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Product Design & Systems Architecture

Designing complex systems that get out of the way.

I'm Mike Ortega. For over a decade, I've designed high-density enterprise software, multi-unit restaurant POS systems, and cross-pod platform governance. When an architectural problem gets difficult, I write code to prototype in React, Dart, or Python—testing with real operators before committing to engineering.

Explore Selected Work The Systems Lab Get in Touch →

Featured Work

Architectural Case Studies

// Large-scale systems, multi-squad alignment, and deep information architecture.

Enterprise B2B SaaS 14 Mo. Program

Aloha Menu: Architecting Enterprise Self-Service at Scale

Menu management for 94 enterprise restaurant brands (including Five Guys and Chili's) was bottlenecked by an outdated 2009 system that didn't allow operators to input their own sales items. Every new menu item, combo, or modifier update required submitting support tickets for vendor engineers to manually configure.

Architected a self-service cloud rule engine featuring hierarchical parent-child inheritance and real-time conflict simulation—collapsing corporate menu rollouts from days to minutes with zero data migration regressions.

94 Brands at GA Launch
Read Architecture Case Study →
Aloha Menu fast-casual combo meal packaging kit with burger box, cup, and order ticket
Platform Architecture Cross-Pod UX Lead

Aloha Smart Manager: Unifying 5 Autonomous Squads

Engineering was structured into five autonomous pods, each owning a distinct platform capability—Labor, Sales, Inventory, Reporting, and Admin. As pods shipped complex features (e.g. Labor → labor rules, employees, taxes), conflicting UI patterns emerged, making operators feel like they were switching applications with every click.

Led UX platform architecture across all five pods. Codified a shared navigation shell, standardized capability-to-feature hierarchies, and created self-service decision trees that replaced centralized design bottlenecks with scalable squad autonomy.

5 Squads Unified Org-Wide
Read Governance Case Study →
Aloha Smart Manager restaurant shift operations kit with manager clipboard, roster, and timer
Fintech & Applied ML 90-Day Sprint

Till: Making Algorithmic Credit Scoring Explainable

Small business owners rejected by institutional lenders were handed opaque 3-digit scores with zero guidance on what was wrong or how to improve.

Partnered with fintech leadership to translate black-box ML risk models into a transparent Business Health Dashboard. Deconstructed the score into four actionable pillars (Cash Velocity, Buffer, Debt, Revenue) with prescriptive levers that unlocked capital for SMB founders.

0-to-1 Investor Delivery
Read Fintech Case Study →
Till SMB financial health merchant register log book with pencil and brass clip
94 Enterprise Brands

Committed at GA

Menu configuration modernized for global franchise restaurant operations.

5 Autonomous Pods

Platform Governance

Labor, Sales, Inventory, Reporting, and Admin aligned under shared UX models.

15% Speed Increase

High-Pressure POS

Validated in live restaurant rush testing where seconds dictate throughput.

Applied AI & Code Prototyping

The Systems Lab: Prototyping in Code

Why I write code: in complex domain systems and AI workflows, static Figma mockups cannot validate latency, agent state machines, or probabilistic UI. I build functional software with local LLMs, Python, and TypeScript to de-risk interfaces in the real world before handoff.

Cortex autonomous AI cognitive capture workstation with anodized recorder, notebook, and prompt cards
Autonomous Agent Platform v1.0 RC

Cortex: Autonomous AI Second Brain

Single-thread Telegram capture with local LLM intent triage and agent execution.

Built to replace fragmented note-taking apps. Ingests raw voice, text, and images via Telegram, triages 18 distinct intent categories using local Ollama models in <300ms, and selectively invokes Claude or Gemini for deep synthesis. Runs offline-first in Docker.

Python/FastAPI Next.js Ollama/Llama 3 Docker
GitHub Source → Read Systems Case Study →
Nommable culinary intelligence OS still life with fresh lemons, olive oil, and linen recipe card
Full-Stack Domain Engine v1.0 RC

Nommable: Self-Hosted Culinary OS

Self-hosted kitchen platform balancing structured schemas with multi-provider AI and pantry telemetry.

Bridges consumer meal planning with relational precision. Multi-provider AI extraction (Gemini 2.0 Flash / Imagen 3, Claude, OpenAI, Ollama) normalizes recipes into canonical units, pantry match badges, and ~180-item supermarket aisle routes—running offline-first with SQLite in Docker.

