I am a sole Japan-based Product Designer with experience designing B2C fintech products for global markets and B2B digital solutions for Japanese companies and clients.
Hi, I’m Mara
Animation
UX/UI Design
Marketing Design
AI Learner
My Four Favorite Projects
Each with a Different Challenge
Here’s a collection of projects and design challenges that have shaped my experience. Let’s connect to explore the stories and details behind them.
As a sole designer, I use AI as a design partner to validate UX/UI decisions, organize complex information, and gain a second perspective throughout the design process.
At the same time, I’m learning how to go beyond design and turn my ideas into functional applications from Figma designs to development and eventually publishing an app.
My Experiences
Where Marketing, Business & Product Design Come Together
Marketing taught me how people connect with products, while business taught me to understand their problems, growth, and impact. Product design brings both together, turning solutions into experiences people can actually use and interact with.
More About Me
We may follow the same UX process, but how we think, explore, collaborate, and turn problems into solutions is what makes each designer different.
Here’s a little more about how I approach design and the way I work.
What kind of Product Designer am I?
People often ask me, “Why did you move from marketing and business into product design?” My background in marketing and business taught me that good visual design alone is not enough. Marketing taught me to understand people and their needs, while business taught me to think about data, feasibility, and impact. Product design brings both together—helping me identify real problems, validate them with data, and turn insights into useful experiences that create value for users while driving engagement and business growth.
How do I use AI in my design process?
After experimenting with ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini, I currently use ChatGPT most often in my workflow, particularly for UX writing, exploring alternative solutions, structuring problems, and visualizing UI ideas. As the sole designer on my team, AI has become a thinking partner in my daily workflow. Before bringing ideas to stakeholders or developers, I use AI as a second perspective to challenge my assumptions, explore alternatives, and identify gaps—helping me move faster while keeping the final design decisions grounded in real requirements and data. I mainly use AI across problem exploration, user flows, UX writing, UI exploration, and rapid prototyping.
How do I balance user needs and business goals?
I don’t see user needs and business needs as competing goals. I try to find where they create value for each other. I start by understanding the user problem through research, feedback, and behavioral data, then connect it to the business goal and measurable impact. From there, I prioritize solutions that solve a meaningful user problem while supporting outcomes such as adoption, engagement, conversion, retention, or revenue. When there’s a trade-off, I work with stakeholders to evaluate user impact, business value, feasibility, and data, then validate and iterate after launch.
What does my design process look like?
My design process **depends on the product, users, and project context**. I don’t believe every project needs the exact same process. For **B2C and end-to-end product work**, I usually start by understanding the **business goal and user problem**, then use research and data to identify pain points. From there, I define the problem, map user flows, explore solutions, prototype, test, collaborate with developers, launch, and use post-launch data to continuously improve the experience. **Understand → Research & Data → Define → Explore → Design → Test → Launch → Measure & Iterate** For **B2B client work**, the process is usually more requirement- and constraint-driven. I start by understanding the **client request, business operations, existing system, technical constraints, and actual users**. I then clarify requirements with PMs, clients, and developers, translate them into flows and UI solutions, review with stakeholders, iterate based on feedback, and support implementation. **Client Request → Understand Operations → Clarify Requirements → Define Flow → Design → Client Review → Iterate → Handoff & Implementation** In both processes, I use **AI as a thinking partner** to challenge assumptions, explore alternative flows, improve UX writing, identify edge cases, and accelerate prototyping—but the final decisions are based on **users, business needs, technical feasibility, and data**.
How do I work with engineers, project managers, and stakeholders?
I work very closely with my Project Manager, who sits beside me, so we communicate throughout the day. We discuss requirements, priorities, client feedback, technical constraints, and design decisions together rather than waiting for formal meetings. With engineers, I usually communicate directly with the front-end engineer during implementation to discuss UI behavior, feasibility, edge cases, and design adjustments. For broader development requests or issues involving multiple engineers, we coordinate through Microsoft Teams. For stakeholders and clients, my Project Manager is usually the main point of contact. They gather requirements and feedback, and we discuss them together before I translate them into design solutions. When needed, I prepare prototypes, design rationale, and supporting materials that help the PM communicate the solution back to the client.
