MJMatthew J. Galley
Founding mentor
✨ 10 sessions
🎪 5 sessions hosted
CEO and Founder @ Trustybits Inc
10testimonials Madison, Wi Chicago (UTC-5) 10+ yrs in design
About
Nicknamed "The Mad Scientist" for my innovative ideas, I’m a highly curious Design Engineer based in Madison. I bring strategic creativity to each project & love building new experiences. Spent the past 2 years diving on agentic engineering. As a top 10 mentor on ADPList, I have had the privilege to mentor about design, engineering, product and entrepreneurship to 100s, including individuals at Microsoft, Tesla, Google, Qualtrics, Atlassian, Crunchyroll, and more Beyond work, I enjoy hanging with the family, watching movies and anime, anything with LEGO, driving and traveling the world.
How I can help
Whether you’re just starting, shifting careers, or stepping into leadership, I provide tailored guidance in: - Career Pathfinding - Identifying strengths and crafting actionable roadmaps. - Navigating career transitions and leadership opportunities. - Portfolio & Resume - Creating compelling portfolios and tailored resumes. - Offering feedback aligned with industry standards. - Skill Building - Enhancing both technical and soft skills. - Exploring areas like UX design or product management. - Strengthening collaboration and communication. - Interview Prep - Coaching for behavioral, technical, and case interviews. - Building confidence in presenting expertise. - Strategizing job searches and networking effectively. - Leadership - Transitioning from contributor to leader. - Cultivating collaboration and mentoring teams. - Creative Strategy - Tackling challenges with innovative solutions. - Balancing user needs with business objectives. - Designing scalable systems for growth. Why Work with Me? As a founder and former VP of Product Design, I’ve navigated the same career hurdles you might face and offer empathetic, results-driven mentorship tailored to your goals. Together, we’ll explore your ambitions, overcome challenges, and celebrate your growth.
Ask me about
IC to manager
Pivot into design
Layoffs
A failed launch
First or only designer
A reorg
Getting passed over
Influence without authority
Presenting to execs
Negotiating comp
Imposter syndrome
Building a design system
First design hires
Craft to strategy
Growing into leadership
A hard problem I've navigated
Raised 1M on my first startup out of college, won a bunch of competitions, built a really cool product, experienced a lawsuit and having the whole thing fall apart.
Frequently asked
How do I get a job in Design
If you have been applying and not getting anywhere, take time to build something that targets a real problem and ask yourself and your target audience a lot of questions, until you have something that solves their problems, document your journey and be ready to share what you have done. Make it a case study if possible. And keep getting to know people in your field and at places you want to work. Most often it's who you know over what you know.
What experience do you have AI
Started with GPT3 and Midjourney when it was in beta. Went through the era when it was all about prompt engineering, then system prompts to agents and harness engineering. Now you can get pretty far without a highly detailed prompt or dozens of skills. All that said, one shoting was never the goal for me. Leveraging AI, I've have built websites, plugins, personal tools, and led a small team on 2 full SaaS products with active paying users. I use AI to help ship something to production almost every day. What I've learned is architecture and user experience still needs a human to bring a product to life. Experiences created with static flows or even prototypes in Figma still fail, it's not until you can use the thing in context that the real answers and solutions reveal themselves, this is where AI has made the biggest impact. The ability to build something as it would be presented and used by the end user so you can discover the flaws faster. Ask me about some tricks I've learned to get better results from AI. The answer isn't what I typically hear or see on socials.
Expertise
Design Lead
Interviewing
Negotiation
Fintech
Design Manager
Education & EdTech
Leadership
AI workflows
Design systems
Agentic AI
Developer Tools
AI/ML
AI tools
Product Designer
UX Designer
B2B SaaS
Energy & Climate
UX Researcher
Experience
Founder · Trustybits
2025
Making tools and products that support career and growth management. Leverage AI to improve workflow and efficiency Teach AI courses and mentor on practical AI usage in Design for Production Environments.
VP of Product Design · Solo
2023-2024
Led a small team in all things product design and user experience related. Partnered with Product Managers and Engineering to deliver new experiences Led a tiger team in R&D efforts
Lead UX Designer · Sorenson Communication
2022-2023
Led teams on 9 different product offerings, including interpreting, captioning, Microsoft Teams & Zoom integration, Translation and wellness. Created and managed a design system that meet WCAG AAA compliance standards while holding to our Brand Mentored and trained UX Researchers and Designers on improving process, cross-functional team dynamics, and tools.
Senior UX Designer · ReliaQuest
2021-2022
Migrated from sketch to Figma Created and trained on Darkmatter Design System Sole designer on 5 product teams delivering on a cyber security platform used by Fortune 500 companies
Selected work
Resources I share
Group sessions Matthew is hosting
Group sessions Matthew has hosted
Testimonials
It was a good talk about using AI in design. I actually ended up being the second most active participant, as I had a lot to say on the subject :) Also, it was really cool to see Nate's vibe-coded product for onboarding at a new company, which was a great segue from what I was saying, as I find it the most challenging part of the job, especially when it comes to enterprise, as the subject matter is always so niche and complex.
Marat · Sep 2026
Great job. Keeping us on time and on track. Thanks.
Michael · Sep 2026
Matthew was kind, approachable, and genuinely curious. He had thoughtful questions and a real interest in pushing the boundaries of AI and design systems. The ideas he shared were inspiring and left me thinking about new possibilities. I’m really glad we had the chance to connect.
Rafael · Sep 2026
Matthew made sure all of us were engaged in the conversation and created an environment where all of us were interacting!
Vaishnavi · Sep 2026
Show & Tell was a hit! It was amazing to see how AI is leveraged across a wide array of roles and how many of our use cases look different.
Stephen · Aug 2026
This session was wonderful (that's OG {Old Gringo}) for "AWESOME." I have been designing and producing learning games for nearly 50 years, and mentoring founders (now mostly edTech) since Steve Jobs in the Apple ][ daze in the '70s, but learned so much from this session that Matthew and Grace orchestrated that I felt like I was a protége of a community of designers and producers on the bleeding edge. I'll be back every week. If you don't, you are what Tom Hanks, as "A Man Called Otto", called, "an idiot." Just sayin'.
Michael · Aug 2026
Fun session. Love hearing about how others are using AI to improve their workflow.
Dan · Aug 2026
Very informative and inspiring! Being a solo designer at my company can sometimes limit my exposure to how other designers work, so it was incredibly helpful to see how others are incorporating AI Agents into their workflows. I walked away with new ideas and inspiration for how I can elevate and streamline my own design process. I’d definitely love to attend more sessions like this and continue learning from other designers!
Lily · Aug 2026
Matthew gave me specific, actionable feedback on positioning my experience and telling my story, plus resources to understand my strengths better. Highly recommend.
Emily · Aug 2026
Matthew was kind enough to give me frameworks to help with my career transition and he was also very open, gave in-depth and honest answers to questions I asked. I'm looking forward to more sessions with him!
Vicky · Jul 2026