HAYDEN MILLS
I'm a Principal Product Designer who designs apps.
I've been a product designer for the past 12 years. I've worked for startups, non-profits, and design agencies, all the way up to larger tech companies like Shopify and Hinge. Most recently I led design at Zero, the intermittent fasting app, as we expanded from fasting into nutrition and metabolic health.
I'm a builder at heart, and it shows up in everything I design. Quick iterative passes until we land on something that just works. A lot of the time it's a feel but that is always paired with what we know about our users and what we are trying to achieve.
I live in Indiana with my wife and two boys. I work out of my design studio in the basement and only take full-time remote roles.
Zero helps people live longer, healthier lives through science-backed fasting, nutrition, and metabolic health tools. I led all design as it grew from a fasting app into a broader weight loss platform.
I operated as the design org. Small, fast, high craft. Concept to shipped, I partnered directly with the CEO on strategy, roadmap, and every feature decision. I was making the calls, not executing someone else's spec.
I stayed hands on in Figma and in production the whole way, using AI tooling to ship faster without dropping quality. The kind of setup where the work gets better because your hands are in it.
“As our only designer, Hayden single-handedly delivered designs for every feature we shipped, and still took the initiative to modernize our design system, making it cleaner and more consistent across the whole app. He also has a knack for elevating things: I'll build a feature, look at the UI, and think 'this looks good!' Then Hayden takes it and somehow makes it look 100x better. Beyond the design work itself, he's a great communicator, a hard worker, and just an all-around lovely person to work with.”
Taylor Robinson
Engineering Manager
At Hinge, I helped shape the dating app designed to be deleted. I led design on features that helped millions of people show up more authentically and make meaningful connections.
I joined as the first lead designer and stayed for four and a half years. Over that time I touched almost every part of the app, from core matching and messaging to the flows that get people off the app and into real dates.
I stayed hands on in Figma and close to the details the entire time, from early concepts through shipped features used by millions. The work that matters in dating is subtle. Small design decisions change whether someone feels safe enough to be real.
“Hayden just oozes creativity. The quality that makes him unique is his innate ability to push the boundaries of design. Sentences you'll often hear when working with Hayden are, "let's go crazier" or "how can we make this even bigger." I've seen this attitude inspire so many people around him, from his design peers to engineers and researchers. He doesn't shy away from designing hard things and his prototyping and interaction skills enable him to bring those visions to life. Beyond that, he is one of the most humble, kind and enjoyable people I have had the pleasure to work with.”
Lindsay Norman
VP of Design, Hinge
“Hayden's always up for a challenge, very collaborative and inclusive, never afraid to push the envelope of creativity, empathizes deeply with users, and can take projects from start to finish without a hitch. Specifically, Hayden has led all the design for the new Guidance initiatives including photo selection assistance and photo ordering help. Photo selection in particular is a challenging user problem because it is one of the first AI product use cases at Hinge, which makes it incredibly impressive how Hayden introduces new ways of blending AI thinking into the design process.”
Mitch Lapoff
Lead Product Manager
At Relay, I designed neighborhood-scale broadcast tools that help local leaders reach residents instantly during emergencies and everyday community moments.
I was the founding designer, responsible for everything visual. Brand, marketing site, and the product itself. I set the foundation the whole company built on, from the logo to the core broadcast experience.
Public safety raises the bar on craft. When a tool has to work during an actual emergency, clarity and speed are not nice-to-haves. I stayed hands on across every surface, designing for the moments that matter most and can't afford confusion.
At High Alpha, I partnered with founders to turn early ideas into disciplined, product-ready companies. I led design across brand, marketing, and product to help new ventures find their first customers and their first real market fit.
I designed zero-to-one MVPs for four startups coming out of the studio. Each one meant starting from a blank canvas, moving fast, and shipping something real enough to put in front of first customers.
Four companies in a year forces range. Different markets, different users, the same core job of making an early idea feel like a real product. It's where I sharpened moving quickly without letting the craft slip.
At Shopify, I helped merchants of every size sell more confidently online and in-store. I worked on tools that simplified storefront creation, checkout flows, and inventory management for millions of entrepreneurs.
I worked on a small product team inside Shopify Plus, redesigning how larger merchants manage their staff and permissions. Real depth on one hard surface rather than a little bit of everything.
Shopify was my first look at design at true scale. Big org, big surface area, and a level of rigor I hadn't worked in before. It's where I saw how far design leadership can drift from the craft, which shaped how I've worked ever since.
