Shaunak Chattopadhyay

A clear frame forces teams to specify who the users and stakeholders are, what they need and why—specificity that fosters genuine empathy rather than surface-level understanding.

• The practical payoff, they say, is avoiding the wrong solution and finding the right balance between necessary and unnecessary work.
• They treat AI as a drafting aid, not an authority: generated suggestions must be checked against the original research before use.

While revisiting a master's stakeholder project for an art e-commerce website called LSCC, they judged that the case study lacked a clearly framed problem.

• They uploaded it to Claude for a first draft, but did not accept the first suggestion.
• Instead, they returned to early-stage research to clarify who the user is, what they need and why, then wrote a How Might We statement that accounted for both user and stakeholder needs.

The newer element is AI: the method still starts with research, but the tool can quickly draft a problem statement that must then be verified against source evidence.

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Their experience in testing informs the point: bugs, an unclear layout or other functional problems can drive users away, so evaluating the experience means considering usability, navigation and function together. They conclude that designers should learn beyond their own discipline to solve problems quickly, work within real constraints and drive business impact.

During an internship at Oigetit.ai, a fake-news-filter mobile app, they moved from UX design into quality assurance after a few months to check the app for bugs.

They were disappointed by the shift, but came to see it as a valuable lesson after learning more about UX over the following years and comparing it with their QA work.

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The lessons they summarize: product development is non-linear and varies by company; product teams work from a mission, user group, strategy, goals, roadmap and success measures; teams collaborate with support, marketing, sales and sometimes compliance, legal and security on go-to-market plans; strategy covers not just what to do but how and why; PRDs and roadmaps evolve and should prioritize outcomes over outputs; and project management, prioritization and risk mitigation are vital to delivering design.

They completed Udemy's "Product Management Foundations - Strategy to Launch" and LinkedIn Learning's "Project Management Foundations," then published takeaways from each.

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They point to internships at startups, hackathons and school projects where teams built products that users across different industries described as valuable and easy to use. They also emphasize their working style: teammates value their collaboration, willingness to keep learning and growth mindset, and they work best with both support and autonomy.

As a student worker and website designer for the Rutgers Professional Science Master's Program, they audited content and applied UX practices to make the Rutgers Externship website easy to navigate, clear about what the externship is and useful for registration. They also led a team redesigning a website for an art e-commerce platform and link to a portfolio of their latest projects.

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The underlying argument is that the field extends beyond design and research, so learning continues: after listing certifications in Figma, product management, project management and AI in UX design, they note there is more to learn in other areas.

Posts about completing product and project management courses, and a reflection on the QA internship, turn specific experiences into broader lessons about what designers need to understand.

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Shaunak Chattopadhyay says they graduated from Rutgers University–New Brunswick with a Masters of Business and Science concentrating in user experience design.

• They are seeking UX/product design roles and cite user research and prototyping as strengths.
• The post lists work as a student worker and website designer for the Rutgers Professional Science Master's Program, where they helped with content auditing and making the externship site clear to navigate; leading a team on a website redesign for an art e-commerce platform; a UX design apprenticeship with Tech Fleet; and certification courses in Figma, product management, project management, and using AI in UX design.
• The post links to a portfolio.

For brands planning a campaign

A UX studio assessing research and prototyping should start here for the self-described scope, then ask for the portfolio and a walkthrough of the Rutgers externship and art e-commerce projects.

Shaunak Chattopadhyay describes revisiting a master's stakeholder project for an art e-commerce website called LSCC because it lacked a framed problem.

• They explain that framing a problem helps the team understand users and stakeholders, build empathy, and avoid solving the wrong problem.
• They say they uploaded the case study into Claude to draft a first framed problem but did not use the first suggestion.
• Instead, they returned to early-stage research to add who the user is, what the user needs, and why they want to accomplish it, then created a How Might We.
• They ask readers how they frame problems.

For brands planning a campaign

This is the strongest current example of method: AI-assisted drafting checked against early research. For a research and prototyping plan, ask to see the LSCC case study, early research notes, and the How Might We.

During an internship at Oigetit.ai – Fake News Filter, Shaunak Chattopadhyay moved from UX Design into Quality Assurance after a few months to check the mobile app for bugs.

• They were disappointed at first but later saw QA as a way to evaluate the whole product experience: usability, navigation, and functional issues.
• They argue that bugs or unclear layouts can drive users away, and that designers need to understand fields beyond design and UX research to address constraints and business impact.

For brands planning a campaign

Useful evidence that they think about testing and release quality, not only visuals.

• A studio could ask what bugs or usability issues they found and how they documented them.
• The post does not include test cases or outcomes.

