Are You Building the Right Thing? Why User Insight Still Anchors AI-Native Design — Max Celko, Rapid Data

Max Celko’s path into product design leadership runs through trend forecasting and journalism, with a single thread connecting each stage: the desire to understand what is emerging in the world and translate it into something tangible. In his earlier work, he uncovered user needs and pain points to feed innovation workshops, then wrote about new developments in technology, design, culture, and economy, before moving closer to the product itself in order to test ideas with users and improve them iteratively. 

Now Director of Product Design at Rapid Data, a private equity-backed software company in the death care space, he leads design across both B2C and B2B products, placing user-centred design at the core of quantitative and qualitative research, cross-departmental collaboration, and an increasingly AI-driven way of working.

What sparked your transition from journalism to product design?

Max explains the common thread running through his career and why he wanted to move closer to product.

“The common thread is that I wanted to think about and be involved in developing solutions in a digital space. First, I was working more on a conceptual level, in trend forecasting, doing user research on needs and pain points, which would then be the basis for innovation workshops with companies, and translating those insights into concepts. With journalism, it was mostly the same topics: new trends in technology, design, innovation, culture, and economy.

This led me closer to product design, because I wanted to not only work on a conceptual level but also take the next step, turning the insights we uncover in innovation strategy into products that you can bring into the market, test with users, get feedback on, and iteratively improve. It was a journey from more research and conceptual strategy work towards more product-focused work that is, of course, still strategic, but closer to the product.”

What excites you about your role in Rapid Data?

Max describes a role centred on understanding users and on driving more streamlined, interconnected processes across departments.

“I am Director of Product Design at Rapid Data, a private equity-backed software company in the funeral and death care space. We have both a B2C and a B2B side, and I work on products for both markets. User-centred design is at the centre: understanding users, their needs, their pain points, and their problems, so we are sure we are developing the right thing for our customers. That involves a lot of quantitative and qualitative user research, surveys, analytics, and data analysis, and then turning those insights into actual user experiences to influence business impact.

Another aspect is driving processes to help us work more efficiently and in a more interconnected way across departments, from developing research processes to design processes. Nowadays that involves a lot of AI. 

The big topic right now is how we integrate AI into both research and design work, from documenting and analysing insights and uncovering themes and patterns, through to design and handing over to development. User research is also a collaborative, multidisciplinary effort with sales, customer success, customer service, and onboarding, gathering and merging all those insights and using AI to uncover what matters.”

How has AI reshaped your design and development workflow?

Max explains how the classic Figma-based process has flipped, and how his team now works with a key screen approach.

“When I joined the company a bit over a year ago, we had to deal with a lot of legacy processes. There were silos between departments and no clear structure for how we collected and categorised insights. AI has had a huge impact on how we design. In the past, there was the classic Figma-based approach, with a lot of concepting and prototyping before coding. Now the process has basically flipped, and we go directly into prototyping with HTML, trying to bypass Figma.

We call it the key screen approach. We have our design system and patterns uploaded to AI, to Claude Cowork and Claude Design, and we design directly in Claude based on that design system. If we have to develop a new pattern for a new functionality that does not exist yet, we create a single high-fidelity key screen in Figma, because Claude Cowork is more about the flows than high fidelity. 

So development receives an HTML prototype plus one single Figma screen. That is a very different way of working compared to just three months ago. On the development side, it is equally impressive: they feed tickets and user stories into their AI tool, which develops on its own, and a product manager steps in only to resolve conflicts between requirements before the AI continues.”

Where do most organisations struggle with research, design, and implementation?

Max argues that the real challenge is balancing speed with meaning, and resisting the urge to ship for the sake of it.

“I think it is about balancing speed and making sure that what you create is actually meaningful. Nowadays it is so easy and quick to develop features that you can launch things very quickly, but the question is whether you are launching the right thing. In one month, you could launch thirty features, but do they make sense? Is it something customers really need? If not, you are just cluttering your user experience and making it worse.

