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Michaela Hoffman

Product Designer — Frontend Ownership · Design Engineer

Indianapolis, IN (Remote)LinkedInPortfolio

Professional Summary

Principal UX/UI Designer and Design Engineer with 8+ years across travel, fintech, and government software. I own the full path from research through shipped code: JTBD and OOUX-driven strategy, SCSS/component architecture, and live Rails/Hotwire implementation. Recent work includes a jobs-to-be-done redesign that drove a projected $442K in annual revenue and a self-initiated revenue analysis with hard, model-free attribution to a specific design decision.

Selected Impact

  • Led a jobs-to-be-done redesign of city pages that shifted the site from a product-catalog model to traveler-intent architecture, driving a projected $442K in annual revenue and a 25% increase in average booking value
  • Ran a self-initiated revenue analysis on a previously shipped feature, quantifying recovered revenue across 259 orders with direct, model-free attribution to a single design decision
  • Owned an end-to-end UI layer overhaul of the company's Rails application: SCSS architecture, a two-layer component library in Lookbook, and 8 redesigned templates reskinning 58 public-facing pages
  • Originated and shipped a new product concept (Shareable Private Tour) that reached a 25% two-party fill rate on organic discovery alone, with no merchandising investment

Core Skills

Design & Research
Figma, JTBD (Jobs-to-be-Done), OOUX (certified), WCAG accessibility auditing, user research, design systems
Frontend Engineering
SCSS, HAML, Stimulus, Turbo Frames, Ruby on Rails, JavaScript, TypeScript, React, Angular, ERB
Process & Tooling
Shape Up, Storybook, Lookbook, cross-functional collaboration with product, engineering, and SMEs

Professional Experience

Principal UX/UI Designer & Design Engineer, Context Travel

Aug 2022 – Present · Remote

Small-group and private expert-led tour platform. Sole designer on a Shape Up team, owning UX strategy through live frontend implementation on a Rails/Hotwire/Stimulus stack.

  • Owned the city pages redesign end to end: led JTBD research, translated it into a new information architecture, then built and shipped the SCSS/Lookbook components behind it, driving a projected $442K in annual revenue (see Selected Impact)
  • Reworked the booking calendar to surface availability by experience type (small-group vs. private) using JTBD framing
  • Built the interest page component, closing a legacy-to-redesign visual continuity gap flagged by marketing
  • Ran a self-initiated cooldown analysis quantifying recovered revenue across 259 orders from a shipped feature
  • Developed an AI-assisted SME knowledge-extraction workflow, replacing a slow train-then-check loop with a persistent, agent-driven local workspace
  • Owned the SCSS architecture and two-layer Lookbook component library behind an 8-template, 58-page site redesign

Prior Experience

Freelance UX/UI Designer

2016 – 2022

Ongoing independent contract work alongside other roles, following a move to Indianapolis, spanning web design and build for a range of clients.

  • Designed and built a public library's website, with ongoing maintenance
  • Built client-facing websites for independent doctors on behalf of a healthcare startup
  • Delivered individual sites for a podcast, a learning resource, and an off-market real estate listing service

UX/UI Designer, Baker Hill Solutions

2018 – 2021

(freelance) Fintech client work. Ran a full design and code accessibility audit of a public-facing enterprise application, delivering fixes and a sales-ready accessibility artifact for leadership.

UX Instructor, 1150 Bootcamp

2018 – 2021

Taught the User Experience course, mentoring career-changers through UX fundamentals and portfolio-ready project work.

UX/UI Designer, State of Indiana (Dept. of Labor, Dept. of Homeland Security)

2017 – 2022

Government client work. Led research-led UX and prototyping for INSafe, a mobile consultation application supporting field consultants through complex workflows.

Product Designer & Developer, Stashwell (Abyte LLC)

Jan 2026 – Present · Self-employed

Building a pantry and freezer inventory app end to end as sole product designer across web, iOS, and MAUI builds, including JTBD research, Storybook components, accessibility, and go-to-market planning.

Education & Certifications

  • OOUX (Object-Oriented UX) Certification
  • B.S., Ball State University — 2010