Malte
Pliszewski

Design Lead · Staff Product Designer

I build design functions and products from zero to one.

Thirteen years in deep-tech and SaaS startups, from industrial design and hardware engineering to leading multidisciplinary UX teams. I've founded a UX function, reframed a product into a new category, and shipped hardware, software and voice interfaces that millions of people use. I care about the whole system: the strategy, the team that delivers it, and the craft that makes it feel right.

tado° NavVis SoSafe Comstruct Setlyr

2013 — Present

Selected Work

Side venture · Co-founder · 2026 —

Setlyr

The app for moving to and settling in the UK: one personalised, step-by-step plan for the first year, from NHS registration and banking to visas and the workplace, instead of 47 browser tabs.

Co-founded in 2026 with Shahrukh, alongside my role at Comstruct. I own product, brand and design. More than 500 step-by-step processes and 220 topics, structured as one product. Not a case study yet: it is live on Android, the iPhone beta has a waitlist, and users are changing it faster than I could write it up.

Get it on Google Play setlyr.com

Approach

How I work

Frame before you draw.

Most product problems are framing problems. I spend the first weeks with stakeholders, research and data building a shared model of what we're actually solving.

Build the function, not just the file.

A design system, a research practice and a critique ritual outlive any single screen. I've set these up twice from scratch.

Own the hard parts personally.

Leading a team doesn't mean leaving the craft. At NavVis I designed the on-device interfaces myself; at SoSafe I was the designer on the strategic bet while leading the team around it.

Say what didn't work.

Every study below ends with what I'd do differently.

Resume