MIKHAIL BELSTAR (HE/HIM/HIS)Principal Product Designer
Crafting delightful, accessible user experiences, I bring 15+ years of product design expertise, excelling in cross-platform and inclusive design while ensuring ADA compliance. I contributed to a 50% increase in mobile viewership, doubling mobile revenue. Post-redesigns, user retention rose by 18%, session duration grew by 25%, and app ratings improved from 3.5 to 4.9 stars. I helped secure a Top 10 Grossing rank and increased subscriptions by 100% in 6 months.
I am a proud member of the Queer Design Club 🏳️🌈 and have mentored hundreds of product designers worldwide.
PORTFOLIOSelected Case-Studies
Testimonials
Roman Gun, Chief Innovation Officer at Fevo
“Mikhail is top-notch designer, full stop. His output is simply phenomenal. In the almost two years that I’ve worked with him, I’ve seen Mikhail create quality output for everything from fully-scaled enterprise backends, to design systems...”
Regina Chen, Product Manager at Warner Bros.
“…Mikhail is someone whom I can trust to work independently with engineering as well as business with little oversight. He is an avid learner and eager to do the best he can, always patiently and with a smile. If you are looking for a talented designer who can work across the board, you have just found him.”
Francis Pelland, VP of Platform and Operations at Fevo
“Mikhail is an absolute pleasure to work with! At Fevo, we worked together on the analytics system, which was intended to serve a very diverse demographic… Mikhail was able to distil (sometimes crazy) ideas and apply them to his thought process and design. The end result was simple, beautiful and a game changer for reporting sales.”
EXPERIENCEPrincipal Product Designer, MasterClass
Jun 2020-Present
I consistently collaborated with a diverse team of product managers, engineers, designers, researchers, editors, and data scientists to enhance and refine MasterClass product experiences. Additionally, I mentored fellow product designers, project managers, and engineers, fostering their professional growth and development.
Successfully managed and executed all stages of the design process, from conceptualization to implementation across 10+ projects at MasterClass. This encompassed wireframing, prototyping, and visual design, user interviews.
Led multiple large-scale highly strategic projects: Sessions by MasterClass, Original Series, TV Apps Redesign, and Immersive Hero Experience resulting in an 18% content consumption increase and a 10% increase in CTR.
Proactively identified and delivered thoughtful solutions to intricate design challenges during design review sessions and 1:1s with product designers
As a mentor for fellow designers, I initiated weekly “BrainJuice" sessions and “Weekly Cool Downs” as team-building rituals. These sessions provided product designers with the opportunity to learn technical skills and coach one another.
During my time at MasterClass, I hired and onboarded 6+ product designers.
Lead Product Designer, Fevo
Jun 2018-Present
As a mentor, I elevated the team and helped to learn, grow, and develop new skill sets by providing impactful feedback, weekly 1:1s, internal classes, and design workshops. Collaborated independently with Business Success, Product, Marketing, and Engineering leads.
Lead:
Increased alignment between teams and minimized developing time by 50-70% by creating a responsive Design System from the ground up across 10+ products.
Built Analytics System for B2B clients such as Yankees, Dodgers, White Sox, and 200+ more.
Optimized onboarding time by 70% for internal clients by rebuilding creation flow.
Led team members and participate in driving and defining project scope, timelines, and deliverables
Promoted adoption of the design system across the organization
Interviewed and onboarded new hires
Team Player:
Worked directly with developers and designers to maintain and create new components for our library
Partnered with Product, Business Success, Front-end, Engineering, Agile coach, Marketing teams in Scrum Sessions (grooming sessions, planning meetings, daily standups, sprint reviews, and retrospectives)
Collaborated with product and engineering teams from concept through delivery and beyond
Participated in user research and testing, ensuring usability and product consistency
Guided the evolution of Fevo’s visual language and user experience
Designed and defined interaction patterns through components, documentation, and prototypes
Specified and maintained core principles in visual style, typography, spacing, motion, and interaction models
Superpowers
Platforms
Web, iOS, Android, OTT/AppleTV (Roku, X-Box, PlayStation, FireTV), AppleWatch, MacOS
Tools
Sketch, Adobe Creative Suite, InVision Studio, Abstract, Figma, Trello, Flinto, Zeplin, Framer, Swift, xCode, Asana, GitHub, Jira, MIRO, MindMeister, Protopie, Storybook, Tableau, Balasmiq, Principle, CSS/HTML, React
Leadership
Ownership, Art Direction, Decision Making, Mentoring, Patience, Empathy, Active listening, Reliability, Dependability, Creativity, Positivity, Effective feedback, Timely communication, Team building, Flexibility, Risk-taking, Ability to teach and mentor, Scrum, Agile
UI
Composition, Interaction Design, Motion Design, Graphic Design, Design Standards, Design Systems, Atomic Design, Whiteboarding, Information Architecture, Prototyping, Story Telling, Material Design, Apple HIG, Gestalt Principles, Color, Typography
Research UX
Heuristic Evaluation, Product Design Thinking, Competitive Analysis, User Interviews, Contextual Inquiry, Survey Design, Design Probes, Focus Groups, Participatory Design, Diary Study, Data Analysis: Quantitative & Qualitative, Journey Mapping, Card Sorting, Usability Testing, A/B Testing
Education
Master's degree of Graphic Design
Tomsk University of Business
Awards
1st Place “Mobile Fest Awards“ with AirForShare App. WEBBY Awards winner: Cut The Rope, and MasterClass