Itamar Katan
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What you get when you hire
a freelance product designer who builds.

I don't start with interfaces. I start with ideas, the messy stage where nothing is clear yet, and I take them all the way to working software.

The short version

A designer who ships.

A product designer who builds takes a product from idea to working software: discovery, flows, interface and the code that ships it. You work with one person instead of passing a design file from a designer to a developer.

I'm Itamar Katan, a freelance EdTech product designer and AI builder. From 2022 to 2026 I designed and built learning products at MindCET, the EdTech innovation center of Israel's Center for Educational Technology. Since July 2026 I work freelance, with founders and teams who need an idea turned into a real product.

What you get

Five things, in practice.

Product thinking before screens

We start by defining what the product has to prove, and cut everything that isn't the core. Most products die from too much, not too little.

Something clickable in days

Not wireframes for six months. Sometimes I skip Figma entirely and go straight to working code, because a real prototype answers questions a mockup can't.

The MVP built, not just specced

The smallest version that proves the point, designed and shipped by the same person. Nothing gets lost between the design file and the build.

AI in the product and in the process

I build with AI every day. It lets me move fast, and it means I know from the inside what AI features can and can't do for your users.

Real users, early

Prototype, put it in front of people, watch what they do (not what they say), and iterate. The loop is the strategy.

Proof

What that looks like in my work.

  • STAGA - Three years turning a music-education idea into a student-driven creative learning platform.
  • Hop! - An interactive story game for young children, shipped to Google Play, with 500+ AI-consistent scenes.
  • Mhatzmihim - From idea to a tested voice-feature prototype in 24 hours.
  • Pixel Poke - A Chrome extension I designed and built that turns any live web page into a design canvas and hands developers real CSS.
  • RecordAI - A private, local-first AI meeting assistant for Hebrew and English conversations.
  • The Good Trip - An autonomous multi-agent newsletter system.

More in all projects.

How it runs

From fog to first users.

  1. 01Discover. We start in the fog. Conversations, sketches, wild questions.
  2. 02Validate. Real users, real problem, real opportunity. Fast and scrappy, not a 40-page research deck.
  3. 03Define the bet. What must be true for this to work? We define the bet before we place it.
  4. 04Design the flows. Flows before screens. Simplicity treated as a feature, not a style choice.
  5. 05Prototype. Something clickable in days.
  6. 06Build the MVP. The smallest version that proves the point, built and shipped.
  7. 07Learn. First users, honest feedback, iterate. Then the loop starts again, sharper.
Fit

Who it's for.

A founder with an idea that needs to become real, an education team building a learning product, or a team adding AI to its product. The earlier and messier, the better.

Questions people ask

Hiring a product designer who builds.

What is a product designer who builds?

A product designer who builds takes a product from idea to working software: discovery, flows, interface design and the code that ships it. Instead of handing a design file to someone else to build, the same person designs it and builds it.

Why hire a designer who codes instead of a designer and a developer?

Early on, speed and clarity matter most. When one person owns both the design and the build, nothing gets lost in handoff, prototypes are real software, and you can test with users in days instead of months. When the product grows, a larger team can take it from there.

How fast can you get to a prototype?

Usually something clickable in days. My fastest was Mhatzmihim: from idea to a tested voice-feature prototype in 24 hours.

Do you design AI products?

Yes. RecordAI, AiVi, The Good Trip, Agentic Outreach and Pixel Poke are all AI products or AI-built products I designed and built.

What kind of projects are a good fit?

0 to 1 products: founders with an idea that needs to become real, education teams building learning products, and teams adding AI to a product. I'm at my best in the messy early stage, before anything is clear.

Do you work remotely, in Hebrew and English?

Yes. I work remotely and I work in both Hebrew and English.

How do we start?

Send me a message about what you're building. You can reach me by email at itamark1997@gmail.com, on WhatsApp or on LinkedIn.

Open to new projects

Building something new?

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