transit system. Compressed end-to-end project included research, user interviews, insights & pain-points, early concept low-fi wireframes, design system, phased roadmap recommendations. designer/developer hand-off. Presented recommendations to executive leadership and development partners.
I created comprehensive design strategy to improve website experience and accessibility for provincial transit system. Compressed end-to-end project included research, user interviews, insights & pain-points, early concept low-fi wireframes, design system, phased roadmap recommendations. designer/developer hand-off. Presented recommendations to executive leadership and development partners.
Impact
Delivered strategic roadmap as foundation for website redesign. Demonstrated ability to navigate public sector requirements while maintaining human-centred approach.
Delivered strategic roadmap as foundation for website redesign. Demonstrated ability to navigate public sector requirements while maintaining human-centred approach.
Experience
Nestle Purina
Sr. UX Specialist
2024–Present · Remote
Providing UX design & strategy for various Nestle/Purina digital properties
Mountain Equipment Company
Sr. UX/UI Designer
2023–2024 · Vancouver
I developed a mobile design strategy to inform the future mobile experience. I conducted behavioural user interviews as part of project discovery, analyzed the results looking for insights into our customers' ideal mobile experience.
BC Transit
UX Consultant
2023 · Vancouver
Created comprehensive design strategy and roadmap to improve website experience and accessibility for provincial transit system. Presented strategic roadmap to executive leadership and development partners.
lululemon
Sr. Product Designer
2022–2023 · Vancouver
Led the design of the Back in Stock notification feature across web and the mobile app. Conducted a product discovery study to redesign & expand the Wish List.
Later
Sr. UX Designer
2020–2021 · Vancouver
Led design of an influencer marketing marketplace & analytics portal for the social media management platform — feature later merged into Later Influencer.
Upfeat
Product Manager/UX Specialist
2019–2020 · Winnipeg
Managed Upfeat's agile development backlog between external B2B clients and engineers for the company's SaSS products and internal tools. Collaborated with the CEO and stakeholders to identify product needs. Created strategies for new products, including identifying market fit, product positioning, and core functionality.
Canadian Tire
Sr. UX Designer (Product Lead)
2017–2019 · Winnipeg
Led the mobile app design strategy for Canada's most respected brand, and a ground up redesign of the flagship Canadian Tire app. We turned a 2.5 App Store rating into 4.7 stars!
Tipping Canoe/Quidco
Sr. UX Designer (Team Lead) · UI/UI Designer
2010–2017 · London/Berlin/Winnipeg
Worked on several Tipping Canoe products before going full-time at Quidco as the first sole UX designer. Built a design team at Quidco as scaled the product from under 500,000 members to over 6 million. Returned to Tipping Canoe and focused on leading new product design.
Skills
Design leadership UX design UX strategy Wireframing Prototyping User flows Journey Mapping User research Usability testing Interaction design Information architecture AI literacy Prompt engineering Mentoring Product management Design sprint workshoppingAbout me
I'm a designer with 15+ years of expertise — IC contributor, design lead, startup agility, and brand-scale thinking — grounded in a formal graphic design education. I work across the full design stack, from research and strategy through to shipped interfaces, and I adapt to change and new tools — AI included — by putting the craft first.
Based in Vancouver, Canada
Current role: Sr. UX Specialist, Nestle Purina
Open to new opportunities:
Copy email address: hi@mike-barker.com
Connect on LinkedIn ↗
Side-projects & Experiements
Over the years I've built a few experiments and side-projects in my spare time, often to follow an interest, or test my technical depth. Long before LLM tools have allowed experiments built by AI, I would design, code and ship. Below are a few example side-projects that I am most proud of.
IKEA Store Opening Visualization
Data visualization project featured in Buzzfeed & Hacker News, and recognized by IKEA
Dew coffee finder app
Designed & coded third-wave coffee discovery app to explore location-based UX patterns and modern development frameworks (Objective-C)
SwiftUI Protottyping ↗
Created educational resource teaching designers to build high-fidelity prototypes for better user testing