Overview
You design and build UI for a keyboard-centric productivity hub. You own features end-to-end - from design to implementation. Your users are power users (developers, designers) who value speed, keyboard shortcuts, and minimal friction. You're optimizing for milliseconds and pixel-perfect execution.
Role Snapshot
| Aspect | Details |
|---|---|
| Role Type | Design Engineer (hybrid design + frontend dev) |
| Team Structure | Small product team, likely 3-8 people |
| Tech Stack | Likely Electron or similar for desktop app, React/TypeScript |
| Ship Cadence | Weekly or bi-weekly releases |
Company Context
Stage: Early-stage (likely Series A/B based on Atlassian Ventures backing)
Size: ~20-50 employees (estimate)
Growth: Actively hiring, backed by Atlassian Ventures suggests product-market fit
Market Position: Niche player in productivity tools competing on keyboard-first experience
Location: Remote (EEA, UK)
What You'll Actually Do
Time Breakdown
Design (30%) | Frontend Development (50%) | User Feedback (10%) | Planning (10%)
Key Activities
- Feature Design: You design new productivity features, keyboard shortcuts, and UI patterns. You're optimizing for power users who want speed over hand-holding. Every pixel and animation matters.
- Frontend Implementation: You build what you design in React/TypeScript or similar. You own the full stack from design file to production code. You're responsible for performance and responsiveness.
- Power User Feedback: You talk to users constantly - Discord, Twitter, support tickets. Power users are vocal and opinionated. You're balancing feature requests with product vision.
- Cross-Platform Consistency: If it's a desktop app (Mac/Windows/Linux), you're ensuring consistent experience across platforms. This is tedious and time-consuming.
The Honest Reality
What's Hard
- Power users have extremely high expectations - they notice every millisecond of lag and every inconsistent shortcut
- Keyboard-first design is constraining - you can't rely on mouse/touch patterns most designers use
- Small team means you wear many hats - design, frontend, sometimes product decisions
- Cross-platform desktop apps have lots of edge cases and platform-specific quirks
- Balancing new features vs polish vs performance optimization
What Success Looks Like
- Shipping features users love and actually use (measured in adoption metrics)
- Maintaining fast performance (sub-100ms interactions)
- Positive user feedback in community channels
- Clean, maintainable code that other engineers can work with
Requirements
- Strong design skills - UI/UX, interaction design, visual design
- Strong frontend development - React, TypeScript, or similar
- Experience with desktop app frameworks (Electron, Tauri) a plus
- Understanding of keyboard-first UI patterns
- Portfolio showing design and code you've shipped
- Comfortable with power user feedback and iteration