Redefining SaaS product design with AI with Adam Fard @UX Pilot

saas.unbound is a podcast for and about founders who are working on scaling inspiring products that people love, brought to you by https://saas.group/, a serial acquirer of B2B SaaS companies.

In episode #44 of season 5, Anna Nadeina talks with Adam, founder of UXpilot, Building New Era of Product Design.

I spent 13 years as a product designer, working with big brands like Samsung and T-Mobile as well as tiny startups. That experience — fast cycles, tight feedback loops, and shipping under pressure — eventually pushed me to start my own agency. We were deeply involved in ideation and research, and when ChatGPT and other AI tools arrived we began experimenting with how AI could speed up and improve our process.

How UX Pilot started

UX Pilot began as a side project. At first we used AI to help with research: analyzing insights, running workshops, summarizing outputs. Those early experiments were exploratory and messy, but they generated useful feedback and sparked curiosity from other people. Someone asked if we could generate wireframes with our tools. Another asked about automating research analysis. Those little interactions convinced me there was something worth pursuing, so I dedicated a year to build a product and see where it would go.

From side project to product-market fit

We launched a simple Figma plugin to get real user feedback. The first versions had almost nothing in common with today’s product. But shipping early and frequently meant we learned fast. Instead of trying to build a perfect product in isolation, we iterated based on what users actually wanted. That led to a pivot away from workshop facilitation toward layout and wireframe generation — which turned out to be the feature that stuck.

The pivot: generating wireframes and integrating design systems

The core of UX Pilot today is helping teams visualize ideas quickly: generating wireframes, layouts, and designs that respect a product’s existing design system and branding. Many AI tools can generate fresh UI from nothing, but product teams rarely want designs that ignore their existing components and styles. Our focus is on supporting live products — adding screens, building features, and iterating on existing flows while preserving consistency with the design system.

How UX Pilot works now

Our approach is design-first. We generate flexible layouts on demand — you can ask for a dashboard with two sidebars and a bottom nav and get exactly that. We then iterate to improve fidelity, integrate components, and translate outputs into high-fidelity designs. The goal is to speed up product teams, not replace the product context designers bring to the table.

Is AI going to replace designers?

Short answer: no — not in the broad sense. AI lowers the barrier to producing screens, wireframes, and prototypes, so founders or non-designers can generate usable layouts. But there is a clear gap between someone who knows design and someone who only knows how to use a tool. Senior designers will use AI to amplify their work and produce higher quality, faster. Junior designers can upskill faster with AI assistance, but tasks that require deep knowledge of usability, flows, and product thinking still need experienced humans.

“If the role is only about clicking in Figma and moving rectangles, those jobs will probably become irrelevant. But roles that require product thinking, user understanding, and design taste will remain.”

Why UX Pilot versus Figma or other tools

There are many competitors: Figma with AI features, no-code builders, and other generative design tools. What distinguishes UX Pilot is a dedicated focus on visual product design without the overhead of code. Figma is an amazing vector-based platform, but the gap between design and development persists. We aim to bridge that gap by enabling design with code-friendly outputs and supporting teams who already have components and design systems.

Key differentiators

• Design-first, not code-first.
• Flexible generation of layouts beyond predefined blocks.
• Integration with existing design systems and branding.
• Faster iteration and handoff for product teams.

Who benefits most from UX Pilot

Our best customers are product teams: founders, product managers, and designers who iterate on an existing product. They need to ship new features, experiment with layouts, and keep design consistent across releases. UX Pilot helps them move faster through ideation, wireframing, and high-fidelity design while retaining the product context.

Growth and marketing strategy

Competition shows there is demand, but discovery is still hard. Our approach has been multi-channel: strong SEO, an active LinkedIn presence, and a newsletter that keeps users engaged. Growth is rarely from a single channel; it is the cumulative effect of being seen repeatedly across platforms until people search and sign up.

We also experimented with paid channels like Meta ads, but creative quality and audience fit matter significantly. Some channels require months of consistent, high-quality execution to see returns. We prioritize channels where we can reach our target audience efficiently and measure the impact.

Channels we focus on

• SEO and organic search
• LinkedIn and founder/product communities
• Newsletter
• Testing paid channels selectively

The team and shipping culture

We bootstraped the company and grew cautiously. At one point we under-hired and paid for it with long nights and inefficiencies. Today the team is around 15 to 16 full-time people, with a strong engineering bench and an expanding growth team. My biggest operating lesson has been: hire a little earlier. Building a sustainable rhythm requires enough people to own the roadmap without burning out the core team.

Working with AI models and dealing with changes

LLMs and models evolve continuously. Early on I used GPT-4 and even bought additional accounts to bypass limits. That phase forced me to learn the architecture and testing strategies rather than just copying prompts. We explored fine-tuning, hired help to understand model behavior, and built internal tests so we can be resilient when providers update or change models.

Today changes are more incremental than the 3.5 to 4.0 leap was, but model drift still happens. Our approach is pragmatic: cherry-pick the right models for each use case, use fine-tuned models where it matters, and run internal QA so outputs stay reliable.

Tools we rely on

• Custom integrations and fine-tuned models
• Multiple LLM providers to reduce dependency
• UX Pilot itself for internal ideation and demos

Biggest mistakes and wins

My biggest regret was scaling our hiring too slowly. Bootstrapping taught us discipline, but it also led to stretch and long nights for early hires. I would hire more aggressively earlier to sustain faster development cycles.

The biggest win is seeing product teams find real value in what we built. Hearing customers explain how UX Pilot changed their workflows, sped up feature delivery, or helped juniors produce better work is what keeps me motivated. Those success stories translate into growth and allow us to invest more into the product.

Practical growth and execution hacks

Two things I recommend to founders:

1. Execute with high quality. Everyone is trying the same channels. The difference is how well you execute on those channels. If you choose LinkedIn, learn to engage — comment, be consistent, and shape content to the platform rather than copy-pasting posts.
2. Test broadly then double down. Explore multiple channels to find where the effort-to-reward ratio is best. Some channels require massive time investment to work; others can give quick wins if the niche is less competitive.

A concrete example

We focused on a newsletter early. People are genuinely interested in the product and the results have been strong: “We have around 400 to 500,000 subscribers and still getting 30 to 35% open rates.” That kind of sustained engagement compounds over time and feeds product-led growth.

Vision going forward

The landscape changes quickly, so our target shifts with it. The constant is this: enable teams to ship faster and more consistently while preserving their existing design systems. We want to remove friction between design and development, support existing components, and keep iterating with AI to remain relevant.

Parting thoughts

AI is a force multiplier for designers and product teams, not a magic replacement for product thinking. Build in public, ship early and often, measure what works, and be willing to change course when user feedback points you in a new direction. Focus on execution quality and choose channels where you can sustain a meaningful presence. Do that and you will find the levers that actually move the needle.