So it is really about understanding the key problems, pain points, and requirements of your users and translating that into the experience, while holding yourself back from churning out features that do not even make sense. User insights, needs, and problems are at the centre, and that is why design is becoming more and more interconnected with user research. It has always been, but now it is even more important because the cycles are so quick.”

How will the relationship between product, design, and research evolve over the next 3 to 5 years?

Max sees the disciplines collapsing into one continuous stream, with a new AI layer to design for.

“These roles will become increasingly interconnected. Design, implementation, research, and product management will become one continuous process. In the past, it was different cycles: design, then testing, discovery, implementation, testing. That collapses into one continuous work stream, and design cannot really exist without insight and research work anymore. Depending on how robust your design system is, you will design primarily in AI, or even directly in code, and then review it afterwards from a usability perspective and make adjustments.

You also have to think about the AI layer. In the past we developed user journeys and flows with screens, but now you have to think about how AI influences the experience and how you provide value through AI functionality. That is a new type of user experience you need to design. Looking further ahead, interfaces will become more fluid and intelligent. 

Today personalisation is mostly curation, as you see on TikTok or Instagram, rather than creation. In the future, platforms could move into personalised creation, generating content and even interfaces based on your preferences, needs, and context.”

What have you learned about building collaborative teams?

Max reflects on facilitating collaboration and the single quality he looks for most when building a team.

“The most important thing is to bring people to the same table, facilitating conversations between departments so that we share the same goals and objectives, and highlighting the benefit for each department’s workflows and for the company as a whole. If you can show how shared processes and collaboration have a positive impact, that is very powerful and helps bring people together around a common goal.

When hiring, it depends on the role, but generally I look for someone who can take responsibility for their designs and not just implement something. They should be able to explain why they did something, the rationale behind it, and what they achieved, or even why it failed. I am looking for that understanding of the broader factors that underpin design decisions.”

What’s one question every product leader should ask before launching?

Max distils his philosophy into a single test that ties user problems directly to business outcomes.

“The question is: are we building the right thing for our customers? Is this feature actually solving a user problem? And by solving that problem, are we making an impact on our business outcomes? So, first of all, is there a customer problem that we are solving, and by solving it, does it help us with our business outcomes?”

Join the Conversation: The Ortus Club’s Executive Network

As Max Celko’s perspective shows, the pressures facing design and product leaders, from AI-native workflows to the discipline of shipping only what truly matters, are rarely navigated in isolation. As cycles accelerate and the boundaries between research, design, and development dissolve, leaders increasingly rely on candid peer dialogue to pressure-test their approaches and learn how others are adapting.

At The Ortus Club, we host curated executive roundtables that bring together senior leaders facing exactly these challenges. Step beyond the hype around AI and design tooling, and join the kind of open, high-value conversations that connect emerging capability to real user and business outcomes.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: What is the key screen approach to product design?

A: It is a workflow where a team designs directly in AI using an established design system, produces an HTML prototype, and creates only a single high-fidelity screen in a tool like Figma when a genuinely new pattern is needed and handed over to development.

Q: How is AI changing the relationship between design, research, and product management?

A: AI is collapsing these once-separate cycles into one continuous, interconnected work stream, so design can no longer be practically separated from insight, discovery, and user research work.

Q: What is the difference between personalisation as curation and as creation?

A: Curation personalises which existing content a user sees, as social platforms do with feeds, whereas creation would have a platform generate new content, or even new interfaces, tailored to a user’s preferences, needs, and context.

Q: What is the most important question to ask before launching a feature?

A: Whether the feature actually solves a real customer problem, and whether solving that problem improves business outcomes, rather than simply adding features that clutter the user experience.

Q: What quality should leaders look for when hiring designers?

A: The ability to take ownership of design decisions and articulate the rationale and impact behind them, rather than simply implementing work, along with an understanding of the broader factors that underpin those decisions.