Role: Co-founder, Head of Product & Design

Overview

Pikl was an AI-native staffing platform built to simplify the operational complexity of hiring and managing hourly labor at scale. Spun out from Vangst, the business needed to quickly validate demand, define the product vision, and translate a highly complex staffing workflow into an intuitive experience for multiple user groups. I led customer discovery, product strategy, and end-to-end design, helping take the company from early concept to MVP while supporting both pre-seed and seed fundraising.

The Challenge

Staffing is operationally complex. Recruiters, operators, managers, and workers all rely on different tools, yet their workflows are tightly interconnected. Orders arrive incomplete, requirements shift in real time, candidates need to be screened and matched quickly, and time tracking and payroll introduce additional layers of coordination.

The opportunity wasn’t just to build a staffing tool — it was to design a system that could reduce friction across the entire chain while operating at startup speed.

My Role

As Co-Founder and Head of Product & Design, I worked directly with the founder to shape the product from the ground up. I owned product strategy, roadmap development, customer discovery, and end-to-end design across the client web app, agency web app, and worker mobile app. I also partnered closely with engineering to translate product vision into a shippable MVP.

Approach

Grounding in real workflows
I led customer discovery and feedback cycles to identify where staffing teams were losing time and where existing tools broke down. These insights shaped the initial product strategy and prioritized the highest-leverage opportunities across intake, matching, and worker management.

Prototyping before building
I created high-fidelity Figma prototypes across all three user surfaces to make the product tangible before it existed. These prototypes became the foundation for both customer validation and investor storytelling, helping secure five early customers and support early fundraising.

Designing a multi-sided system
The product required three connected experiences:

• Client web app for submitting and managing staffing requests

• Agency web app for internal operations and fulfillment

• Worker mobile app for job visibility and shift engagement

I designed these as a unified system, ensuring consistency across roles, workflows, and states.

Shipping at startup speed
I partnered closely with engineering to move from concept to MVP in a 90-day build, balancing user needs, business priorities, and technical constraints to maintain velocity without sacrificing clarity.

What I Designed

• End-to-end staffing intake and workflow systems

• Early AI-supported interaction patterns

• Internal operations tooling for agencies

• Worker-facing mobile experiences

• Product structure, interaction patterns, and UX systems

• Prototypes and materials for fundraising and customer acquisition

Outcome

The product vision helped Pikl secure five early customers pre-launch and supported pre-seed and seed fundraising. The prototype-led approach enabled a fast, aligned path from discovery to MVP, resulting in a fully functioning multi-surface product shipped in 90 days. Post-launch, I continued to lead roadmap development, R&D, and customer feedback loops as we iterated toward product-market fit.

Key Takeaways

Pikl is a strong example of how I approach 0 to 1 work: translating messy, real-world systems into clear, usable products. The work required systems thinking, speed, and deep collaboration — using design not just to refine interfaces, but to define the product, align teams, and drive business momentum.