Your B2B app works, but it looks like backend engineers designed it.

I embed with your team as a senior product designer and turn a functional, template-looking interface into one your customers keep choosing. Product thinking, UX/UI design, prototyping in code, and the systems to roll a refreshed design out at scale.

Book a call Availability limited, on request

Symptoms

Your Slack has been trying to tell you.

How we solve this problem

You shipped fast to hit version one. You need polish to get to the next level though.

RUN #24 · shipping 4d · on track
Audit Name it, talk to real users
Emotion Desired felt experience
Ease Fewer clicks, smoother flow
Design in code Prototype with your eng
Ship & repeat One improvement at a time
Systematize Into your design system

What I obsess over

Three things I always pay extra attention to.

Workflow craft

The interface people live in for eight hours.

Command menus instead of nested nav. Inline editing instead of modals. Optimistic UI with real undo instead of "Are you sure?" dialogs.

Insights & analytics

Dashboards that argue, not decorate.

The single number that matters, the context around it, the action it should trigger. Fewer charts, sharper hierarchy, defaults that beat "customize your dashboard."

Permissions & trust

Security you can see, not just certify.

SOC2 gets you in the room. What keeps you there is a permission model, audit trail, and sharing UI a non-technical admin can reason about at a glance.

Pattern recognition

How I connect dots that others don’t see.

Range

Fifteen years designing across a dozen B2B industries.

I have shipped interfaces for teams in payment processing, restaurant ops, film and TV cap tables, and eight other industries. Different problems, same craft. I know which patterns compound and which patterns break.

Depth

Design in code, prototyped in your stack.

Most fractional designers ship a Figma file. I ship prototypes in React, AI augmented with Claude Code and Cursor. What you approve is closer to what ships. The translation layer disappears.

Craft

Human first design, since before Figma existed.

MA in Psychology, fifteen years shipping interfaces at every scale. I design for how humans actually think, not just what a component library can render.

Selected work

Three businesses, three different business problems.

IndeflexFractional Senior Product Designer

Robust internal tooling that looked, in their words, like it was designed by cavemen.

Unlocked
Ship velocity
Web 1.0 tooling to a modern surface. Prototyping in code with their engineers.
DocMapsFreelance Product Designer

MVP shipped and a major partnership signed, with a UI that no longer matched the size of the business.

Unlocked
Time‑to‑value
Onboarding matched to a bigger business, with the partnership in mind.
PlutaroFractional Product Manager

An AI development agency shipping startup MVPs, with engineering output drifting from client intent. I ran the interface between the two, designed the products, and led QA.

Unlocked
MVP throughput
MVPs shipping in weeks, not months.

In their words

The same Slack, later.

JT
Justin Tanis Indeflex 2w

“Mimi fits right into our team and works faster than we can even build.”

MA
Michelle Anderson Rayna 1w

“Mimi really picked up what we’re trying to build and took our vision to the next level.”

TR
Thomas Rutherford Stars Align 3d

“Mimi is a weapon.”

About

Marisol Studio is not an agency. It is just me.

My name is Mimi. I have been in tech a long time and I love building software with teams. The design, the collaboration, the iteration, as much as the delivery.

I do not delegate your work to junior designers overseas for pennies on the dollar. There is no account manager between us. You hire the studio, you get me on every part of your product surface.

Mimi Newman
headshot
drop mimi-headshot.png
beside the page to swap in
Based
Los Angeles
Stack
Figma, Claude Code, Next.js, Supabase, Vercel, React, TypeScript, Tailwind
Availability
On request
Connect
LinkedIn
Entity
Maria Newman LLC

Terms

The logistics, up front.

Retainer · v25 Ready to execute
Minimum engagement
3 months
Integration
Standups Slack Linear

Alongside you or your head of product and engineers.

I own
Product surface Interaction patterns Design system Prototypes in code
I don’t own
Brand campaigns Graphic design Marketing assets
A typical month

One flow redesigned, prototyped, shipped. Patterns documented so your team repeats it without me.

Ending well

Everything lives in your repo and design system. Nothing to hand back.

Before you book

Questions I get asked.

8 answers
What is the minimum engagement?

Three months. Real interface work compounds. The first month is understanding your product and shipping the first flow, and the value builds from there. Anything shorter and you get a Figma file instead of a change that sticks.

What does a typical month look like?

Roughly one flow redesigned, prototyped, and shipped, plus the patterns documented so your team can repeat it without me. I come to standups and live in your Slack and Linear, so it feels like having a designer on the team, not a vendor on a call.

What do you own, and what don't you?

I own the product surface: interaction patterns, the design system, and prototypes that can be pulled into production. I don't do brand campaigns, graphic design, or marketing assets. If that is what you need, I will tell you and point you elsewhere.

Why not just use AI coding agents, or have my engineers do it?

AI ships interfaces that look fine until you notice the thing you actually need is buried three clicks down. Engineers are excellent at building; deciding what the interface should be is a different job. I own that decision and prototype it in code, so you get taste and judgment, not just more output.

Do you work directly with our engineers?

Yes. I work with you or your head of product alongside your engineers, and I prototype in code so what you approve is far closer to what gets implemented. Fewer translation layers, and no design debt accruing between the mock and the build.

What happens when we stop working together?

Everything lives in your repo and your design system. The patterns are documented and your team already knows how to use them. There is nothing to hand back and nothing that breaks when I leave.

How does pricing work?

A flat monthly retainer, billed monthly, with a three-month minimum. Retainers start at $3k/month and scale with scope. We settle on the number on our call, once I understand what you are trying to ship.

How do we get started?

Send me a screenshot of the screen that bothers you most and book a 30-minute call. I will tell you what I would change, in what order, and whether an embedded designer is actually what you need. If it isn't, I will say so.

MN Mimi Ask me anything →

Next step

Send me a screenshot of the screen that bothers you most.

30 minutes. I’ll tell you what I’d change, in what order, and whether embedding a designer is what you actually need.

Book a call hello@marisol-studio.com