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About
Me

Portrait of Michal Lenik

I’m a design leader focused on building high-performing teams, sharpening product vision, and helping growing organizations mature. I work closely with cross-functional partners in Product, Engineering, and Revenue to align design work with business goals—creating a culture where design delivers real, measurable value while keeping teams supported and focused.

Work

*Product Design Leader @ Grubhub— March 2026 – current

Own design for all B2B2C experiences — the 3-sided campus marketplace, corporate partnerships, the corporate B2C diner experience, merchant tooling and merchant marketing. Lead 5 designers plus UX copy and design-led research.

Sr. Manager, Product Design @ Grubhub— July 2024 – March 2026

Led design for Care, Logistics and Post Purchase Experience; introduced Outcome Based Design.

*Founding Designer @ Earnee— March 2023 – current
Manager, Product Design @ Vanguard— Oct 2022 – July 2024

Led the Institutional Design team — 11 designers and 2 design leads/managers — for all of Vanguard's B2B Institutional products.

Product Design Lead, Manager @ Bowery— Feb 2021 – Oct 2022

Managed designers from PD level 2 to Senior PD level 5; hiring manager for 3 of the 4.

Sr. UX Designer @ HS1— Sep 2019 – Feb 2021
Sr. UX Designer/Manager @ Avalara, Business Licenses— May 2015 – Sep 2019

Leadership

(philosophy)

Leadership philosophy — transparency and servant leadership

Strategy to Execution: I bridge the gap between big-picture business goals and day-to-day team execution. My goal is to give teams clear context, eliminate guesswork, and create smooth operational cadences so everyone can do their best work.

Growing People & Culture: I focus heavily on building healthy, supportive team cultures. That means creating clear career growth frameworks, setting up thoughtful hiring practices, mentoring leaders, and advocating for the resources and tools the team needs to succeed.

Projects

(Selected)

The Experimentation Edge

Design Experimentation

Guest on S1 | E48 of The Experimentation Edge podcast. I shared how our design teams at Grubhub experiment with process and user engagement — from small-cohort rollouts and merchant concept tests to AI-built prototypes and post-test user interviews — to de-risk design decisions and drive business outcomes.

“I always say that being a product designer is a master class in removing your ego from the experience. You cannot get too attached because users will always find ways to use your product differently than you expected.”
“If you ask a user what they thought of this button or why they didn't click it, and they say, I didn't even notice it, that's a really great data point, because then this is either not coming at the right part of the process or it's not visible enough to somebody who's only half looking at their screen.”
Listen to the episode
Grubhub

OBD Framework

Strategic Design & OBD Framework — bringing Outcome Based Design to Grubhub to help support Design/Product partnerships.

Now scaled across the design orgs at Grubhub, with a forecasted $701K–$1.05MM revenue lift from the first project.

View case study
OBD Framework — Strategic Design partnership presentation for Grubhub
Grubhub

Merchant AI Agent

Merchant AI Agent — an LLM-powered assistant integrated into Grubhub For Restaurants, reimagining B2B operations from static task execution to proactive, conversational business management.

I led the teams in product design strategy and oversaw execution of this net new product and experience for merchants — managing cross functional partnerships, coaching designers and aligning stakeholders through the product development process — aimed at reducing support care contacts and improving merchant NPS and satisfaction.

View case study
Merchant Assistant — AI agent for Grubhub for Restaurants
Vanguard

Pacelift

Driving change in a large enterprise means getting engineering, compliance, and product leaders on the same page. I led a major design system initiative that cut delivery friction across portfolios and saved millions annually.

Through this project I piloted a new, collaborative team structure previously unseen in our org, was able to ensure that all Vanguard's B2B products were WCAG compliant, provided an elevated and consistent user experience, saved the organization an average $2m annually in development costs and cut design delivery time by 30% for new projects.

View case study
Pacelift case study — Vanguard Participant Site and FAS redesign on the Constellation design system
Bowery Valuation

Designing Complex

I led cross-functional teams through complex domain challenges, tying our design focus directly to business targets. The result was a 41% boost in data reuse and significantly faster workflows.

View case study
Designing Complex case study — Bowery Valuation sales comparables search tool
Earnee

Earnee

Earnee is an app built to reduce friction moments in parenting while also exposing kids to the building blocks of financial literacy.

I am the founding designer at Earnee and designed the 0-1 app. Earnee is available for both Android and iOS and has over 120 monthly subscribers less than a year after launch.

I spend about 1–2 hours a month on Earnee to stay connected to design work. I find it helps me be a better design leader by drawing from my own experiences while coaching others.

Download Earnee
Earnee app screens — family home, kid profile, and reminders