Fractional Design Lead
Get an ex-FAANG product design lead embedded in your team, providing strategic support and hands-on execution to help you ship faster, accelerate the path to product-market fit, and scale efficiently.
Trusted by Startups and Fortune 500s
Get an ex-FAANG design lead embedded in your team
I’m Mac, an ex-Meta design lead with 15 years of experience designing products for companies ranging from early-stage startups to Fortune 500s. At Meta, I led design for a range of consumer and B2B products spanning Gen AI, Creator & Business Tooling, Infrastructure, and Analytics. Now I bring that expertise to Frilled, helping AI & B2B startups go from 0→1 faster, and accelerate the path to product-market fit through iterative, hands-on execution.
Working as your fractional design lead, I embed in your team on a monthly basis. We kick things off with a discovery workshop to discuss goals, assess your current degree of product-market fit, and align on strategy and roadmap. I then provide ongoing strategic support and tactical execution to help you ship faster and more confidentaly, and drive measurable results.
Here's what you can expect from a fractional product design lead:
Ship faster without sacrificing quality
Get unblocked on design decisions immediately with direct access to senior expertise, turning weeks of deliberation into days of progress.
Find product-market fit through design
Use proven FAANG methodologies to identify which features actually move the needle on retention and engagement.
Turn complexity into competitive advantage
Simplify complex workflows into intuitive experiences that users actually want to use, reducing churn and improving engagement.
Build foundations that compound
Establish design patterns and systems early that scale with your growth, avoiding the costly redesigns that plague most Series A companies.
This engagement model works best for:
Series A startups without design leadership
You need senior design expertise but aren't ready for a full-time hire, and want someone who can hit the ground running.
Technical founding teams needing a design partner
You've built the MVP but need expert help to transform it into a polished, user-friendly product.
Pre-PMF startups iterating toward market fit
You're rapidly testing hypotheses and need experienced design judgment to know what to build vs. what to skip.
Funded teams preparing to scale their product
You've validated your core product and need to establish scalable design practices for sustainable growth.
Book a free 30-min strategy call, and if it’s not the right fit, no pressure—you’ll leave with actionable advice to help point you in the right direction.
Pricing
Ship faster, accelerate your path to product-market fit, and scale sustainably with an ex-FAANG product design lead. If you have any questions, book a free call or email mac@frilled.com.
Fractional Design Lead
Get an ex-FAANG product design lead embedded in your team, providing strategic support and hands-on execution to help you ship faster, accelerate the path to product-market fit, and scale efficiently.
Discovery workshop- Product-market fit assessment
- Ongoing strategic product design support
- Embedded with your team tools
- Immediate start
- Ongoing strategy sessions
$14,995 USD / month
Satisfaction Guarantee
If you’re not 100% satisfied after your first month, we’ll give you a 50% refund—no questions asked.
Testimonials
Trusted by the best. Just ask them.
Mac is one of the most talented designers I've worked with. He has a beautiful balance of strong product strategy chops paired with high-craft execution, even in highly complex spaces. He's extremely adept at discerning what problems to focus on first, second, third and is particularly skilled at cutting through blockers to carve paths forward. I would have Mac on my team again in a heartbeat given the opportunity.
Mac is one of the most exceptional talents I have encountered in the design field. His rare ability to seamlessly blend product thinking with meticulous design execution sets him apart. Mac is not just a designer; he is a holistic product thinker who can transform an abstract idea into a fully realized product. His capability to take a design from concept to launch with finesse is truly remarkable.
Mac is a dream designer for any PM to work with. His design output is incredibly strong. He has an ability to cut through complexity and deal with constraints to produce solutions that are surprisingly simple and elegant. He constantly runs two or three steps ahead of the rest of his product & engineering team. He identifies problems that need to be solved before anyone else suggests them. And best of all, he produces all this great work with ridiculous speed and autonomy.
Mac consistently delivered exceptional design solutions, balancing user experience with strategic goals. His creativity and ability to transform complex challenges into intuitive, user-friendly designs were remarkable.
Mac is a 10x designer who can take a product from 0 to 1 fast and to an industry-leading level of quality. I always found his pace, range of precision and execution to be inspiring and world-class. He is a strong prototyper, exceptional thought leader, and technical master of the domain, and I would fully entrust him to ship from ambiguous idea to production.
Frequently Asked Questions
Check out common questions below, or book a call to learn more.
How does the fractional model work?
Our fractional model provides ongoing product design support from a FAANG product design lead for a flat monthly fee. This monthly retainer includes support spanning product strategy, UX design, UI design, website design, and team development.
We start off with discovery and product strategy workshops to help understand your product, assess its current state, and prioritize next steps. Depending on your product, this could be anything from foundational product scoping to detailed experimentation plans.
For early stage products, we start out with identifying and validating user problems, conducting competitive research, and establishing a base visual language. For more mature products, we may conduct audits, refine existing features and systems, design new features, or craft full-funnel growth strategies.
We integrate with your existing tooling stack (Slack, JIRA, Notion, etc.), and maintain collaboration through a combination of synchronous and asynchronous means. For most clients, this typically looks like 2-4 weekly calls, ongoing discussions on Slack/JIRA/Figma, and design walkthroughs on Loom.
Can I pause or cancel anytime?
Yes, you can cancel anytime with no penalties. If you need to pause your engagement, we offer pausing in half-monthly increments—perfect for when you're heads-down on implementation or between funding rounds.
Is there a minimum commitment?
One month. We believe great design partnerships prove their value quickly, so we keep commitments flexible.
Do you offer a guarantee?
If you're not 100% satisfied after your first month, we'll give you a 50% refund—no questions asked.
Who do you work with?
We primarily work with early-stage startups (Seed to Series B), focusing on projects that are 0-1 or have a high degree of ambiguity or technical complexity. This includes everything from validating new ideas and building MVPs to scaling complex systems and refining user experiences for growth.
In addition to startups, we also work with select agencies and enterprise clients. For these clients, we typically collaborate on skunkworks-style internal initiatives or challenging digital transformation projects, especially those requiring innovative thinking and rapid execution.
Why hire a FAANG designer?
Hiring a FAANG product design lead means you're bringing onboard someone who has passed some of the industry's toughest interview bars, has a proven track record of success, and a skillset honed in some of the most challenging tech environments in the world. They're trained in world-class standards, blending data-driven decision-making with creative problem-solving, and excel at crafting intuitive, scalable, and high-performing designs. With a proven ability to collaborate across disciplines and deliver impact under pressure, a FAANG designer can elevate your product, improve product-market fit, and help you stay ahead in a competitive market.
How quickly can you start?
If we have availability, we start the following business day. For complex projects requiring custom scoping, please email or book a call to discuss timeline.
What payment methods do you accept?
We accept credit card payments via Stripe and direct bank transfers in USD, AUD, GBP, and EUR. We're also open to discussing equity as part of the payment structure.
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