Rafael R, Freelance Product Designer

Empowering startup founders to bring their product visions to life with engaging user research and innovative product design work every month.

[Rafael R, Freelance Product Designer @rafaelrdesign]

I spent much of this summer reconnecting with family and traveling through Portugal and Spain. Over five weeks, I explored Montreal, Porto, Lisbon, Faro, Madeira, Seville, and Granada. Here are a few photos from the trip. I’m settling back into my routine and enjoying being home in Vermont after a summer of working remotely on the road.

Here are some photos from Alhambra southern Spain! A palace and fortress complex located in Granada, Spain. It is one of the most famous monuments of Islamic architecture and the only well-preserved palace from the medieval Islamic world.

How was your summer, any standout moments?

[Hater Report @HaterReport]

I’M CRYING 😂😂

[Rafael R, Freelance Product Designer @rafaelrdesign]

@celtics @chriscenacjr @dillonmit Such a dumb trade. What were you thinking Brad Stevens?

[Rafael R, Freelance Product Designer @rafaelrdesign]

Meetings are important, they help designers, product managers, engineering get aligned.

Not enough meetings and people on the team won't have enough context or knowledge to execute the desired outcomes.

Too many meetings and people never have time to think, write product requirement documents, do design work or write code to execute the vision.

A balance is necessary based on how many projects and stakeholders you need to collaborate with. About how many meetings do you have each week and would you like fewer, more, or is your current schedule working well?

[Rafael R, Freelance Product Designer @rafaelrdesign]

Lately, I've been neck-deep in freelance product design gigs. I'm diving into the world of AI-assisted design, using tools like cursor AI to craft interactive interfaces for clients, which is incredibly thrilling. I foresee designers contributing significantly more front-end code in the near future, thanks to advances like Dev Mode MCP for Cursor and innovative AI coding editors such as Windsurf.

This shift is fantastic news for designers, as it means we'll be moving away from producing extensive documentation like redline annotations from 5 or 10 years ago. Instead, we'll handle the design and front-end development for web apps, iOS, and Android, and then hand it over to engineers to connect APIs, databases, and the back end.

Check out these cool resources for designers and front-end developers!

https://t.co/yx66qC12Q7
https://t.co/enz1SIwTjJ
https://t.co/0HdCDysJJH

Looking to hire a top-notch freelance fractional product designer? I'm your go-to! Most of my clients stick around for 6, 12, or even 18 months.

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Designers, how has your craft evolved in the last two years compared to five years ago?

Share your insights on what tasks will become more prominent and which ones might fade in the next five years.

[Rafael R, Freelance Product Designer @rafaelrdesign]

Diving into an exciting, brand-new endeavor in my career journey—venturing into uncharted territory like never before!

[Rafael R, Freelance Product Designer @rafaelrdesign]

@aidqen @LyndseyFisk Very well said. Find a partner who can help you out. All people have strengths and weaknesses. So identify what you can do well, and what you can’t. Then look for partners who can help you when you lack certain skill sets.

[Rafael R, Freelance Product Designer @rafaelrdesign]

@ormanclark Folks no changes are needed. Customers, love the new design, functionality, engineers are happy. Let’s build the interfaces tomorrow!

[Rafael R, Freelance Product Designer @rafaelrdesign]

@fjzeit @CoderUday Exactly. It depends on the person in tech, move onto management roles where you’re managing many people, teams, an entire department, or continue to be an individual contributor. They all have merit.

[Rafael R, Freelance Product Designer @rafaelrdesign]

@BrettFromDJ 1758 layers.

[Rafael R, Freelance Product Designer @rafaelrdesign]

@aidancramer Let’s go! That’s awesome Aidan.

[Rafael R, Freelance Product Designer @rafaelrdesign]

In my opinion, the recruitment system for permanent positions in tech is entirely flawed. Enduring 4 to 6 rounds of interviews eats up nearly a month. Meanwhile, as a consultant, I've had a brief 30-minute chat with a CEO or CPO and landed the job on the spot, allowing us to begin collaborating right away.

[Rafael R, Freelance Product Designer @rafaelrdesign]

@uiseptimiu People who design other interfaces that are not websites. 😉 Web apps, mobile apps, & branding design work as an example.

[Rafael R, Freelance Product Designer @rafaelrdesign]

@adam__hartley Nice packaging and branding!

[Rafael R, Freelance Product Designer @rafaelrdesign]

@AmericanStorie3 Skipped ad. 🤣

[Rafael R, Freelance Product Designer @rafaelrdesign]

Unique client as they say. I guess they like your work a lot. That’s great that you do offer rebates as well if your subscription is being under utilized. Even at $500 an hour. That’s a pretty good hourly rate vs the majority of the world. Except for CEOs of huge corporate companies which I’m not comparing you too Brett.

[Rafael R, Freelance Product Designer @rafaelrdesign]

@lizengco Photo!

[Rafael R, Freelance Product Designer @rafaelrdesign]

@hornsby_realtor #1 a bit more classy.

[Rafael R, Freelance Product Designer @rafaelrdesign]

@NoahShreve c. 4 projects at 5k for 20k, less churn, more frequent reliable monthly MRR.

[Rafael R, Freelance Product Designer @rafaelrdesign]

@DannPetty It depends on the budget. Do they need a 5k, 10k, 50k, 100k website? How much revenue is expected to be brought into this website. How long will it take to redesign and build the website.