Consulting · For B2B SaaS scale-ups

Design leadership that pays for itself. 40% faster engineering. Six-figure ARR. A design org that compounds.

Series A–C SaaS companies grow design headcount without growing design impact. The output stays fragmented, culture never forms, and product decisions happen without design in the room. I build the layer that changes that — strategy, team structure, and discovery, from someone who's delivered the outcomes above. Trained in economics. Still in the craft. Only advising on workflows I've shipped myself.

Based in
Poznań · Remote worldwide
Focus
B2B SaaS · Series A–C
Availability
Selective intake · Ask
Node-42
Strategy
Node-11
Team
Node-78
Discovery
Node-03
Culture
I build the conditions for design to compound.

Your value isn't that design gets prettier — it's that design starts scaling. Principles that survive onboarding. Process the team actually uses. Hiring that raises the bar. Discovery that gets you out of the feature‑factory loop. AI enablement that goes beyond the demo.

That's a more fundable problem to solve than "make things look better", and it's the work I've done inside Lokalise, Egnyte, and a handful of startups. It's also the work most scale-ups try to delegate to an IC — and it doesn't work. See how I run a team day to day →

Per aspera ad astra Maciej Besler · Principal
40%+
Engineering velocity
/ Lupo UI · Lokalise
100%
Team engagement QoQ
/ Internal survey
4.7
G2 Grid Score — UX driver
/ Public
15+
Years building products
/ Startups → megabanks
01 / Packages

Three defined engagements. Fixed scope, fixed fee, real outcomes.

No hourly billing games. Each package delivers something you can share with your board on Monday. The Audit is the natural front door; most clients continue into a Fractional engagement from there.

PKG 01 / ENTRY

Design Audit & Roadmap

A structured review of your product UX, design process, and team setup — delivered as a prioritised action plan. The easy yes for founders and CPOs who know something's off but can't name it.

  • Product UX review across critical journeys
  • Design process & tooling assessment
  • Team structure, skills & hiring gap analysis
  • Prioritised 90‑day action roadmap
  • Delivered as written memo + live readout
2–3 weeks · Fixed fee €4–6k
PKG 02 / FLAGSHIP
★ Most chosen

Fractional Design Director

I embed part‑time, 1–2 days/week, for 3–6 months. Setting principles, establishing process, coaching your designers, and sitting in the rooms where product decisions get made.

  • Design principles & standards the team actually uses
  • Hiring bar, evaluation & onboarding
  • 1:1 coaching for ICs and leads
  • AI enablement for the design team — from curiosity to shipped workflows
  • Seat at product planning & exec review
  • Monthly written update to the CEO / CPO
3–6 months · Monthly retainer €5–10k / mo
PKG 03 / INTENSIVE

Discovery Sprint Facilitation

One intense week, your team in the room. Problem framing, user insight synthesis, opportunity mapping. For founders who need fast, defensible clarity on what to build next.

  • Pre‑work: desk research & stakeholder mapping
  • 5‑day facilitated sprint with your team
  • Problem framing & JTBD synthesis
  • Prioritised opportunity map + build/kill recommendations
  • Handoff deck + written narrative
1 week · Fixed fee €6–9k
+ ADD‑ON
Ad‑hoc principal advisory
90‑min working sessions on a specific decision — board prep, org change, a key hire. €450 / hr · 2h minimum.
+ ADD‑ON
1:1 coaching for senior designers
Biweekly 60‑min sessions for staff, principal and first‑time leads. Company‑sponsored or private. €350 / session.
+ ADD‑ON
Hiring panel & portfolio review
Sit on your design hiring loop for a cycle. Calibrate your bar, unblock pipeline, write the rubric. Flat fee per role.
02 / Proof

Metrics that moved. Dashboards that didn't just sit there.

Three moments where the work was the turning point — not a contributing factor.

CASE 01 · LUPO UI
+40%
Engineering velocity, recovered
Years of technical and visual debt had made shipping slow. I spearheaded Lupo UI — not a visual refresh, an architectural change. It unlocked the decoupling of Expert and Vantage so the AI product could move without dragging legacy constraints everywhere.
Lokalise · 2023–24
CASE 02 · FLOW → VANTAGE
0→1→1'
Zero‑to‑one, then a 180° pivot
I pitched, started, and led Lokalise Flow — an AI‑first translation product built from scratch with a team of 10. I saw the structural problem coming. When it surfaced, I helped steer the effort into Lokalise Vantage: new direction, better foundations, real market.
CASE 03 · GROWTH
+112%
Seat‑based expansion — 3.78% → 6.3% per paying customer
Redesigning pay-as-you-go pricing sounds like a feature. What it was: the conversation the product wasn't having with its users. Seat-based expansion jumped from 3.78% to 6.3% per paying customer — a 112% increase. Nearly six figures added to ARR through expansion alone. No new features. A better user conversation.
Lokalise · 2023
03 / Clients

From megabanks to six‑person startups. Both matter.

