Why my design failed @Myna AI and what it taught me about designing products that people actually pay for
The story of turning feedback into a product pivot
From this
A swipe-based app
AI intelligence, designed for quick actions but lacked depth in guidance.
To this
A multimodal chat experience
Brought AI insights and conversation together, but still felt overwhelming.
And finally this
A focused, task-based experience
Simplified the flow so users could take action, stay motivated, and track progress easily.
What is Myna?
Myna is an AI agent for SMBs designed to help them get more customers
Grow revenue
Save time
Make data-driven decisions
At this time, Myna is seeking $1.5M in investment and working to find product-market fit.
My Role
Founding Designer
Team
CEO, CTO, AI Engineer, Founding Designer, 2 Developers and 2 Junior Designers
Timeline
Early-stage startup (8 months)
When I joined Myna, we had one mission:
To help restaurant owners grow revenue without expensive agencies or complicated software.
My first task was designing the Myna bird Persona, the logo and the brand.
Discover the design process behind Myna Bird
Simultaneously
I led a small team of two designe interns to shape the brand’s voice, build UI patterns, create marketing assets, and launch our Framer website — all while growing our social presence with fresh visuals and videos.
[BLANK: SOCIAL ASSET EXAMPLES (carousel) — social-post-1.png, social-video.mp4]
[BLANK: FRAMER SITE SCREENSHOT / PROTOTYPE LINK — include short usage note: "Click 'Try Myna' to demo chat."]
Partnered with the CTO and AI Engineer to shape interactions and lead product design — making smart calls that balanced usability, brand, and tech feasibility.
[BLANK: FIGMA COMMENT THREAD screenshot that shows a key decision; Figma file link]
Worked with the CEO to turn the product vision into clear design direction, keeping the UX aligned with big-picture goals.
[BLANK: SLIDE / PRD EXCERPT — investor ask or CEO direction screenshot (redact PII)]
My POV (The Challenge)
I joined the founding team at a stage where the core concept was already on the table and the product vision had been set. However, no dedicated UX research or validation had been done yet
No discovery phase
I had to work without fresh user insights.
High speed-to-market pressure
this was part of a release that investors were watching. The execution needed to turn an idea into an intuitive, shippable feature quickly!
Abstract concept
“customer sentiment” meant different things to different stakeholders.
The Founders vision
The founder imagined an AI-powered swipe card interface within the app.
(Something like Tinder and dozen other apps but for restaurants) letting busy owners approve marketing actions in seconds.
The Concept
The swipe card was meant to be the magic- One gesture, one action, zero friction.
The Problem
On paper, the idea was simple. In reality, it wasn’t.
When I showed the product to restaurant owners, reactions were… lukewarm.
01
One restaurant owner swiped through a few cards, then asked:
“What am I looking at?”
They were unclear about what the swipe action would do, where the content came from, and why they should trust it.
02
Another told me:
“It would make things faster… but I wouldn’t pay for it.”
03
Some were even more blunt:
“I can just open ChatGPT and get all this done — why would I pay for another app?”
Insights
The Killer Feedback
The swipe mechanism felt like a gimmick for something that required context and trust.
The product solved tasks they could already do faster — but not tasks they wanted to spend money on.
The interface made them hunt for value instead of delivering it directly.
So the plan now is to
Uncover real-world use cases that would make the experience worth paying for.
01
One owner told me:
“If the app could make my everyday processes easy, I’d pay for it. I want something that’s actively chasing opportunities for me.”
They described their ideal AI assistant — one that could tell them:
What’s happening nearby today?
What are my competitors up to?
How will today’s weather affect my sales?
Quick check-ins on my sales/labor metrics.
Industry trends that matter right now.
Ingredient pricing changes — with ideas.
Key operational reminders.
Motivational boosts for my team.
Opportunities to book catering orders.
02
Another was Blunt
“If you can bring me catering orders, I’ll pay you tomorrow.”
These conversations revealed something critical
Restaurant owner's didn't want to pull information from an app - They wanted an app that pushed opportunities to them.
Making it clear we needed deeper, restaurant-specific intelligence they couldn’t find elsewhere.
The swipe-card concept wasn’t the right experience to deliver it.
