Tom Kurzeka
Portland
Oregon
000
PST
0 → 1 product designer thinking deeply about AI and the future of interfaces
I'm currently working on design vision, frameworks for generative AI tools, and advocating for AI fluency across the design org at Scribd.
In the past year I've used design to influence Scribd's strategic vision as well as interfaced with users directly, leveraging insights from user studies to design iterative A/B tests that help us take incremental steps towards our north star.
I believe that innovative interfaces require conceptual rigor and a dedication to craft, the kind of attention to detail that makes complex interactions feel effortless and trustworthy.
I've invested in developing front-end skills to bring my ideas to life. Over the past year I've spent significantly more time prototyping in code and designing and refining prompts for large language models. This technical fluency allows me to think beyond traditional interface conventions towards the future of AI-native products.
I'm an adept research planner and moderator, comfortable with everything from guerrilla user testing to formal usability studies. Beyond tactical execution, I think of research as strategic storytelling—identifying the right questions, creating frameworks for understanding complex user behaviors, and translating insights into actionable design principles.
My approach to user research has evolved alongside my growing understanding of AI systems. I am particularly interested in how users develop mental models of AI capabilities and limitations, and how design can support more nuanced interactions with intelligent systems.
My formal training in philosophy gives me a unique lens for understanding our current technological moment. As a university student I studied history and philosophy of science, writing my thesis on Thomas Kuhn's Structure of Scientific Revolutions.
We might be living through just the kind of paradigm shift that Kuhn described: a period where our basic assumptions about intelligence, creativity, and human-computer interaction are being rewritten. I'm uniquely positioned and enthusiastic about navigating this paradigm shift.
My background in creative writing is a foundational strength that informs how I approach every project. Years of studying narrative structure, character development, and the subtle mechanics of how language shapes understanding have taught me to think systematically about story, voice, and emotional resonance.
This writing background has proven invaluable in my recent explorations with LLMs, where, for the time being, the primary medium is still the written word.