DW/ Product Design

Product design — research through handoff

Product design for software that has to work.

Nuclear schedulers, pharma sales teams, payment developers. I design for people who can't afford a confusing screen.

Start a project See the work
In software design
10 years
Mentor
ADPList
Research through engineering handoff
Energy, pharma, cybersecurity, payments, enterprise SaaS

Selected work

Regulated, technical, and shipped.

Nuclear operations, health data, clinical supply, payments and retail.

CoraMed buyer dashboard with drug search and an order list showing a quote received

Featured — CoraMed

Comparator Sourcing

A platform connecting clinical trial buyers directly to manufacturers. Buyer dashboards first, then manufacturer workflows shaped in a multi-day workshop.

NucleusForge IT screening console on a desktop monitor: fleet overview of six nuclear units with output, outage and screening counts, an AI-assist rollout timeline, and a fleet briefing panel of flagged tickets awaiting review

FPL

NucleusForge

AI-assisted screening workflow for nuclear operations. Regulatory gap analysis, flows, and a Figma Make prototype that cut iteration from weeks to hours.

Tuner line item settings screen, with a campaign list and an optimization panel of constraints, values and priorities

Valassis

Tuner

A campaign optimization tool that let Business Analysts do work only Data Scientists could. Two quarters of sprints, from experimental interface to engineering handoff.

IQVIA Evidence Platform home screen with patient counts, a chart of patients per indication, and a map of European data sources

IQVIA

European Real-World Evidence

A new research product for regulated European health data. Usability testing reshaped the first prototype, then the process repeated for two more user roles.

Cision Press Release Builder on a laptop: a list of press releases with headline, date, company and draft status, and a Create a New AI Press Release button

PR Newswire / Cision Labs

Press Release Builder

A generative AI MVP built inside an established design system, so it felt native to the product.

Field Case Manager iPad app for Pfizer / Onco360, showing a list of health care providers with pending and active cases

Pfizer / Onco360

Field Case Manager

A native iPad app that replaced a daily spreadsheet-filtering routine with a clear list of action items for field reps.

Gatorade Team Zone login screen on a laptop: the G Team Zone logo over email and password fields and an orange Login button

Gatorade / PepsiCo

TeamZone

A team ordering platform taken to a minimum loveable product in three months.

Spreedly customer portal dashboard on a tablet and a phone: billing total, API usage counts, and a line chart of all transactions over 24 hours

Spreedly

Customer Portal

One account console replacing several fragmented tools.

Spreedly support site on a laptop: system status bar, a transaction token search, and cards for developer docs, API guides, getting started, platforms and billing

Spreedly

Support App

The company's first support knowledge base, with transaction debugging. Designed and built front-end in two releases.

Barbell Academy app on a phone: personal records, a progress chart for five lifts, completed workouts this week, and today's workout with a Start Workout button

Founder

Barbell Academy

A strength-training app and business I founded, designed, and sold.

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Why it works

Evidence first, then pixels, then code.

  • Research before pixels

    Interviews, contextual inquiry, workshops, usability tests. At Valassis I shipped an experimental interface first, so usage data could tell us what to build. At IQVIA, one round of testing found five problems before we had invested further.

  • Prototypes that make the argument

    Sketches, flows, wireframes, then clickable or coded prototypes (HTML, CSS, JavaScript) and generative prototyping. Stakeholders react to behavior, not static screens.

  • Built with engineering

    Component libraries, page models, grooming sessions, front-end support. At Spreedly, I wrote the front end myself.

  • Scope that survives the calendar

    Phased releases and clear MVP lines. At Spreedly, the layout was built to extend, so release two slotted in without a redesign. At Gatorade, when time ran short, I moved to proven e-commerce patterns and shipped.

Case in depth — Tuner, Valassis

Work only a few experts could do, opened up to analysts.

Business Analysts couldn't optimize the campaigns they owned. Only a few Data Scientists working in Python, R, and Jupyter notebooks could.

Tuner line item settings screen, with a campaign list and an optimization panel of constraints, values and priorities
  1. 01

    Start with evidence

    The lead engineer and I released an experimental interface to a small group of Data Scientists. Usage data showed which optimizations people actually made.

  2. 02

    Discover the workflow

    Stakeholder interviews, contextual inquiries, and a design workshop. In the workshop, participants sketched on printed interface shells.

  3. 03

    Narrow, then explore

    Static wireframes to settle scope. Rapid prototyping for interaction patterns once the core was clear.

  4. 04

    Deliver and stay

    Components and page models to engineering. Embedded through grooming across two quarters, with a feedback loop after launch.

What I'd change: clearer system feedback after each optimization.

Process

Four steps, no handoff cliff.

  1. Step 1

    Understand

    Stakeholder interviews, user interviews, observation.

  2. Step 2

    Structure

    Sketches, user flows, wireframes.

  3. Step 3

    Test

    Interactive prototypes, usability testing.

  4. Step 4

    Hand off

    Components, page models, front-end support, feedback after launch.

Worked with

FPL · Mercator Digital · Cision / PR Newswire · IQVIA · Valassis · PepsiCo / Gatorade · Pfizer / Onco360 · Spreedly · SmartRecruiters

Questions

Do you write code?

Yes. I build HTML, CSS, and JavaScript prototypes, and I've shipped front-end work.

Can you work in regulated industries?

Yes. Nuclear operations at FPL, regulated European health data at IQVIA, pharma field teams for Pfizer, and payments at Spreedly.

Do you design AI features?

Yes. An AI-assisted nuclear screening workflow at FPL, an AI-driven cyber decision-support platform at Mercator Digital, and generative AI tools at Cision.

What if there's no budget for testing?

Even a small round helps. At IQVIA, one round of testing found five problems before we had invested further.

Which tools do you use?

Figma and Figma Make, coded prototypes in HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, and generative tools. Sketches by hand first.

How do we start?

Send the product, the stage, and the deadline using the form below. I'll reply with next steps and an available start date.

Start a project

Tell me what has to work.

The product, the stage, and the deadline. I'll reply with next steps and an available start date.

Prefer email? danewesolko@gmail.com