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Ayush Saran

Full Stack Product Builder [Frontend Focus]

Turning early ideas into refined, production-ready experiences.

15+ years spanning UX design, frontend engineering and product development. Experienced building B2B SaaS platforms using React, Next.js and TypeScript, with recent work focused on AI-assisted workflows, prompt evaluation systems and developer tooling. Enjoy working in small cross-functional teams where engineers help shape product direction as well as implementation. I do my best work in small, multidisciplinary teams built on trust and autonomy.

CURRENT POSITION

dTravel [ 2023 - PRESENT ]

Full Stack Developer — Front-End focus

Working across Product, Design and Engineering teams to develop and ship features for the core booking platform and AI related initiatives for a large-scale travel booking platform using React, Next.js and TypeScript.

  • Partnered closely with product managers and leadership to shape new booking experiences from early concepts through implementation.
  • Designed and built an internal AI observability platform for evaluating prompt performance, dataset management and extraction accuracy.
  • Improved AI extraction accuracy from roughly 50% to over 85% through prompt experimentation, evaluation tooling and ground-truth datasets.
  • Built internal tooling for prompt versioning, reporting and experiment workflows used by engineering and product teams.
  • Prototyped AI-powered travel search and booking experiences.

PREVIOUS EXPERIENCE

KingdomOfCalm [ 2012 - 2023 ]

Indie Lifestyle Brand — Co-Founder, Lead Product Designer

I co-founded and ran an indie design brand for over 10 years. I was responsible for all aspects of the business from design and manufacturing to marketing and sales. We released over 200+ SKUs across clothing, home decor and accessories.

  • Founded and led product strategy, branding and design
  • Designed and launched 15+ consumer products
  • Managed manufacturing partners
  • Built ecommerce experiences
  • Ran retail operations
  • Led marketing campaigns

Directi

Sr. Interaction Designer

2010 - 2012

At Directi I worked as part of the in-house design dept that handled all the design needs for the various product verticals of the company across B2B web infrastructure and consumer products. Responsibilities included managing a team of jr designers, creating design systems and working with the product and engineering teams to deliver high quality design solutions.

RealTSP, UK

UI Designer & Front-End Developer

2009 - 2010

Worked on multiple concurrent client website redesigns and maintenance projects for european brands using our in-house eCommerce platform.

Digital Telepathy, San Diego

UI Designer & Front-End Developer

2007 - 2008

Worked as junior designer and developer on all current client projects, assisted senior developer with UI and stylesheets.

Education

Kingston University, London

MSc. User Interaction Design

2008 - 2010

• Studied Interaction Design and Usability testing.
• Gained experience in a variety of authoring tools including Axure, Sketch, etc..
• Participated in conducting and analyzing user research and usability testing.

Platt College, San Diego

BSc. Media Arts

2004 - 2007

• Studied Graphic Design, Typography, 3D Animation, Digital Video post-production and Web Development.
• Gained experience in a variety of authoring tools including Photoshop, Illustrator, In-Design, After Effects, Final Cut, Premiere, Maya, 3DStudioMax.

Skills

Design Strategy

  • Translate early-stage ideas into structured product directions and executable experience frameworks.
  • Work comfortably in ambiguity, helping clarify what to build — and why.
  • Establish scalable interaction patterns and design systems without over-engineering.
  • Make pragmatic tradeoffs that keep products shipping.

Product Development

  • Move seamlessly from concept → prototype → production.
  • Build clean, maintainable interfaces using modern web technologies.
  • Collapse the gap between design and engineering to accelerate product velocity.
  • Rapidly test ideas through functional prototypes before committing resources.
  • Comfortable owning features end-to-end when teams are lean.

Visual & Interaction Design

  • Design interfaces defined by clarity, hierarchy, and restraint.
  • Bring product ideas into tangible form quickly — from rough flows to production-ready files.
  • Maintain a high bar for craft while respecting timelines.
  • Ensure visual decisions support usability, not decoration.

Collaboration & Operating Style

  • Do my best work in small, multidisciplinary teams built on trust and autonomy.
  • Default to ownership rather than waiting for structure.
  • Communicate directly, iterate quickly, and keep momentum high.
  • Low ego, high accountability.
  • Figma · React / Next.js · Node.js · Cloud platforms · AI tooling · Git-based workflows

Get in Touch

If you have a project that you'd like to discuss, please get in touch with me at mail@ayushsaran.info.