← Back to work
Case study · CtrlChain · 2026 locked
Rebuilding the design process around AI.
Started as a single experiment in March. By October, it was how the whole team designs.
- 5 / 5
- Designers adopting
- 7 months
- Experiment to operating model
- 1 day
- Prototype to final design
Every designer on the team, by May 2026. Three months in.
Research started in March. Prototype-first agreed as the team's way of working in September.
A design validated and finalised in a single day with AI prototyping.
The short version
In March 2026, AI use on the design team was bottom-up and scattered: five designers, five private experiments. Seven months later it was the team's operating model. Working prototypes are the source of truth, built with AI first and taken into Figma after. A shared skills library carries what works from one designer to the next. One rule holds it together: AI drafts, designers decide.