The story so far.

My first full-time job was at a 3D live events company. COVID-era hours, XML, email templates, the occasional side project in Figma or Adobe XD, a Next.js microsite built from scratch. I was already reaching toward something the role wasn't built to give me. When it ended badly, I looked harder.

I applied to Mamo for a head of design position I was probably not qualified for on paper. Something made me fill out the whole application anyway. My portfolio had a footer that said something like "I'm not Amazon Prime, but I'll respond in a couple of days." The same day I applied, Asim Janjua (opens in new tab) (Mamo's co-founder) emailed me with that exact line as the subject. He'd actually read it.

"It's a rare path to choose but a good one."

Asim Janjua, co-founder at Mamo

work muj, 2022

He said he came from "right-to-left brain." I told him I was going the other direction. He understood immediately. There was no Design Engineer role at Mamo. He created one. The brief: design a few screens, build them, then build them in a different framework. I did all three. I'm genuinely not sure that opportunity comes from any other process, or that any other process would've recognized what he did.

For a few years I worked at both ends: building UI components, email templates, contributing to the design system from the engineering side, collaborating closely with the design team. Both feet in, neither side fully.

Not a single moment, more a feeling. The engineering work was getting heavier and the craft was getting further away. Tests, security, routing. All the scaffolding was a long way from what I actually wanted to be doing. I wanted to be the hands behind the craft. I signed up for Google's UX certification in August and finished it in December.

goofy muj, 2023

polaroid-ception

The title became Product Designer. Five years in. Still learning. The parts I care about most: interaction design, design systems, prototyping. The place where knowing how things are built makes the design better, not slower.