Embrace It or Fall Behind: Iglika on AI and the Freelance Product Designer

Welcome to our UX Professional Spotlight series, where we explore the journeys and insights of professionals in User Experience Design. Today, we're featuring Iglika, a freelance product designer based in Berlin who has spent the last couple of years working on AI-powered products.

From Business Plans to Pixels

Iglika did not set out to be a designer. "I actually have a master's degree in business. When I moved to Berlin, one of the first things I wanted to do was start a startup, everyone was back then, and I had too many ideas."

The gap between idea and product pulled her toward design. "I tried to build something with my now husband, who's a full-stack developer, but my business experience and his coding weren't enough to produce a good-looking product. So I got deeper into design, and I liked it so much that I eventually switched careers completely." A decade later she is still at it, and still learning the same way. "I'm self-taught, I learn best by doing."

A Toolkit Built for Speed

Iglika likes trying things, and her stack reflects it. "I use Lovable for quick prototypes, and Figma Make a lot, because as a product designer my main tool is Figma and it's easy to prototype something quickly, especially with clients, since it has access to the design system you're already using." Lately she has been exploring Cursor and Claude Code.

AI runs through her research stage too. "Last year I used Otter.ai and ChatGPT to help with insights from user interviews and to prepare questions for user tests." But there is a firm boundary. "When I do UX research I always double-check the output. I don't rely on AI alone." The trend of replacing people with synthetic personas unsettles her. "I've heard of designers using synthetic users to remove real people from the research process, which I find a bit scary."

Client constraints shape what she can reach for. "Not all companies let me use every AI tool, because they're afraid of security breaches and data leakage." Prototyping is the exception she will not give up. "When I have a new idea I can whip up a quick prototype in Figma Make, since Figma is mostly compliant with the regulations as of today. So that's a no-brainer."

Never Trust the Output Blindly

The speed is real, but so is the risk of over-trusting it. Experience, she argues, is what separates a shortcut from a trap.

"If you're not an experienced designer, you tend to trust the output much more. Experienced people always check it and take it as help, maybe a first iteration, but never rely on it solely."

She works the same way herself, treating AI output as a reference to build on rather than an answer.

The Tools on Her Radar

Beyond the core stack, Iglika keeps a wide net: Perplexity, Miro, and ChatGPT with a set of custom GPTs built around her own process. She uses n8n for automations, "more on the marketing side than design," and Midjourney for things like background generation.

The volume is the point. "I keep a Notion database of probably a hundred tools for very specific tasks, because there are too many good ones to remember. When I need something specific I check the database for the best tool for that task."

The Merging of Roles

The tools she is most excited about are the ones blurring the line between design and development. "It's exciting how designers are moving more into the developer's job and can now push to production themselves. This merging of roles is fascinating. I can't believe we've reached this point."

She expects the profession to split along people's strengths rather than collapse into one super-role. "Some people will become design engineers, some will go more into development, and others will merge more with product management and move into strategy." She is skeptical of the everything-at-once unicorn. "I actually hope the role doesn't fully go that way, because that's very complicated."

Build Your Own Tools

For Iglika, a tool is not necessarily software. "Pen and paper is still a tool to me." And as the cost of building drops, she expects people to make their own. "In future you won't need subscriptions to a hundred AI tools. For a very particular task you'll build your own, maybe even one-time, instant tools you discard when the project is over."

That is how she came to vibe coding in the first place, solving her own problems. "When you have the tool set to solve your specific problem, it's unbeatable." Even so, analog still wins in ideation. "Sometimes it's faster to draw wireframes on paper than to spend three hours vibe coding my vision."

Staying Current

She reads widely on Substack. "Felix Haas, Head of Design at Lovable, has a newsletter I like. I also follow Design with AI by Xinran Ma." Lenny's Newsletter rounds out the picture beyond design. "It covers the whole product creation lifecycle, product managers, sales, and it's really useful to understand the bigger picture." The honest caveat: "It's hard to keep up across so many channels."

Advice for Newcomers

Iglika is quick to say her own self-taught path is not a template anymore. Her advice is hands-on. "The best way is to start a side project and implement the tools you're learning: vibe code something, do user research, run a couple of interviews, test your prototype with friends."

For more experienced designers, she prescribes deliberate time. "Block at least two or three hours a week to explore new tools and build with them. No matter how many tutorials you watch, you can't really learn a tool until you try it in your own process."

A Mindset: Solve Real Problems, and Don't Fight It

Her strongest opinion is about taste and intent. "Try to solve real problems. Don't just produce fancy apps, slop. Now that everyone can vibe code, there's an influx of poorly designed products, and that drives me crazy." Taste is the antidote, and it is earned. "It doesn't come from a tutorial. It comes with experience and exposure to a lot of good products, every day, until you develop an eye for it."

On AI itself, she does not hedge. "Some designers resist AI, and I think that's a big mistake. It's already here, and you'll just fall behind. Embrace it. If you're not comfortable with it, I genuinely don't think you'll survive as a designer."

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Find Iglika online:

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We hope you found Iglika's interview insightful. Her perspective on staying hands-on and embracing AI offers practical insight for UX professionals at every level. Want more conversations like this? Join our newsletter for new interviews and the latest UX tools in your inbox.