I'm Michael Kopcsak, a Product, UX Design & Research leader who also happens to be a father and maker of all kinds of things.
I'm a Product Management and User Experience leader with more than 20 years of experience. I'm also a hands-on builder who vibe codes and has shipped real AI-native products at global scale. Most recently, at Walmart International, I brought together design strategy, product development, and team leadership to deliver those products and experiences.
My career spans consumer and small-business products, including Hotmail, Outlook.com, and QuickBooks, as well as enterprise platforms and partner-facing solutions at Cisco, VMware, and Equinix. I thrive at the intersection of customer needs, emerging technology, and business strategy, turning complexity into clarity and vision into measurable results.
As AI reshapes our industry, I'm excited to be getting even more hands-on lately. From vibe coding and rapid prototyping to designing agentic workflows, I'm building, experimenting, and exploring new ways to bring products to life. It's been fun and a reminder of why I love this work.
Beyond my professional work, I've had the privilege of serving on my local public school board, advocating for children and families in my community.
I lead with humility, purpose, and a deep commitment to elevating others—believing that true leadership inspires, serves, and creates space for people to do the best work of their lives. I thrive on coaching teams, building vision, evangelizing customer/user needs and growing those around me. From detailed design critiques to high-stakes executive conversations, I bring clarity, credibility, and connection across every level of the organization.
See My Work
Experience
January 2026 – August 2026
Design Leader for Gap Inc. responsible for transitioning the design and research function to a managed services model. Focused on operational excellence and AI-enabled tools and workflows to improve quality, efficiency, and scalability across the practice. Role eliminated along with others in corporate restructuring.
2022–2025
Overall Design Leader for Walmart International responsible for Product Design, User Research, Market Research, Localization, Content Design, and Accessibility. Portfolio spans consumer and enterprise apps and 10 retail store brands.
2020–2022
Design Leader for Customer Portals, Mobile apps, Cloud/Compute and Storage management apps, and purchase flows for network connections.
2016–2020
Responsible for all UX and Research across the Enterprise Networking — the largest business unit in the company across network automation and assurance (troubleshooting) tools inclusive of AI/ML frameworks and security paradigms. Our products stood up, operated, secured and triaged the worlds largest networks.
2012–2016
Led a cross-functional team of Product Managers, CX Strategists, User Researchers, and Interaction Designers, delivering data-driven designs and insights for My VMware.com (web and mobile). Responsible for Product Roadmap and budget.
2011–2012
Led a cross-functional team of Content Writers, Designers and Researchers for QuickBooks Online and "new horizon" experimental products one of which became "QuickBooks for the Self-Employed."
2008–2011
I led the experience design for core Windows Live applications—Email, Calendar, File Sharing, and Instant Messaging—which now power key features of Outlook.com. These products served over 500 million daily users globally, shaping the everyday digital lives of people around the world.
Prior to Microsoft, I held Design Leadership roles at Organic, Inc; Symantec, and CNET.
Portfolio
Selected work below. See more>
These projects highlight the breadth and depth of my design leadership experience across consumer, small business and enterprise digital products and services.
Walmart
Creating an AI-assisted shopping experience that turned ten years of customer behavior into a faster weekly shop
Take a closer lookWalmart
Using AI and human-centered design to transform how Walmart fashion moves from cultural signal to the store floor
Take a closer look
Walmart Global Sourcing
Using personas to find the seams a platform-by-platform view can't show you.
Take a closer look“Michael enabled our shift from reactive feature support to strategic UX by helping us build a research function focused on generative discovery. His informal playbook, including design sprints, accelerated my onboarding and helped us quickly deliver a live MVP within three months.”
Quote from a performance review