Craft · Design → builder

A decade of design.
Then I learned to ship.

Most people who've worked with me know me as a designer — UI/UX, product shape, founder-side conceptualization. That's not the old version of me. It's the foundation the builder runs on.

Most builders start in code and add design later. I spent ten years shaping products through user psychology, interviews, and 0→1 work with founders — AI-assisted development closed the last mile.

See what I ship now → Career timeline

Three acts

How design became building.

  1. Act 1 · 2017–2020

    Designour — 0→1 with founders

    Ran a UI/UX studio in Gurgaon. Not agency wallpaper — deep conceptualization with founders who needed clarity before scale. User interviews, psychology, product shape, then working with developers to get things built.

    • Naming, identity, and product foundations for Zet, Tinkerly (Srjna), Countingwell, and others
    • Customer conversations before pixels — understanding what people actually needed
    • Shipping through dev teams: design systems, specs, and iteration until it worked in production
  2. Act 2 · 2020–2023

    Product leadership under pressure

    Haptik as PM — AI conversational commerce at scale. NEETPrep as interim CEO — operator mode when revenue and team needed someone in the room, not on a call.

    • Design thinking tested beyond the studio — roadmaps, tradeoffs, what customers touch at scale
    • Proof that taste and user understanding matter as much in growth as in 0→1
  3. Act 3 · 2023–now

    AI-native builder — the loop closes

    Same eye for product shape and user psychology — now I ship myself. Cursor and AI-assisted coding turned "designer who works through developers" into "founding product person who owns the full loop."

Differentiator

Why this matters if you're hiring a builder.

A dev who learned Figma ships features. Someone who spent a decade in user psychology, founder workshops, and product conceptualization ships the right thing — and now can get it into users' hands without waiting on a handoff.

Typical AI builder

Starts in code. Adds design patterns from libraries. Validates with metrics after launch. Strong on stack, thinner on why the product should exist.

This stack

Starts in user psychology and product shape. Ten years of founder-side 0→1. AI-native delivery for the last mile. Strong on thesis, taste, and shipping proof.

Voices

People I've worked with.

Most recommendations describe the design era — that's the foundation the builder runs on. Curated quotes below; more on LinkedIn.

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Manage testimonials.

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Reflections for you.

Private notes on identity, fit, and growth — never shown publicly.

More recommendations on LinkedIn — mostly from the design and 0→1 years. Cross-check there, or leave one here.

linkedin.com/in/ankitcz →

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