Desk research and interviews revealed the major challenges restaurant owners were facing
Managing review responses and maintaining a positive reputation, which is time-consuming but vital for attracting and retaining customers.
Keeping up with social media trends, content creation, and digital customer engagement amidst limited time, staff, and resources.
Standing out and acquiring new customers in an intensely competitive market, while balancing rising costs and changing consumer expectations
Competitor benchmarking and SWOT Analysis revealed exsisting solutions and best practices, weakneses and opportunities for Myna.
Oncovering all of this led me ask How can I make Myna less of a tool… and more of a partner?
As the founding product designer, I planned to ship fast — design key screens and vibe code with the dev team, get quick feedback, and keep iterating to improve the experience.
The Solution
Pivoting From Swipe Cards to a Multi-Modal Chat based experience
It made sense because:
01
It matched how owners already communicate (quick messages, back-and-forth).
02
It allowed trust to be built through context and explanation.
03
It could push insights directly without requiring hunting or swiping.
Explored multiple iterations to see what works
After the initial tests, the experience still didn’t feel right. Since the agent pulled data from multiple knowledge bases, it began hallucinating, and the dev team needed more time to fix it. With only a few days left before launch, I had to think fast. I came up with a plan to buy the team some time while I tested the product with restaurant owners, gathered feedback, and worked on improving the experience.
Also, Myna highlights insights and suggests three key tasks each day — things like replying to reviews, posting on social media, or running a campaign.
But in reality, seeing all those tasks at once felt overwhelming for users.
plus, Completing all tasks at once removed the need to return, their engagement dropped and reduced repeat app usage.
So I re-imagined the experience.
I didn’t want users to feel they had to complete everything at once.
Instead, I wanted them to enjoy small wins by completing tasks throughout the week.
I introduced a Myna score and leaderboard on the very top so users immediately see where they stand when they get on the app giving users instant feedback and a sense of accomplishment.
Figure shows: Low-fi wireframe
Figure shows: Home screen that was recently deployed.
And a progress card to show their current progress for the week, along with a CTA to resume where they left off.
What exactly is the Myna Score?
The AI engineer devised a simple metric that blends 10 key metrics into one simple, credit-score-like number that shows a business’s revenue potential—making it easy to measure and track financial health at a glance.
I didn’t want them to feel pressured to respond to every single review immediately.
Instead, I wanted them to feel confident managing reviews and social media at their own pace.
I designed a task queue, push notifications, and smart reminders that let users handle reviews and social media at their own pace—prioritizing what’s most urgent, pausing or resuming tasks anytime, and preventing decision fatigue.
Figure shows: Low-fi wireframe
I also wanted to prevent users from feeling overwhelmed by endless tasks. Instead, the experience is designed to give a sense of accomplishment as they complete weekly tasks at their own pace, while clearly showing the bigger picture, keeping them motivated, and helping them track progress toward their goals through progressive disclosure.
As a future scope, I also suggested an everyday streak to enhance engagement.
This approach gave the AI and dev teams time to work on the multi-modal chat. I limited the chat to work only within each task, removed the input field, and made it fully tap-based for now.
Before (With Chat input feild)
After (Removing the chat input field and switching to tap-based interactions)
As of today
The app is being shipped out to restaurants in cohorts to get feedback and the team is actively working to improve the experience.
My Learning
This project humbled me in the best way possible.
Good design can’t save a weak value proposition.
I learned that no amount of polish, cleverness, or visual craft can make people care about something that doesn’t solve a real problem.
Speed without direction leads to beautiful mistakes.
We moved fast and shipped often, but without validating the core value, our momentum only got us to the wrong place faster.
Engagement isn’t the same as value.
We focused on delight before earning trust. Real design value starts with usefulness — not aesthetics or novelty.
The right question changes everything.
I stopped asking, “How can we make this simpler?” and started asking, “Why would someone care enough to come back — or pay for this?”
AI is only as valuable as the human reality it fits into.
Intelligence means nothing if it doesn’t respect people’s time, mental load, and goals. Real impact happens when technology understands context.
Failure is a mirror, not a verdict.
Every design that fell flat showed me exactly what I wasn’t seeing yet — and that reflection shaped me far more than any success did.
I'm glad you made it here; let's connect.
