MIKE KUECHENMEISTER · PRODUCT DESIGN
WORK HISTORY
The Farmbell · UnitedHealthcare / Optum Health · ACS Technologies · Northwestern Mutual · Supergreen Digital
I redesigned the tool a call center uses to find patients with gaps in care and get them scheduled: three research rounds, a new patient workflow, EMR scheduling and click-to-call integration.
32% per rep vs. a comparison team
Advisors’ compensation was scattered across 120+ programs and 10+ systems. I defined the process, led 24 interviews with advisors and CFOs, and turned 1,000+ insights into a shared experience vision that leadership funded.
Funded vision roadmap for 8,000+ advisors
I mapped an undocumented process, then turned it into one shared view where managing partners spot struggling advisors early instead of after the fact.
1,750 hours saved each year 93% of leaders said they’d use it to coach
When work feels slow or broken, the improvement requires looking first at the workflow, key screens, and the data (including the parts nobody wrote down).
Small changes get a quick prototype. Decisions that shape the roadmap get deep discovery. Timelines often force the clearest thinking.
Bring product, engineering and the business in early, make the trade-offs visible, and provide user evidence to influence decisions.
Build working prototypes in code so users and stakeholders react to something real. Then I measure, so we know it worked instead of hoping it did.
Realistic commitments, risks raised before they become surprises, and full ownership of the outcome, including when something doesn’t work.
I use AI every day to research, prototype and ship.
These are products I made myself.
A cooking journal for home chefs
Pen & Apron lets home cooks save recipes from any site, add their own notes, and share favorites with friends. I designed and built it myself with Claude and Lovable, and produced the site’s AI videos with Shots and Kling AI.
Recipe sites bury the recipe under ads and life stories, so I built around the moment you’re actually cooking: a clean, hands-free view with big type and nothing else on the screen. Since most people cook with a phone on the counter, I optimized it for mobile first.
It now has 20+ users who found it by word of mouth, and I ship improvements weekly based on user feedback.
Care tools for small churches
Gather brings people, families, groups and follow-up into one place for churches of 20 to 200 people that currently run on a spreadsheet, a notes app and a group text. I designed and built it myself with Claude and Lovable.
Most church software is built for large churches with staff to run it, so I cut it down to what a pastor with no admin help actually needs. Onboarding starts with a church full of sample data, so pastors can explore freely and see how it works. When they’re ready, they clear it in one step and add their own people. My years designing church-management software at ACS Technologies showed me what to leave out.
It’s now piloting with small churches.
UX help for people building with AI
Better UX Vibes helps founders who are shipping apps with tools like Lovable make them look and feel professional. At its core is a 40-point UX audit built on my own 10 UX heuristics for AI-built products. The audit produces a prioritized scorecard, plus prompts ready to paste that fix what it finds. It also offers design themes founders can install, with tokens, components and motion. I designed and built it with Claude and Lovable.
AI tools make it easy to ship something that works but feels generic, so instead of another checklist, I paired every finding with a fix the founder can paste straight back into their AI tool.
It’s live and actively used.
“Mike's proactive, business-savvy approach transformed our project from concept to completion. He combines exceptional design skills with a focus on business growth, making him an asset to any team looking to elevate their digital experience.”
I grew up in Michigan (go Blue!), moved south for school and I’ve called South Carolina home ever since. I studied graphic design and started my career in branding and marketing. Along the way I taught design overseas and traveled to more than 20 countries. I’ve worked with people whose perspective is very different from mine, and that’s shaped how I listen.
Today I live in the woods outside Greenville with my wife and our two kids. When I’m not designing, I’m usually building something: a garden bed, a zip line for the kids, a 60 foot bridge across a ravine (yes, for real), or a new feature for one of my apps. I also love to cook, collect sports cards, and work on our home. I mentor early-stage founders at Launchpad Tech Incubator, helping them shape and test their ideas.