What does design actually look like when you're the only designer at an AI startup — and you ship your own features?In this episode of The Blueprint of a Designer, I sit down with Isha Maggu, product designer at Codewords, an AI workflow automation tool. We get into what it really means to design for agents rather than screens, why she often skips Figma entirely and builds straight in Cursor, and why she still believes design is the differentiator when anyone can build anything.We also cover the death of per-seat pricing, how she filters the endless stream of new AI tools, the blurring line between designer and engineer, and the honest trade-offs of working solo versus on a proper design team.We dig into:- Designing agent behaviour — what to show, what to hide, and when to interrupt the user- Why ”talk about the problem, not the solution” led to shipping voice mode- Isha actual workflow: v0 → user feedback → Figma → Cursor (and when Figma gets skipped)- Why building is easy now but maintaining and scaling still isn't- What happens to SaaS when everyone can build their own tools- Working without a PM, and how product decisions get made in a nine-person team- The best and worst parts of an AI startupChapters00:00 Cold open01:20 Intro & guest greeting01:30 What is Codewords?02:01 A simple example: scraping and enriching03:02 The most common use cases right now05:02 WhatsApp automation06:05 The differentiator — 2,000 integrations06:36 Voice mode: talk about the problem, not the solution07:08 What a designer actually designs at an AI company08:09 Designing states and agent personality09:11 What's most exciting about the work10:13 Building Custom UI — putting a face on automations13:35 Personal software and the SaaS sentiment13:58 The Substack-to-audio tool she built in a car16:29 Is per-seat pricing dead?17:34 Building is easy — maintaining is hard18:07 Her design workflow and tools19:36 Prototyping in v021:15 Granola, Notion and why she doesn't use her own product21:55 If anyone can build, what's the differentiator?22:46 Design as a USP for companies24:06 When she goes to Figma — and when she doesn't25:20 Skipping Figma and going straight to Cursor26:26 Using the Figma MCP28:04 From copy changes to shipping full features29:14 Building voice mode herself29:55 The design engineer role is blurring30:22 No PM — how decisions get made31:56 Work-life balance at an AI startup33:32 Keeping up without drowning in new tools36:06 Hype vs relevance37:29 Advice for joining an AI startup39:05 Working solo vs having a design team39:59 The worst thing about an AI startup41:53 A design belief that changed42:09 Design is what you don't see43:32 The capability-first approach44:49 What's next for Isha46:56 Isha asks Dean: the view from big tech50:26 The future of the designer role52:12 Role consolidation53:36 Managing agents instead of making55:23 Question for the next guest► Subscribe for more episodes: https://www.youtube.com/@TheBlueprintOfADesignerFollow us on:📸 Instagram: @theblueprintofadesigner🎵 TikTok: @theblueprintofadesigner🙏 Huge thanks to Isha for such an open and practical conversation!🔗 Connect with Isha: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ishamaggu/🔗 Codewords: https://www.codewords.ai/#ProductDesign #AIDesign #DesignEngineer #AgentDesign #UXDesign #Cursor #Figma #Startups #TheBlueprintOfADesigner