"Hi, I'm Dennis Bilberg - a Product Designer at TimeXtender where I help shape our unified product experience. While I craft digital solutions by day, my passions extend beyond pixels to entrepreneurship and family adventures. Though based in Strängnäs, Sweden, I'm more drawn to warm climates than my Nordic roots might suggest. You'll often find me exploring with my family, from Tokyo's neon-lit streets to Mediterranean sailing excursions. I enjoy tackling interesting challenges and finding thoughtful solutions, whether at work or in my personal projects.
1. What sparked your interest in product design, and how did you get started?
My journey began in the music industry, where I sold songs, loops, and digital assets across multiple businesses. The entrepreneurial spirit had been with me from a young age.
Another moment came at age 15 when I worked on an ambitious project developing a music recognition service – similar to Shazam – that could identify songs playing on the radio. Diving into technical challenges like audio fingerprinting and spectrogram analysis was fascinating. We saw potential not just for consumers but also for emerging music services in Sweden's tech landscape.
The iPhone revolution and the shift toward mobile-first design captivated me, prompting me to enroll in a 6-month program focused on 3D animation and graphics. I fell in love with the craft – learning about 3D space, physics simulations, and the subtle details that make animations feel natural. Ask any of my colleagues – I can discuss micro-animations for hours!
During the program, our team won a commercial competition sponsored by a Swedish company. This victory led to our first client when we launched our creative agency. While working on their rebranding project, a chance conversation with their web developer introduced me to web development. His enthusiasm was infectious, and I began coding that same night.
This experience inspired me to pursue a computer science degree, leading to diverse projects – from AI solutions for banks to optimization work for IKEA, and from government emergency services to electric vehicle initiatives with Porsche.
I discovered TimeXtender through a YouTube recommendation, where I saw an elegant solution to a problem I'd encountered in my previous work. When I noticed they had an opening for a Product Designer, I knew it was the perfect opportunity. The rest, as they say, is history!
2. What does a typical workday in your role look like?
As a Product Designer, I balance two key perspectives: the external user experience and our internal business objectives. My daily activities vary depending on our position in the build cycle. Each cycle begins with our design team reviewing written pitches, analyzing both user needs and business goals to ensure alignment. We're then assigned to cross-functional squads, where we collaborate with developers to evaluate the technical feasibility of our proposals.
Our design process is iterative and methodical. We start with basic design elements and gradually increase the level of detail until we achieve a comprehensive product vision. A typical day begins with squad meetings spread throughout the week, where we conduct temperature checks on ongoing projects. After these meetings, I dive into design iterations, sketching out ideas and sharing updates at the next daily standup.
Once the squad reaches consensus on a design, we move to the handover phase, providing developers with detailed guidance on both visual elements and functionality. Notably, designers and developers work on slightly different cycles – while the development team implements the current design, we designers are already exploring pitches for the next cycle. This approach ensures we maintain momentum and strategic alignment.
3. What’s the most rewarding aspect of your job?
I firmly believe that design isn't a cost – it's an investment that creates compounding value for both our company and users. Being a designer provides a unique perspective and responsibility. We're tasked with understanding disconnected components and visualizing how they'll fit together into a cohesive system, often several steps ahead.
There's a common misconception that designers simply create attractive interfaces. In reality, visual design work accounts for only about 20% of what we do. Most of our role involves deep analysis and communication – understanding what we're initially asked to build versus what we should build after synthesizing feedback and insights. It's about examining the product through multiple lenses and considering diverse perspectives. This multilayered thinking makes team communication both challenging and essential. Different stakeholders naturally think about products in different ways, and bridging these perspectives is central to our role.
What I find most fulfilling is solving complex problems. There's nothing quite like facing a seemingly insurmountable challenge, breaking it down methodically, and watching the pieces fall into place. Those moments when persistence and creative thinking lead to elegant solutions – that's what makes this job truly rewarding.
4. What advice would you give to someone who is interested in pursuing a similar role?
Don't shy away from new projects and ideas. Even unfinished work gives you a chance to explore your knowledge, review mistakes, and uncover follow-up ideas. Speaking of reviews: share your work and ask others to review it—it helps a lot, especially when you're starting out and making trivial mistakes. We all make them, but finding them together is much more productive (AI can help with that too)."
