Pencil (trypencil.com) is one of the most successful Ad generation platforms that leverages AI to build highly performing ads at scale. It targets mostly agencies and businesses who run ads for their clients, across different industries, sectors and markets. This means the platform needs to support several complex features such as Ad-building editors, AI chat experiences, approval flows, Analytics and performance dashboards, as well as scaling capabilities (i.e. creation of assets targeting different persona, languages, etc).

My Role and Contributions:

I was the Lead Product Designer. My role was both strategic and hands-on, requiring me to balance immediate design needs while laying the foundation for long-term scalability. In the first three months, I managed day-to-day design deliveries while simultaneously establishing a bespoke design system to bring consistency and coherence across the platform. This system addressed existing gaps and set a strong foundation for future feature development. For the following five months, I collaborated closely with the development and product teams to:

• Scope new features, ensuring they aligned with user and business goals.

• Deliver high-quality designs that integrated seamlessly into the evolving platform.

• Continuously expand the design system, adapting it to support new requirements and maintaining design consistency as the product grew.

The Challenges:

Design — When I joined the Pencil team, the platform was in a state of rapid growth but lacked a cohesive design foundation. Nothing was defined—there was no design system in place, and with every new feature pushed, the design inconsistencies multiplied. This was largely due to the team’s focus on high-speed deliveries without a unified design perspective, which led to fragmented user experiences.

Product—In addition to design challenges, the product team struggled with long-term strategic planning. Instead of following a clear product roadmap, priorities shifted frequently, driven by reactive responses to client and sales feedback. It was common for the team to pivot week-to-week based on small, isolated pieces of feedback from client calls, which resulted in short-term fixes rather than scalable solutions.

While maintaining the ability to pivot quickly was important—and we ensured this agility remained part of the team culture—the lack of a strong design vision created significant product and design debt. Features were often built as one-off solutions that eventually became obsolete, requiring rework and leading to wasted time and resources.

The challenge was clear: we needed to establish a strong, scalable design vision that could support rapid iteration without sacrificing coherence, ensuring that every design decision contributed to a product that could evolve sustainably over time.

Agile deliveries:

I worked closely with both the product and development teams within an agile delivery framework. I was an integral part of the daily stand-ups with the delivery squad, ensuring constant alignment on priorities, progress, and any blockers that needed to be addressed.

To maintain strategic alignment, I held weekly meetings with senior stakeholders at Pencil. These sessions provided a platform to gather feedback on our latest work, discuss new insights, and align on product direction. This regular cadence ensured that design decisions were always informed by both business goals and user needs.

Additionally, I organised weekly design demos open to the entire team. These demos showcased the latest design outputs, encouraged cross-functional feedback, and fostered a culture of transparency and collaboration. By sharing work in progress, we could gather diverse perspectives early, allowing us to pivot quickly when needed and continuously improve our approach based on real-time feedback.

This agile, feedback-driven process was key to delivering designs that were not only user-centric but also adaptable to the fast-paced, evolving needs of the business.