In a post about looking for a next UX/product design role, Shaunak Chattopadhyay shares takeaways from the Udemy course 'Product Management Foundations – Strategy to Launch.' They cover how product development varies by company and is non-linear; how product teams have a mission, user group, strategy, goals, roadmap, and success measures; how teams work with support, marketing, sales, and sometimes compliance, legal, and security; how strategy addresses how and why; how PRDs and roadmaps iterate and focus on outcomes; and why designers need project management, prioritization, and risk mitigation skills.

For brands planning a campaign

Shows they can speak the language of product teams and go-to-market planning, useful for cross-functional work. This is course learning; ask for a project where they applied a PRD, roadmap, or launch plan.

Shaunak Chattopadhyay says they completed the LinkedIn Learning course 'Project Management Foundations.' After completing several product management certifications, they concluded that designers need a basic understanding of project management to create valuable designs that meet business goals under different constraints. They say the course helped them understand the strategy and business side of projects and become a better designer.

For brands planning a campaign

Supports fit for teams that need design work delivered within constraints and business goals. This is a course completion, not evidence of managing a budget or schedule; ask for a concrete example.

In a graduation post, they describe interning at startups, completing hackathons and school projects, and working with teams on products that users called valuable and easy to use across industries. They link a portfolio of their latest projects.

For brands planning a campaign

A studio evaluating them for a user-research and prototyping brief should ask for the portfolio case studies behind these claims, especially the research methods, prototype fidelity, and user feedback from the startup, hackathon, or school projects.

Examples: Source 1

They describe returning to early-stage research to specify who the user is, what they need, and why they want to accomplish it, then writing a How Might We statement that considers both user and stakeholder needs. They used Claude to draft the framed problem but deliberately did not take the first suggestion.

Frame the problem using early research and stakeholder or user input, treat an AI suggestion as a starting point, then revise it with specifics before moving to design.

For brands planning a campaign

For a discovery phase, ask them to produce a framed problem or How Might We workshop. The brand should provide access to early research, users, and stakeholders, and expect AI-assisted drafts to be checked against source evidence.

Examples: Source 1

They say the stakeholder was happy with the design and users found the site simple and professional. A later post names the project LSCC and describes adding a framed problem to the case study.

For brands planning a campaign

This is a concrete example to evaluate for e-commerce or art-marketplace redesign work. Ask for before-and-after artifacts, the research inputs, and any usability findings supporting the claim that users found the site easy to use.

Examples: Source 1 · Source 2

The stated goals were clear navigation, explaining what the externship is, and helping people register. They also assisted with registration, hosted webinars, and resolved student issues.

For brands planning a campaign

Useful for higher-education, program-marketing, or information-heavy sites where content audits and task clarity matter. Ask how they decide what content to cut or rewrite and what registration metrics changed, if available.

Examples: Source 1

For brands planning a campaign

They may suit agile product teams that need a UX designer to work alongside other functions on an MVP. Confirm their exact role, deliverables, and how design decisions were handed off.

Examples: Source 1

They summarize lessons about non-linear product development; product teams with their own mission, user group, strategy, goals, business objectives, roadmap, and long-term success; GTM collaboration with support, marketing, sales, compliance, legal, and security; PRDs and roadmaps; outcomes over outputs; prioritization; and risk mitigation.

For brands planning a campaign

Their training can connect UX work to business strategy, GTM, and delivery constraints. For a project plan, ask them to show how they would fit research and prototyping into a roadmap using PRD and risk inputs, rather than treating design as a standalone step.

Examples: Source 1 · Source 2

They were initially disappointed but later saw the experience as valuable: QA required evaluating the whole product experience, including usability and navigation. They argue that bugs, unclear layouts, and functional issues cause users to stop using an app, so designers need more than design and UX research methods.

For brands planning a campaign

For a mobile app or product audit, they can bring a QA-informed view of usability and functional risk. Specify whether the engagement covers bug testing, usability testing, or both, and how findings will be prioritized.

Examples: Source 1

The reflective, skills-focused posts offer an overview of their priorities.

For brands planning a campaign

LinkedIn posts give an overview of priorities but not enough detail to judge research rigor or craft on their own. A brand should request the linked portfolio case studies and, if possible, talk to references before relying on the posts.

Examples: Source 1 · Source 2 · Source 3 · Source 4 · Source 5

They also helped students register for externships and hosted webinars.

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They describe the shift as a lesson in evaluating the whole product experience, not just its visuals.

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The posts describe the work and the stakeholder's satisfaction with it.

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Staci's Studywavve app is aimed at students who lack access to materials, while the posts read as reflective, career-facing notes in the same register as Shaunak's graduation and course posts.

