Designing at scale
august 2025 - today, continental ag, germany
after years in startups, I traded chaos for… well, a different kind of chaos. Enterprise chaos. The structured kind.
corporate design is a different game. Nothing happens in isolation. Every decision has a stakeholder. Every stakeholder has a process. Every process has a timeline.
Design here is less about speed and more about orchestration. Understanding the constraints you're working inside. Communicating decisions carefully. agreeing to lose some battles. All for the greater good.
startup lad learning corporate patience.
continental hq // jan 2026
quarterly pi planning // oct 2025
Back to the classroom
october 2024 - today, m.sc. usability engineering, germany
going back to being a student wasn't part of the plan.
after a few years in industry I hit a point where I was running on instinct more than actual knowledge. so ofc, i invested all my savings and enrolled myself in a usability engineering master's. Work-life balance was not a concept I entertained during this period.
glow up. An expensive glow up, but still.
another design sprint // april 2025
presenting again // dec 2024
design sprint // oct 2024
Building for a YC startup
february 2022 - april 2024, mixrank (yc s11), usa, remote
solo designer. Fast-moving startup. Massive datasets. What could go wrong?
MixRank was my first real taste of what fast actually means in product. The platform processes enormous amounts of data on companies, people, and tech trends - so the design challenge was almost always the same: how do you surface what matters without overwhelming the person trying to find it?
no one was handing you a brief. You found the problem, designed the fix, and shipped it. Then did it again.
chaotically formative i'd say.
working at home // nov 2022
remote life // july 2023
working in bus // nov 2023
Learning to ship products
march 2021 - january 2022, tractus technologies, türkiye
Tractus was my first full-time role and probably the most varied one I've had.
Small engineering team. two junior designers, two full stack devs. We designed the products, but the lines blurred quickly. I was writing frontend code, building VR interfaces in Unity, designing logos, editing promo videos. Whatever needed doing.
It was messy in the best way. You figure out what you're capable of when there's no one else to hand things off to.
freezing in summers // june 2021
wdym i gotta code? // aug 2021
pizza fridays // nov 2021
Discovering design & UX
2017 - 2021, bilkent university, türkiye
i was always fascinated by tech, code and building so i moved to Turkey to study information systems. Didn't really know what that meant for my career yet.
i gained an interest in front-end development because i would also design on the side. sometimes for student clubs, sometimes for the bills. I liked making things look pretty.
then somewhere between picking up film making courses, playing quidditch and leading student organizations, I stumbled onto Adobe XD. Then UI Design. Then I discovered UX. and it just clicked. Technology, human behaviour, problem solving, all in one discipline.
direction found. specifically looked for ux internships.
cant score past me // nov 2019
mr president - international house // 2020-21
look ma i graduated // june 2021
Where it all started
2014 - 2016, itees, pakistan
before product design, before UX, before any of this - there was iTees. An ecommerce clothing brand which was my baby. I was maybe 16 and did not understand that I can’t do everything myself.
designed the products, got them manufactured, handled marketing, dealt with logistics, talked to customers, probably sent some emails I'm not proud of. Just hustling. sorta crash course in building something from nothing.
origin story, if you want to be dramatic about it. Which I do.
invited to speak @ kaymu // 2015
young entrepreneurs summit // 2016
some conference // 2016
