Twenty-three years of getting to the point.
Interfaces, products and the systems underneath them — reduced until only the decision is left.
A junior designer adds.
A senior designer organizes.
A principal decides what the product refuses to say.
I’ve been making that call since 2003.
Emad Masoud. Principal product designer. Toronto.
Amazon, Safeway, Robinhood, CTO.ai and PDF Solutions. Direction, strategy, and the room where the decision gets made.
How I leadPDF Solutions had no design organization. I created its first design and user research team and grew it to 48, inside one of the most technically complex industries there is.
The PDF Solutions caseResearch, flows, screens, specs and prototypes, often alone. From the Nokia 7610 to governed AI.
See the workFounder and chief architect: setting direction, hiring the team, and still opening the file. You don’t have to choose which one you’re hiring.
Hire all threeName the seat.See the evidence.
Ten roles across design, product, research, systems, AI and customer experience. Pick the one you’re filling. Every line opens the work that backs it up.
Build or rebuild the design and research function.
Done it from zero to 48 at PDF Solutions: hiring, structure, rituals and a bench of leaders.
PDF SolutionsStand up the design system, and the spec discipline that keeps it alive.
A system is a product. It gets owners, a roadmap and an engineering contract.
Design systemsRaise the craft bar by doing, not only reviewing.
I still open the file. Teams move faster when the person setting the bar can also clear it.
HealthcareMake design legible to engineering, product and the board.
Decisions are written down, states are drawn, trade-offs are explicit.
IdentityPut design in the room where strategy is set.
Design argues from evidence and outcomes, not taste. That is how it earns a permanent seat.
LeadershipOne experience across every product and channel.
My last title was Total Experience: product, service, documentation and support designed as one system.
PDF SolutionsBuild the whole organisation: design, research, content, systems.
Four crafts, one operating model, one hiring bar. Grown from zero to 48 once already.
Team of 48Make quality measurable.
Eight questions every screen must pass, a design system with adoption numbers, and accessibility that is measured, not assumed.
Design systemOwn product direction from discovery to delivery.
Research, strategy, roadmap, spec and ship, as one continuous line with one accountable owner.
ProductTurn regulated, high-stakes domains into shippable roadmaps.
Healthcare, semiconductor, finance: roadmaps that survive clinical, risk and compliance review.
FinanceRun product, design and engineering as one system.
Computer engineering degree, twenty-three years beside engineers. I write specs teams can build from.
Dev toolsBring AI into the product where it earns trust.
Governed AI is my current work: evidence trails, human sign-off and audit designed in from the first flow.
AI productsRun the roadmap as outcomes.
Now, next, later. Every card names the number it is meant to move.
RoadmapSay no, with a reason.
Impact against effort, in the open. The loudest request is rarely the most valuable one.
PrioritisationShip with engineering, not at them.
One-page PRDs, every state drawn, acceptance criteria written before the sprint starts.
Dev toolsOwn the numbers after launch.
A north star, three drivers, and a monthly review that changes what we build next.
MetricsTake the hardest flow and make it obvious.
Order review, claim status, surgical sign-off. The scariest screen gets the most craft.
FinanceDesign desktop, mobile and the system behind both.
17 cases here, every one with desktop and mobile screens built on shared tokens.
All workPrototype as the reference.
Engineering builds from a working prototype and a spec. Divergence without a spec is a defect.
HealthcareWrite the final strings.
Copy is interface. I ship the real words, in plain language, never lorem ipsum.
BankingFind where the anxiety actually is.
Journey maps drawn from what people did and said, not from a workshop wall.
Journey mapResearch beside engineering, every sprint.
Small, continuous rounds. Evidence arrives when the decision is being made.
MethodDo field work in high-stakes rooms.
Hospitals and fabs, where the user is an expert under pressure and a survey tells you nothing.
SemiconductorTurn findings into decisions, not decks.
Every study ends in a changed roadmap card, a changed screen, or a written reason why not.
ProductTwo systems shipped from nothing.
The first company-wide system at PDF Solutions, and the governed component grammar behind Barnabus.
Design systemsTokens first, components second.
Colour, type, space, radius and density decided once and named. This site runs on seven colours and five type roles.
Live systemA contract with engineering.
Components ship with states, accessibility rules and acceptance criteria. Design and code version together.
IdentityAdoption is the metric.
A system nobody uses is a style guide. Coverage and time-to-first-screen get reviewed like product numbers.
AdoptionAn AI answer is a draft until a human signs it.
The sign-off is the product. Approve, reject with a reason, escalate, and all of it audited.
AI productsDesign evidence, confidence and refusal.
Answers lead with sources, say how sure they are in words, and decline when the evidence is missing.
Governed answersGovernance built in, not bolted on.
Roles, scopes and audit trails designed as first-class product, for regulated customers.
IdentityTeach people to use AI without depending on it.
An AI literacy curriculum for ages five to fifteen, and the same principle for adult products.
EducationDesign the bad day first.
Failed transfers, cancelled flights, declined claims. Trust is built on the screens nobody demos.
FinanceEvery dead end gets a door.
Each state says what happened, what happens next, and what the customer can do now.
BankingTreat the claim as the product.
The moment a promise is kept or broken gets the whole design budget.
Insurance conceptBe useful in ninety seconds.
When something breaks, the best experience has already done the work before the customer asks.
Travel conceptA product and design audit in two weeks.
Eight questions per screen, your roadmap against the matrix, and a written list of what to cut.
Review methodStand up your design system.
Tokens, the first ten components and the contract with engineering, then hand it to your team.
Design systemCoach your first design leader.
Hiring loop, ladders, rituals and the first ninety days, from someone who has built the function before.
First 90 daysBe the second opinion before a big bet.
A fresh read on the strategy, the PRD or the prototype, in writing, within the week.
ProductTalk about the Head of Design seat
How I leadThe evidence.
Finance, banking, insurance, healthcare, consumer, travel, semiconductor, AI. In every one, the interface carries a real consequence.
Let’s get to the point.
Hiring a Head of Design or a Chief Product Officer, or stuck on a hard product? Send one sentence. I’ll answer with a useful one.