Michael Prince has worked for small and large corporations focusing on Product Development for the past 34+
years. Michael is extremely passionate about working with students to challenge their ideas and teach them
about Design Thinking and ways to apply this to all aspects of their lives. He enjoys all aspects of Product
Development and how to use his profession to create and communicate ideas.
Originally from the east coast, Michael started his design journey in upstate New York where he earned a
Bachelors of Industrial Design (BID) at Syracuse University. His career concentrated on integrating design with
business, manufacturing and marketing. After graduating from college, Michael’s professional career began with
working in product development at Sony Corporation and RCA/Thomson Consumer Electronics where he was
responsible for developing a broad range of consumer electronic products.

Spurred by an entrepreneurial spirit, Michael founded Beyond Design in 1994. The strategic product
development consultancy provides a diverse range of disciplines including: Research and Strategy, Industrial
Design, Engineering and User Experience (UX). Clients include major Fortune 500 companies such as Johnson
Controls, Amazon, US Foods, Hobart, Waterpik and many other national brands. Beyond Design also works with
smaller local companies and trailblazing inventors.
Michael believes in a holistic approach to identifying user needs and market opportunities through research and
design, and engineer products for manufacturing. As a progressive company focused on designing for the
future, the Beyond team’s strength lies in uncovering product opportunities and providing the creativity and
innovation that enables customers to further differentiate and successfully market their products.

While the company focused on Industrial Design at its inception, the introduction of Computer Aided Design
(CAD) enabled the Michael to expand Beyond Design’s offerings to include Mechanical Engineering. Over the
years, Research and Strategy has become a pillar of the development process, enabling customers to focus on
new product development opportunities based on consumer insights and trends. As Beyond Design continues to
evolve and offers User Experience (UX) as a service to clients, enabling their products and services to be connected and on the cutting edge. From its origins as a one-man company, Michael has enabled Beyond Design to grow into a full-service product design consultancy dedicated to helping clients uncover creative product
opportunities and providing insight driven custom solutions for all markets.
Michael has served on the board of the Industrial Design Society of America (IDSA) as well a Lane Tech Second
Century Foundation member. He offers student tours and question and answer sessions for middle school, high
school, and Universities both on site at our Northside studio and on campuses. The highly renowned dig-8
program has helped middle school students learn the full product design process with help from real designers –
instilling this creative mentality both externally (dig-8) and internally.
Michael has a personal passion to mentor students from around the world as well as supporting the local
Chicago community. Michael has designed a robust intern program that draws students from different cultures
and countries like South Korea, Germany, France, India and China, among others. Michael believes in inspiring
students and thinks that the team can offer insight, but also learn from, the next generation of designers.
To contact Michael Prince and learn more about the Beyond team, please email him at
michael@startbeyond.com.