Matthew McPhail is a 2009 graduate of the College for Creative Studies, holding a BFA in Industrial Design. After his early years working as an industrial designer across various categories, he ultimately found that the most intriguing and challenging problems for him were often related to the more intangible experiences— things like services and software applications. This realization prompted a career evolution into service design and UX design.
As a multi-disciplinary designer, Matthew is passionate about using a human-centered approach to problem-solving. He employs a variety of design methodologies to develop meaningful, user-focused solutions. The foundation in industrial design not only shaped Matthew’s design thinking mindset, but also provided a set of highly transferable skills that continue to inform his approach to other design disciplines. This diverse design background has given Matthew the opportunity to work within many different industries and scale of companies, from startups like XENITH, a Detroit-based challenger brand in the sport of Football, to large corporate organizations like General Motors and The Home Depot. Matthew also spent time in design consultancy at Sundberg-Ferar, starting in 2015. In addition to working professionally as a designer across diverse mediums, Matthew has also spent the last few years working as an Adjunct Instructor of Product Design at his alma mater, College for Creative Studies.
Today, Matthew works as a UX Principal at The Home Depot, where he’s embedded within the team responsible for bringing experience enhancements to life for the Pro customer across several capability categories. His role includes executing broad cross-functional research projects, CX journey management, and UX strategy across the entire Pro program.
When he’s not working on setting the vision for the next generation of builders, he can often be found with his feet in the sand on a beach in Northern Michigan with his wife and two daughters, or furiously focused on building the latest and greatest LEGO Technic set.