04 / Process

How an engagement actually runs.

No long sales motion. No 40‑page proposal. Four clear stages, always anchored to a written artefact you can share and act on.

STAGE 01

Discovery

Free 30‑min call. I ask the uncomfortable questions early so we both know if this is the right fit.

STAGE 02

Immersion

One to two weeks inside. Stakeholder interviews, docs, the Slack channels nobody points you to on day one.

STAGE 03

Point of view

A written memo. What I see, what I'd do, and — critically — what I'd stop doing. Delivered live, not over email.

STAGE 04

Follow‑through

Optional continuation: retainer, workshop, or embedded support while the team executes the change.

05 / Recommendations

Social proof, from people who actually worked with me.

Unedited excerpts. Full versions on LinkedIn.

Maciej brought back a lot of speed and agility I was starting to miss at Lokalise, while also being very fun to work with. He scales fluidly from pixel‑perfect to high‑level strategic oversight. On top of that, he understands business.
A
Aleksandrs Pereverzevs
Product @ BISS & Flomo
He not only shares his professional perspective but also encourages me to think critically and validate ideas with data.
Staff Product Designer
Lokalise · current team
Maciej has the unique ability to fire up the energy in a room, keep everyone honest about who they are and what they're doing, and be super proactive in making the product and team better. Maciej is a rare find in the design and product space.
J
Jack Stovin
Content Strategy & UX · Lokalise
A strong hands‑on designer with a solid focus on user‑centricity, and a wonderful colleague who has a natural ability to bring people together and get them excited about their work. He is a kind and compassionate people leader.
D
Darci D. Dutcher
Senior Director of Product Design and Research
06 / Engage

Pick a doorway in. The first call is free.

I take on a small number of clients at a time so I can stay in the work, not just on the sidelines. If we're not a fit, I'll say so on the call and point you somewhere better.

START HERE — THE FRONT DOOR

Design Audit & Roadmap.

BY INQUIRY

The easiest yes, and the most useful 2–3 weeks you'll spend this quarter. A written, prioritised action plan you can take to the board. Most clients continue into a Fractional engagement from here.

4–6k / fixed fee · ex. VAT
2–3 WEEKS · 50% ON START · NET‑14
  • Product UX review across 3–5 critical journeys
  • Design process & tooling assessment
  • Team structure, skills & hiring gap analysis
  • 90‑day action roadmap, prioritised & sequenced
  • Written memo + 90‑min live readout to your leadership

Start the conversation

30 minutes. No deck. No sales. If there's a fit, we'll schedule a longer working session. If there isn't, I'll tell you.

NO NEWSLETTER · NO FOLLOW‑UP SEQUENCE · JUST A REPLY.
07 / FAQ

The questions I actually get asked.

Why packages instead of hourly?
+
Because hours aren't the outcome. Fixed‑fee packages mean you approve a clear deliverable, not a timesheet — and I'm free to go where the problem actually is, instead of padding hours.
Is the Audit a sales motion for the retainer?
+
It's designed to stand alone — some clients take the roadmap and run it themselves. But yes, roughly two-thirds continue into a Fractional engagement, because once we've named the problem, it's easier to keep going than to start over with someone else.
Who is this actually for?
+
B2B SaaS scale‑ups, Series A–C, building out their first real design function. Usually 2–10 designers, a CPO or founder who knows something's off, and product decisions happening without design in the room. If that's you, we should talk.
Remote or on‑site?
+
Default remote; on‑site for immersion phases when it makes a difference. Based in Poznań, Poland, comfortable traveling across the EU and to the UK.
Can you coach my senior designer?
+
Yes. Coaching is a separate offering — biweekly 60‑minute sessions for senior ICs, staff/principal designers, and first‑time design leads. Company‑sponsored engagements welcome.
How fast can we start?
+
Discovery call within a week. Short sessions within two weeks. Longer engagements usually start 3–4 weeks after the discovery call.
What about NDAs and confidentiality?
+
Mutual NDA signed before the discovery call if you need it. Nothing I see during an engagement leaves the room — no case studies without explicit written approval.
What if it's not a fit?
+
I'll tell you on the discovery call, and where I can, I'll point you to someone more suited. I'd rather not take a bad engagement than pretend we're aligned.
Per aspera ad astra

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Toolkit

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Skills / tools I know well enough to get around so they help me

...and all the management / documentation stuff from Atlassian, Slack, Asana, Google, ProductBoard, and Microsoft