The real skill with AI tools isn't prompting. It's knowing when to stop prompting, when to step in, do it by hand, and hand the result back to the machine.

Darshan Gajara is a design leader who actually ships. His latest is Beanpresso, a coffee journaling app built in Lovable, launched, and refined in the wild. In this episode he shares his screen and walks through the whole build, the real project, the prompt history, the dead ends, and the moments a designer's eye had to take over, from first idea to live product, plus how he's approaching monetisation and marketing as a solo maker.

We get into:

• Starting in Lovable and only bringing in Figma once the idea took shape, "give it a designer's touch"

• Why you don't need to design whole flows anymore: get one page right and Lovable infers your design system

• The handoff problem: screenshots plus precise description, component by component, down to corner radii

• The SVG trick: when the animation kept breaking, he built the UI by hand, named every layer, exported an SVG and told Lovable to animate exactly that

• "I'm still a designer": choosing to do the branding by hand, and why some things are better that way

• Monetising a side project: premium taste insights, and a roaster marketplace his own users suggested

• Marketing by making: free tools, a Berlin coffee guide the roasters reshared, and an AI writing setup trained on his own style

GET THE APP
Beanpresso, coffee journaling for people who take their beans seriously: https://beanpresso.com

MY REFLECTIONS
I share my personal takeaways from each episode in the d.MBA newsletter, what I actually learned and what I'm stealing for my own builds: https://d.mba/newsletter

LINKS
Darshan on LinkedIn:   / darshangajara 
Product Disrupt, Darshan's design learning resource: https://productdisrupt.com
Darshan's site: https://darshan.design
d.MBA, business education for designers: https://d.mba

00:00 – "They just keep banging their heads, burning through tokens"
00:36 – Who Darshan is, and what this episode is really about
01:36 – Interview starts: scratching his own itch.
05:51 – App demo: scanning a bag, community feed, taste stats
10:51 – Validating the idea (and why the existing coffee apps weren't good enough)
14:12 – Version one: built straight in Lovable, no design
15:54 – The prompting workflow: voice notes → Notion AI → Claude → Lovable
18:21 – Why he dropped the native app and went web
19:33 – Mood boarding with Variant, and finding the visual language
23:54 – Naming it, and why AI is terrible at logos
27:15 – What AI is good at, and what he had to do by hand
30:45 – Taking the design back into Lovable, component by component
33:27 – Building new flows once Lovable knows your design system
36:36 – The SVG animation trick
38:27 – Don't expect one tool to do everything
42:06 – Monetisation: premium stats and a roaster marketplace
45:45 – Distribution: small free tools, Instagram, and SEO
49:15 – Where to find Beanpresso and Darshan

Everybody thinks they know what matters to them. Then you ask them, and they can't tell you.

Daniel Burka has stood at more career crossroads than most: Digg, Glitch (which became Slack), a company sold to Google, five years at Google Ventures, then eight years in global public health. Every time the stakes got high, he reached for the same thing: Job Rank, a weighted-scoring spreadsheet for choosing your next role. In this episode he opens the real template on screen and walks through exactly how it works, for designers, product people, and anyone in tech staring at a hard career decision.

We get into:

• Why the spreadsheet isn't really the tool: 90% of the value is being forced to write down what you value and rank it

• If everything's important, nothing's important: how the weighting forces the trade-offs a pros and cons list politely avoids

• The moment the sheet told Daniel something his ego didn't want to hear about a big role at Google

• How the tool travels with you: same values, different weights, as your life changes

• Where AI fits into a decision that should stay human

GET THE TEMPLATE
Free to copy, in Daniel's full write-up: https://www.hardproblems.com/articles...

LINKS
Hard Problems, helping designers and people in tech find work that matters: https://www.hardproblems.com

d.MBA, business education for designers: https://d.mba

00:15 – What this episode is about
02:10 – Daniel's career crossroads
04:15 – Job Rank: it's just a spreadsheet
04:40 – Writing down what matters to you
06:25 – Weighting each value (and why not everything's a 5)
09:50 – Scoring the jobs you're considering
11:20 – Scoring jobs that don't exist yet
13:10 – How to make your own job
16:50 – The Google role his ego wanted
19:10 – Why 90% of the value is just writing it down
21:10 – Hard Problems: work that actually matters
25:05 – Jobs that matte

Avi Ashkenazi, Senior Director of Product Design at Deel (Shopify and iwoca before that), walks through the Shredder: the framework he built for reverse-engineering any company's strategy from the outside, using nothing but public information.

It's the skill that moves designers from executing the brief to shaping it.

We get into:

• Why studying competitors through their screens is the most superficial read there is

• The tree metaphor: products are the fruit, strategy is the hidden trunk, and everything around it talks

• How to read org charts, careers pages, investors and partners as leading indicators of a company's next move

• Why companies ship their org chart, and how to spot the seams in the product

• How AI has changed the way Avi runs the framework since he built it at iwoca

• Using the Shredder on your own company, to find out what your strategy actually is

Ever thought about the ingenious business and design strategies that turned an everyday gadget into an adventurer's (and content creator's) best friend?

Our latest Business Design Teardown dives into the thrilling business and design strategies behind the iconic action camera brand GoPro, revealing the creative and strategic decisions that shaped GoPro's journey to becoming a market leader. 

Join Alen, Franz, and Tom as they explore the trails and navigate the rapids of GoPro's fascinating journey. They'll zoom in on...

• How a founder's passion for surfing and desire to capture his adventures identified a gap in the market for him to explore
• The role of prototyping and rapid iteration that led to GoPro's innovation breakthroughs
• Why user-generated content was a critical marketing flywheel driving GoPro's early successes
• How arrogance and a focus on iteration over innovation may have stifled GoPro's journey to the top of the action camera mountain...

