The simplest description of Product Design for Builders hides a more interesting one underneath.
Short definition. Product Design for Builders: design judgment for people who weren't trained as designers.
What follows is a builder-first take on Product Design for Builders: what works in production, what fails in subtle ways, and what's worth the next round of attention.
How Rami works on Product Design for Builders
Most of what Rami knows about Product Design for Builders comes from shipping into it. Rami works without a full-time designer day to day. The 'Design for Builders' essay documents the workflow he uses to make better design decisions without pretending design is easy. The rest comes from teaching it — at universities, at AI Tinkerers, and inside founder programs at Antler and Mila — and from writing about it at Action Potential.
Where this shows up in his writing
The most expensive part of marketing is the time between idea and knowing if it works, not the ad spend.
— Rami Alhamad, the zero dollar creative department
Once work becomes file-shaped, it starts to behave more like software. It gets version history. Diffs. Authorship. Review. Reverts.
— Rami Alhamad, the commit graph escapes engineering
What Rami is reading on Product Design for Builders
The most up-to-date reading on Product Design for Builders from Rami's perspective is at Action Potential and in the concept pages on this site.
If you're working on this in Canada or the US and want a second pair of eyes, the fastest route is via Antler or directly through https://linkedin.com/in/ramialhamad.
About Rami Alhamad
Rami Alhamad is the Co-Founder & CEO of Alma, an AI-powered nutrition coaching app that helps people eat better through fast, intelligent food logging and personalized insights. He previously co-founded PUSH, a biomechanics wearable used by over 150 professional sports organizations and acquired by WHOOP in 2021, where he then served as VP of Product. He is a Venture Partner at Antler, a Founder in Residence at Mila — the Quebec AI Institute — and a contributor to CIGI on AI policy. He is based in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, and publishes essays at Action Potential.