React 18/TypeScript Express/SQLite Multi-Provider AI Docker
GitHub Source → Read Systems Case Study →

Philosophy & Craft

How I Operate: Systems, Leverage & Craft

High-impact product architecture is about leverage: building frameworks that unblock autonomous squads, simplifying high-density software without dumbing it down, and grounding decisions in real operational reality.

01

Extreme density requires extreme restraint.

Restaurant cashiers, store managers, and underwriters spend eight hours a day in software. They don't want whimsical animations; they want muscle memory, rapid visual hierarchy, and instant error recovery. Great enterprise design gets out of the way.

02

Governance should empower squads, not police them.

A design leader who acts as a gatekeeper creates an organizational bottleneck. I codify shared interaction models, token architectures, and decision trees so autonomous squads can ship cohesive features without waiting on a design review.

03

Code is the most honest design medium.

Static Figma artboards hide the hardest parts of product design: network latency, empty states, agent hallucinations, and complex data models. When you prototype in code, you solve the engineering bottlenecks before they become technical debt.

Complete Index

Project Archive

// All 13 enterprise platforms, client sprints, and software experiments.

Aloha Cloud POS

Enterprise

High-speed order entry modernization deployed across global restaurant brands.

Read Case Study →

Maven PWA

USAA

Enterprise employee directory and engagement portal shipped for remote workforce.

Read Case Study →

Golfinity

iOS App

Custom member booking app replacing MindBody for dedicated golf facility.

Read Case Study →

CultiVue

Self-Hosted IoT

Self-hosted multi-garden dashboard with hardware sensor integration.

Read Case Study →

Printory

FastAPI / Flutter

3D filament inventory system with QR code tracking.

Read Case Study →

MycoLog

IoT Mobile App

Mushroom cultivation telemetry app with Bluetooth/WiFi sensors.

Read Case Study →

Verdant Lab

Biotech LIMS

Specialized tissue-culture tracking app with recursive lineage trees.

Read Case Study →

One More Thing

Godot RPG

Top-down Baldur's Gate 2-style pixel RPG in a living convention world, prototyped via rapid mechanics harnesses.

Read Case Study →

Retro Game Lab

PICO-8

Four playable browser games built within extreme 128x128 constraints.

Play Games →

Teammate Perspectives

What Colleagues Say

"Thank you for your leadership on the UX, working with nuances of a templated experience and partner restraints is not always easy—but you made it seem that way!"

G.L.

Senior Platform Product Manager, NCR Voyix

"Thank you for your relentless dedication and the many hours we spent brainstorming together. Your swift responses and unwavering commitment set a benchmark I have rarely seen elsewhere."

P.K.

Product Owner — Platform, NCR Voyix

"Thank you for being such an incredible resource and great teammate! Your guidance in helping me understand Menu has made a huge difference in my work. I truly appreciate your patience."

A.E.

UX / UI Designer II, NCR Voyix

Career Trajectory

Experience & Education

Rooted in an MFA in Graphic Design, evolving into over a decade of complex systems architecture, enterprise product leadership, and code-native prototyping.

Senior UX Designer — NCR Voyix

2021 — Present

Platform SaaS • Remote

Lead UX architect across Aloha Menu and Aloha Smart Manager. Orchestrated UX frameworks across 5 autonomous pods, designed hierarchical rule engines for 94 enterprise brands, and unified platform navigation.

Senior UX/UI Designer — USAA

2020 — 2021

Enterprise Financial • San Antonio, TX

Designed the Maven mobile PWA for enterprise employee engagement during the remote work transition, establishing mobile design tokens and peer directory features.

UX Designer — Kinetic Theory

2019 — 2020

Design Agency • Austin, TX

Delivered end-to-end client product sprints including Till (AI-powered business credit scoring) and Golfinity (iOS member scheduling app replacing MindBody).

Master of Fine Arts, Graphic Design

2017

Vermont College of Fine Arts • Montpelier, VT

Bachelor of Fine Arts, Graphic Design

2015

The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley • Edinburg, TX

Get In Touch

Let's build something substantial together.

Currently exploring Staff and Principal Product Design leadership opportunities specializing in enterprise B2B SaaS, complex systems architecture, and applied AI workflows.

mike@mortegadesign.com LinkedIn GitHub