PRODUCT DESIGN / MYNA APP /
Why My Design Failed @Myna AI — and What It Taught Me About Building Products That People Actually Pay For
What is Myna AI?
Myna AI is an AI agent for restaurant owners designed to help them get more customers—Grow revenue, save time, and make data-driven decisions.
(without relying on expensive agencies or complicated software)
At this time, Myna was seeking $1.5M in investment and working to find product-market fit.
My Role
Founding Designer
The Team
CEO, CTO, AI Engineer, Product Designer, 2 Developers and 2 Junior Designers
Timeline
Early-stage startup (6 months)
The Story of Turning Feedback into a Product Pivot
When I joined Myna AI, we had one mission:
Help restaurant owners grow revenue without expensive agencies or complicated software.
My first task was designing this
Myna bird persona
Heyo! I'm Myna.
Discover the design process behind Myna Bird
And then, the company logo—
Giving the brand a visual identity that was clean, approachable, and reflected the bird’s “smart, alert, fun” personality.
Simultaneously—
I Led a small team of two junior designers to define brand voice, create UI patterns, build social presence, design marketing assets, produce videos, and launch a Framer website.
Collaborated with the CTO and AI Engineer on interaction design, leading product design and making key decisions balancing usability, brand, and technical feasibility.
I also collaborated with the CEO to translate product vision into tangible design directions, ensuring the UX aligned with strategic goals.
The Founder's Vision—
The founders imagined an AI-powered swipe card interface within the app.
(Something like Tinder but for restaurants) letting busy owners approve marketing actions in seconds.
The Approach: Get the first version of the app out quickly, raise funds and then scale.
My POV—
The Challenge
Joined the founding team → The concept was already on the table → There had been no dedicated UX research or validation → The product vision was set
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.
So anyhow, I led the product design, shaping how users would navigate, interact, and extract value from each swipe card.
The Concept—
The swipe was meant to be the magic- One gesture, one action, zero friction.
01 Review Cards →
AI-generated Google/Yelp review responses. Swipe right = approve & post instantly.
02 Social Media Cards →
AI-generated Instagram content with captions and images. Swipe right = download packet & post.
03 Campaign Cards →
AI-generated business growth ideas. Swipe right = launch the campaign.
Click here to see the UI/UX process behind designing the Swipe cards
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 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?”
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.
The Pivot — From Swipe Cards to Multi-Modal Chat
Plan: Uncover real-world use cases that would make the experience worth paying for.
Jumped into Work with the Design Team
↓
Created Research Plan (Empathy)
↓
Interview Restaurant Owners
↓
Shape Interaction Flow
↓
Prioritized Features with CTO, AI Engineer
(User Feedback + Business Value + Technical Feasibility)
↓
Collaborate with CEO
(Align with Product Vision)
Early Feedback That Changed Everything!—
When I stopped showing the product and started listening, the conversation shifted.
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.
Some even said they could get similar content from ChatGPT
Making it clear we needed deeper, restaurant-specific intelligence they couldn’t find elsewhere.
The swipe-card concept wasn’t the right interface for delivering it.
The multi-modal chat-based app
Focuses on bringing in insights and action items powered by deep Myna intelligence.
01 Proactive Prompts →
Myna AI could start conversations when it spots opportunities.
SOCIAL MEDIA
CAMPAIGN
02 One tap actions→
Within the chat, owners could instantly approve a review reply, launch a campaign, or get a catering lead.
03 Always-On Insights →
The AI would continuously scan for trends, local events, competitor moves, and operational red flags — surfacing them without the owner needing to search.
04 Text + Voice →
Owners interact however they prefer and get actionable answers immediately.
Currently, the focus is on marketing and growth intelligence, keeping everyday restaurant operations and task management in our future scope.
Key Takeaways
A clever interface isn’t enough. The swipe gesture was elegant but irrelevant without a compelling reason to use it daily.Proactive > Reactive. Restaurant owners don’t have time to go looking for insights — the product has to deliver them without being asked.
Value must be obvious. If users can’t immediately see how a product makes them money or saves them significant time, they won’t pay for it.
Feedback is the shortcut. The most important design breakthroughs came not from iteration alone, but from deep conversations with the target users.
Leadership in design matters. Guiding product decisions and translating vision with the CEO helped shape a pivot that set the product up for future success.
Where We’re Headed Now
The next version of Myna AI focuses on becoming a proactive operations partner — a chat-based assistant that thinks ahead, surfaces opportunities, and helps owners act fast.
It’s no longer about swiping cards.
It’s about running a smarter restaurant without running yourself ragged.
Meanwhile, the company is seeking $1.5M in investment to scale product development, expand marketing intelligence features, and bring this vision to market.
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