Hi, I'm Shahriyar or Shahi.

I'm a product designer who's spent the last decade hopping between startups, teaching labs, and obsessing over how small digital details can make big business impact. My path wasn't exactly linear—equal parts curiosity, resilience, and a habit of building things just to see if they'd work.

Where it started

By 14, I was breaking and remaking websites in Dreamweaver and tinkering with Photoshop CS3. Those side hobbies turned into my first "real" role as a site admin. I didn't know it then, but that was my first taste of product design—taking ideas, turning them into something usable, and seeing people interact with it.

Goody.ba: my first big bet

In my final year of university, I turned an iOS development project into my first startup: Goody.ba, a gamified loyalty platform. Think digital scratch cards, coins, and prizes from local businesses.

It started scrappy but scaled fast—60,000 MAU, 100+ business partners, and collaborations with brands like Panasonic, Swarovski, and Four Seasons. A Swiss agency eventually acquired it, but the bigger win was the crash course in building, launching, and selling a product from the ground up.

That experience pushed me to dive deeper into user engagement and product strategy. I earned a Master's in Computer Science and wrote my thesis on extending loyalty programs with gamification—because apparently, I wasn't done thinking about how to make products stick.

My design philosophy

Good design is simple. Clear. Uncomplicated.

I don't believe in designing for the sake of novelty. The work I love most is the kind that improves the experience for the user and moves the business forward.

In lots of parts of my life, I'm a generalist. I'm good at helping teams be more ambitious together—to imagine novel solutions, to ship higher-quality products, and most importantly, to have fun through it all.

Teaching & mentoring

I've always had a soft spot for teaching. For eight years, I was a teaching assistant at the Sarajevo School of Science and Technology, covering everything from Data Mining to Web Design to Human-Computer Interaction.

Outside the classroom, I've mentored over 100 designers and engineers—helping them land jobs, grow their skills, and build products they're proud of.