Mahsa Bayat I'm a senior product designer from Sydney with years of leading design at startups.

Handing over a draft PR

In July 2026 I was the first designer at Mitti to try handing over a draft PR instead of static Figma files or throwaway Claude artefacts. Engineers picked up working code that was already signed off by design, instead of rebuilding a design from scratch.

It reached production, and it was a hit for both engineering productivity and return on investment. It's now a recognised way to hand over work across the company.

Same Job, Different Tools

In June 2026 I spoke at Cursor Meetup Sydney #6 about how product design is changing as AI becomes part of the work. The talk drew on conversations I'd had with designers across the industry about what's shifting in their day to day, and what isn't.

The title says it all. The job of a designer hasn't changed. It's still about understanding the problem and making good decisions. What's changed is the tools we use to get there.

See the talk on Cursor Sydney ↗

Mentoring early-stage founders

I volunteer as a mentor with Blackbird's Giants program, a virtual program that connects early-stage founders with mentors through live sessions, 1:1 mentoring and community events.

I've mentored dozens of founders so far, helping them strengthen their product design and storytelling. Usually that means simplifying a complex problem so they can ship and test sooner, and helping them present their ideas with confidence, so their message is clear and memorable.

Teaching designers to find their own answers

I'm always looking for ways to raise the bar for our design team. One example was an Amplitude 101 session I ran in 2025, so designers could answer their own questions with data instead of waiting on someone else to pull the numbers.