Dennis' number one tips for new designers:
5. Can you walk us through a project or task that you found particularly challenging or exciting?
I've worked on many exciting projects, but one of my strongest memories is my first task at TimeXtender. I was asked to review our onboarding flow, which included examining how we present information when users add their first data sources. This was a significant challenge as it incorporated many elements that needed to fit together in a logical flow. Since I was still learning about our product, it forced me to ask the right questions. In the end, we managed to make the whole experience easier while providing more guidance for our users.
6. How do you stay up to date with the trends and skills needed for your role?
My strategy combines active community involvement with efficient content consumption. For years, I've served as a mentor in various design communities, which I find invaluable for mutual growth and learning. It's fascinating to observe patterns in how designers at different skill levels focus their attention and development.
The design community's online presence is quite dynamic. While platforms like Dribbble, Behance, Awwwards, Reddit, and Medium were once the primary hubs, the most engaging design discussions and inspiration have shifted. Currently, the most vibrant conversations are happening on X, YouTube, Product Hunt, Hacker News, and select Discord communities.
To efficiently manage information flow, I've developed a custom web solution similar to Google News. It aggregates and summarizes tech-related content from various sources, making it easier to digest key information quickly. I've also integrated NotebookLM to convert interesting articles into podcast format, allowing me to stay updated while on the move – whether I'm at the gym or commuting. This flexibility to switch between reading and listening helps me maintain consistent learning while adapting to different daily scenarios.
This multilayered approach – combining mentorship, online community engagement, and personalized content consumption – helps me stay current while continuing to grow in my role.
7. What personal traits do you believe have helped you succeed in your role?
I've always been passionate about technology and design, particularly color and textures. When you're naturally curious about these topics, working in the field becomes more of a passion than just a job. I believe my greatest strength is my intuitive sense for user interaction – understanding when an IT system feels natural and enjoyable to use. While problem-solving and systems thinking can be taught, it's more challenging to develop that innate feeling for what makes something both aesthetically pleasing and functionally elegant. This goes beyond just understanding the fundamentals. Empathy is another crucial trait in this role. It enables me to deeply understand users' needs, pain points, and behaviors, allowing me to craft products that truly serve their purposes.
8. How are you currently using AI in your role, if at all?
As someone with experience in both design and development, I'm genuinely excited about AI's evolving role in our industry. My approach is targeted: rather than seeking a one-size-fits-all solution, I focus on matching specific AI tools to particular challenges.
Perplexity is my daily starting point – it often provides more relevant results than traditional search engines for certain use cases. (Credit to Joseph's Medium article on becoming an instant expert, which taught me some valuable techniques I hadn't discovered.)
For design collaboration, I primarily use Anthropic's Claude as my go-to sparring partner. It's been instrumental in helping me develop several personal Figma extensions, these extensions help streamline pitch analysis and proposal generation, accelerating my process.
My AI toolkit also includes several other specialized tools:
- Midjourney for image creation
- Grok for automation (which includes Flux for image generation)
- Gemini for AI agents
- Sora for video creation
- Notion AI for streamlined note-taking and content management
The key is understanding each tool's strengths and applying them strategically to enhance rather than replace the work process.
9. How do you envision AI transforming your role or the industry in the coming year?
I believe we're at a pivotal moment where AI adoption will become less optional and more imperative. Unlike previous AI developments, today's tools are accessible to the general public. As an early adopter with a development background, I've been able to explore and implement various AI solutions quickly. I've created multiple AI agents for diverse applications – from streamlining email management to optimizing home networks and generating automated financial reports in Notion.
I anticipate the most significant transformation will occur in personal software development. We're already seeing this with accessible tutorials that enable anyone to create AI-powered applications, like games, in just minutes. This democratization of technology means people won't need to wait for entrepreneurs to build solutions – they can create customized tools themselves from home.
The designer's toolkit and priorities will undergo substantial changes. What we consider resource-intensive today will become increasingly accessible tomorrow, shifting our focus to new challenges and opportunities. Some emerging workflows include:
- Analyzing user data with custom GPTs
- Building designs directly using Cursor/Replit
- Collaborating with Gemini Live for real-time editing
- Creating hero sections with Gen3
- Animate with Sora
- Generating handover materials with HeyGen
- Producing custom audio with Suno
The pace of AI evolution is so rapid that this list might be outdated even as I share it – and that's exactly what makes this period so exciting."