Whether you're a budding entrepreneur, a design lover, or someone who loves a good adventure tale, this episode has twists and turns that will elevate your perspective on GoPro's fascinating story.

When you want to learn about the intersection of business and design, you can turn to d.MBA Business Design Teardowns.

But for everything else? It has to be Wikipedia.

In this podcast episode, we're tearing down one of the most significant sources of knowledge on the internet and uncovering how it isn't just a website—it's a worldwide wonder.

We'll delve into why Wikipedia is a fascinating case study for designers, discovering the clever design and organizational strategies that make it user-friendly, universally engaging, and completely ubiquitous.

Join Alen, Franz, and Tom as they explore…

• The critical shift from scholar-led to community-led content creation that revolutionized Wikipedia's output and productivity
• Why a commitment to form over function has led to a design language which prioritises readability, accessibility, and performance
• The thousands of stakeholders - and novel-length conversations! - that Wikipedia's design team has to manage when shipping updates
• How Wikipedia manages to stay informative and reliable without resorting to paid advertising

So tune in to hear how design and strategy converge to keep this information titan thriving. 

You'll never look at Wikipedia the same way again…

Ready for a business adventure?

For our latest Teardown, we're exploring the terrain of a brand that has revolutionized business and ethical standards. Yes, we're unearthing the tale of Patagonia, a brand that's more than just outdoor apparel. It's a testament to sustainability, innovation, and an unwavering love for the great outdoors.

Patagonia is an icon of ethical business and thoughtful design. It's a brand that has masterfully woven the threads of environmental activism with cutting-edge business strategies. In this episode, Alen, Franz, and Tom will unravel how Patagonia has managed to design not just clothes but also a culture of sustainability and product innovation that other brands are dying to replicate.

Join us as we explore...

• The relatable conflicts of Patagonia's founder, a craftsperson at heart who remains reluctant to call himself a businessman
• Why Yvon Chouinard committed early business self-sabotage in the interests of the environment he loved… and set the standard for the business's future decision-making.
• How Patagonia weaves philosophy into its culture, always prioritizing its most important stakeholder: our planet
• The role of activism in its brand ethos and the marketing side-effects that this fosters

So, lace up your hiking boots, and let's hit the trail together in this latest Business Design Teardown. It will be one wild ride through Patagonia's business peaks and design valleys.

Prepare to immerse yourself in a tale of innovation and color that revolutionized design and branding. Our latest Business Design Teardown paints the vibrant journey of Pantone, the brand that turned the art of color consistency into a global industry.

Join us as we explore the canvas of challenges and innovations Pantone navigated to become the global authority on color. We'll brush up on how Pantone didn't just stop at solving a problem; they became trendsetters, influencing design and fashion and setting tones that reflect cultural moods and movements.

It's a story of strategic brilliance as much as it is about the beauty of color. So tune in as Alen, Franz, and Tom uncover...

• How faded camera film boxes brought to light the critical need for color consistency
• Why Pantone's strategic decision to sell early in the value chain to ink manufacturers set the stage for a color revolution.
• Pantone's journey from standardization to 'Colour of The Year' trend-setting
• The reasons Pantone's Colour Matching System has dominated for decades, and the threats to its future...

So, enjoy the spectrum of strategic stories about Pantone, the brand that painted its way into our lives and lexicons. From standardizing hues to dictating trends, this episode promises to add a splash of color to your day!

Early applications for the next d.MBA, starting on April 8th, are now open. 
www.d.mba/apply

Get ready to crack open a can of intrigue with our latest Business Design Teardown, where we're diving headfirst into the chilling waters of Liquid Death's business and creativity genius.

We're peeling back the heavy-metal label to reveal the secrets behind their killer branding that's taken the beverage industry by storm. From the mountainous origins of their water to the razor-sharp humor of their marketing campaigns, we'll explore how Liquid Death has managed to make hydration feel like an act of defiance.

Join Alen, Franz, and Tom as they explore how this brand turned the simple act of drinking water into a rebellious statement as we explore...

• How sneaky energy drink marketing at festivals first planted the seed of an idea for Liquid Death's founder
• Why using a fake advert to measure demand was a breakthrough move designers can learn from
• The playbook that Liquid Death used to shake up a stale product category with edgy branding and marketing
• Why Liquid Death's 'Murder Your Thirst' tagline means more than hydration; it's an environmental call to action

So, if you're thirsting for a business story that's as refreshing as a cold drink on a hot day, tune in. This episode promises to murder your boredom and resurrect your love for innovative branding and design.

Stay hydrated. It's going to be a killer episode.

Tap, tap... is this thing ON? Great, because we've got an exciting new Teardown episode for you!

In this latest podcast installment we're taking you behind the scenes of ON, the Swiss brand racing to the forefront of the athletic footwear industry. With its unique CloudTec technology and striking sneaker silhouettes, ON is a brand taking on the big players using design as a critical differentiator.

From its humble beginnings to its rise as a global contender, we'll explore how this innovative brand has made significant strides in a competitive market. 

So tune in as Alen, Franz, and Tom discuss…

• ON's technology and design breakthroughs, from the humble garden hose to innovative footwear.
• How a founder's dedication to continuous innovation through experimentation keeps ON moving forward.
• The David vs. Goliath battle ON faces in the fiercely competitive athletic footwear arena.
• ON's enormous potential for expansion into new market categories.

So, get set and join us as we race through the story of ON - a business running on innovation, savvy leadership, and unique design.