A happy guy who stumbled into a career that he loves.

I’ve worked on projects with user bases greater than 7 million, IPOs with tens of millions on the table, and companies with gross revenue in the billions; while being humbled to have worked with dozens of small companies that have trusted me with their digital presence.

I am currently a Product Design Lead at Liberty Mutual, working on the Developer Experience. I live in New Hampshire and work remotely. Slack, Zoom, and Gmail are everyday tools, along with gifs, puns and emojis. 🤗 I’ve got private office space in our house and use a Jarvis standing desk daily, paired with two 27" monitors and Cheeseburger, our Great Dane/Lab mix.

Prior to Liberty Mutual, I worked as a Senior Designer at Cantina, a digital consulting agency in Boston, MA for 6 years. I spent 5 years running my own consulting studio, Atedrake, out of a collective workspace in Somerville, MA. Projects ranged from UX and Visual Design, to static UI, WordPress and Shopify development. Clients consisted of small local businesses, and larger agencies needing assistance with their clients.

At the end of 2014, I had the opportunity to create an instructional video with O’Reilly Media, “UI Development for Engineers”, that gives an introduction and overview to design and front-end development to developers unfamiliar with those concepts.

I’ve also taught at the college level, teaching, Introduction to Web Design, Introduction to Web Development, and Advanced Web Development, at Endicott College, my alma mater, during the 2012 ‐ 2014 semesters in Beverly, MA.

Want to chat? I’d love to hear from you! Send me an email and we’ll setup a Zoom. mikekivikoski@gmail.com

Talks & Media

CascadiaJS — Seattle, WA, Aug 2016

CSS Pseudo

This talk was part of a 2-day single track conference in Seattle, WA with 300+ in attendance. Learn practical uses for over 35 pseudo-classes and pseudo-elements. Starting with the basics, you’ll quickly advance to use cases that apply to positioning, text, content, and get a glimpse at some (hopeful) future selectors.

Watch on YouTube CSS Pseudo Slides
O’Reilly media — Oct 2014

UI Development for Engineers

Video series with O’Reilly Media that introduces developers to design concepts and front-end development. The course teaches views how to create UI design mockups and then make them real, with production ready markup.

View on O’Reilly.com
Creative Mornings — Mar 2012

Taking the plunge

This Creative Mornings Boston talk included Highlights, tips, and tricks for folks looking to become self-employed. I discussed processes, myths, and methods that help make a successful transition. Prep work involved, how to mitigate risk, and how to transition successfully; as I learned over the course of my 5 years of running a small consulting business.

Watch on YouTube
Cantina Workshop — Aug 2017

Legitimizing Design Thinking in Large Organizations

Watch on YouTube
BostonCSS — Jun 2016

CSS Pseudo

The first edition of my CSS Pseudo talk. This would serve as the trial run for the talk given at CascadiaJS

Watch on YouTube
NYC Creative Tech Week — May 2016

Evolving Web Applications with Module Components

Great Wide Open — Mar 2016

Evolving Web Applications with Module Components

Full Stack Toronto — Nov 2015

Evolving Web Applications with Module Components

Watch on YouTube
HTML5 Developer Conference — Oct 2015

Evolving Web Applications with Module Components

Full Stack NH — Jun 2015

Design in the browser

Boston Ignite — Apr 2012

Taking the plunge, quit your job for self employment

The quick 5 minute lighting talk that highlights the steps to become self employed.

Watch on YouTube

Capabilities

User Research
User Flows
Design Sprints
Visual Design
Design Systems
HTML, CSS / Sass
CSS Architecture
Accessibility
Performance
Typography

While I work in the front-end/user interface of products, I have experience working within applications written in various languages and frameworks. Including, in no particular order: JavaScript, Node, Angular, Python, PHP, WordPress, Shopify, and Ruby on Rails.