DNNR Tech · 2024–present
DNNR Tech: everything but the code
Co-founded a two-person studio with 20+ consumer apps live on iOS and Android. I own product strategy, UX and interaction design, brand, store presence, content, and operations; my co-founder writes the code.
- Role
- Co-founder: product strategy, UX/UI, brand, store, content, operations
- Team
- Two people. My co-founder designs the architecture and builds every app; we decide what to build together.
- Timeline
- 2024–present
- Stack
- Figma, App Store Connect and Google Play Console, GA4 and store analytics, AI-assisted research and content (ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Ideogram)
The setup
DNNR Tech is two people. We go from idea to live product fast, and we make the strategic calls on UX, brand, and monetization while staying close to real user behavior. Rather than building AI-first products, we use AI quietly in the background to take friction out of everyday routines: finding what is good at the store near you, waking up on another city's time, logging a drive.
The division of labor is simple. My co-founder designs the architecture and writes every line of code. I do everything else, and this page is about what "everything else" is when there is no one else to hand it to.
What I own
- Vision, strategy, and brand direction. Which ideas become apps, what each one is for, what it is called, and how the whole family looks and sounds.
- End-to-end UX and interaction design for every app: information architecture, content structure, engagement loops, and the flows that have to work inside OS constraints.
- Store presence. App Store and Google Play names, keywords, descriptions, screenshots, and feature graphics; the listing is the first screen most people see.
- Content and social. Launch copy, UX writing, and the posts and shorts that bring people to the apps.
- Monetization and ad UX that does not break the core experience.
- The feedback loop. Reviews, support conversations, and usage data become the next release. I talk to users directly and bring what they said to the next design.
TJ Near & Hot
A community discovery app for Trader Joe's shoppers: the store near you, what people there are loving right now, recipes, and your own picks.
- Designed the community-driven discovery experience from the early MVP through to social engagement.
- Re-architected recipe discovery as a hybrid of carousels and sections so it could keep up with the volume of content.
- Balanced popularity against freshness so trusted items surface without blocking new contributions.
- Turned product detail pages into engagement hubs: recipes, comments, saves.
- Designed low-friction login and feedback flows that follow the user's intent instead of interrupting it.
World Time Alarm
An alarm that rings at another city's time, so the manual conversion disappears.
- Designed the timezone-based alarm concept that removes the conversion step.
- Replaced the tutorial with a sample alarm: the value is shown, not explained.
- Designed the alarm UX inside iOS system constraints while keeping it trustworthy and clear.
- Defined the App Store name, search terms, screenshots, and a monetization-safe ad strategy.
Results
Multiple AI-assisted apps launched and monetized, a cohesive brand across the whole family, and continuous updates driven by direct user conversations and behavior. TJ Near & Hot grew on organic search alone and its rating was rebuilt from 1.9 to 4.4 stars once retention data showed where the first run was failing.
What I took from it
Operating beyond feature-level design is a different job: judgment, prioritization, and execution with no safety net of a large team or a legacy system. A designer can lead 0 → 1 product decisions, respond to live user signals, and ship meaningful experiences without overbuilding. Most of my best decisions here were about what not to make.