Staci brings ten years of language instruction and community building to work on inclusive design, EdTech, conversational design, and instructional design, including a student collaboration app built from a design system. Shaunak's stated strengths are user research and prototyping, with a method for framing problems and a QA-informed view of usability.

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Richard's post on AI reshaping design roles sits alongside Shaunak's use of Claude to draft a problem statement and their notes on AI-in-UX coursework; both consider where the tool fits in a designer's process.

Richard writes industry analysis and forecasts, including a detailed critique of Figma's pace and a map of shifting design roles, often through argument and prediction. Shaunak's posts stay closer to personal practice, reporting on their own projects, internships, and completed courses rather than assessing the market or specific tools.

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Burhan describes learning performance creative by being the client and losing money on his own stores, then changing how he starts a project. Shaunak similarly reframes their experience with a QA role and a missing framed problem; both end posts with a question or an invitation to the reader.

Burhan works in performance creative for DTC brands and agency output, framing the job around customer language, objections, and conversion.

• He describes running Wasl Creative with high-volume statics and emails.
• Shaunak works on UX and product design, focusing on research, problem framing, and prototyping rather than ad performance.

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The posts describe ten years of language instruction and community building before moving into UX design, an active interest in conversational, instructional, and visual design alongside AI and machine learning, and a built app, Studywavve, meant to break down geographic barriers to student collaboration: an onboarding flow that auto-populates a profile card, filtered search for resources and for students studying the same subjects nearby, scheduled virtual meetups, and feedback through instant messaging. For a project about student collaboration, multilingual learners, or equitable access to learning materials, that domain knowledge sits closer to the client's users than the art-marketplace research in Chattopadhyay's posts.

The tradeoff is the shape of the posts.

• Lapis's posts are a career-change statement and a product concept with a feature list; they show design intent and a design system, but not the stakeholder-commissioned research sequence needed for a studio project.
• They do not describe a framed problem, a How Might We, usability testing results, or a client signing off on a delivered phase.
• If the engagement must produce a documented research step and stakeholder-facing artifacts for a client site, Shaunak Chattopadhyay's LSCC posts speak more directly to that, while Lapis is the stronger domain match when the audience is educators or students.

Examples: Source 1 · Source 2

The posts argue that Figma's innovation pace—variant bloat left unfixed for years, an AI prototyping tool capped around 60 prompts a month that burns credits on its own errors, an MCP server that strips semantic tokens and replaces them with raw hex values—puts users at career risk, not just inconvenience.

• They name alternatives (Pencil.dev, Paper, Google Stitch, Penpot, Subframe, Framer, v0 by Vercel, Lovable) and map role shifts: product designer toward full-stack product designer, UX researcher toward research automation lead, visual designer toward brand strategist, plus emerging titles such as AI experience architect and narrative systems designer.
• A studio whose client is asking how AI changes its team, hiring, or tool stack gets a sharper view from Best than from a post-level method walkthrough.

The tradeoff is that this is industry analysis, not delivery of research and prototypes for a client's users.

• Best's posts are written from the position of a long-time practitioner assessing vendors, roles, and career risk; they contain no stakeholder project, declared research plan, or prototype for an end product.
• A studio that needs a framed problem and a testable prototype for an art marketplace or an information-heavy site still gets more from Chattopadhyay's method.
• Best fits as a strategy or tooling-evaluation layer beside that engagement, not as the person who runs the research and prototyping phase itself.

Examples: Source 1 · Source 2

The posts describe a route from drawing and graphic design through a print-shop internship to designing e-commerce ads, then running own stores and losing money on them, then founding Wasl Creative, described as a performance creative partner for DTC brands spending $500K+ a month across paid socials, with 3,000+ statics and emails delivered monthly, a 90% creative approval rate, and 20 to 30 active accounts.

• Arif also describes a research habit that overlaps with UX work: instead of opening a design tool when a brand asks for more creatives, they dig into reviews, comments, competitors, objections, and buying triggers, on the view that the best creative ideas sit in the customer's own words.
• A client whose real problem is ads that do not convert is better served by that work than by a user-research and prototyping plan.

The tradeoff is the deliverable and the buyer decision.

• Arif's posts point to advertising creative and e-commerce conversion, not user-research plans, usability testing, or prototyping for a client's product; the figures cited concern creative output volume and approval rates, not product outcomes for end users.
• Changing the need also changes what the studio is buying—a creative production and paid-social partner rather than a research-and-prototype phase—so the engagement would need different scope, deliverables, and success measures.
• Where the studio's task is genuinely research and prototyping, Chattopadhyay's work is the nearer match.

Examples: Source 1 · Source 2