About Zeal

At Zeal, we're building a workforce platform for distributed teams—payroll, compliance, benefits, the whole thing. As CTO and co-founder, I've seen our company grow from just me and my co-founder Kiran in an office to a growth-stage company with a full product and design team.

The Challenge

In the early days, it was just me and Kiran brainstorming ideas. She'd have something in her head, I'd have something in mine, and I'd just go code it up. Then we'd go back, brainstorm again, iterate. It took so many cycles to get from what was in our heads to something we could actually use.

As we scaled and hired a design team, the communication problem never really went away. Conveying ideas to the product team used to require long paragraphs trying to describe particular UX flows. Even with designers on the team, translating ideas between technical and design functions often meant writing rough mockups that lacked clarity or speed.

Before Magic Patterns, it was almost impossible to take what's currently in the product and bring it to a design-ready phase for improvements. We'd have to create Figma files for entire screens from scratch, which felt like a waste of time.

The Solution

Now with Magic Patterns, it takes just a few seconds. I can screenshot our existing product, prompt it, and iterate right there. The team sees exactly what I'm thinking instead of trying to interpret paragraphs of text.

Magic Patterns gave us a faster way to visualize and communicate ideas across teams. With a simple prompt, I can turn my concepts into visual mockups within seconds, with no Figma setup or design back and forth required.

Now I can build what's in my head, even though I'm not a designer. Magic Patterns makes it easy to show, not tell. Our product team can jump into Magic Patterns, build something quickly, add it to a PRD, and kick off a project with engineers immediately.

How We Use Magic Patterns

• Idea Communication: I use Magic Patterns to illustrate new UX flows and improvements before looping in the design team. I can screenshot our existing product, drop it into Canvas, and prompt redesigns instantly.

• Quick Product Fixes: One example: we needed to add labor posters into our product. The product team was busy, but I felt strongly about how it should work. So I built it in Magic Patterns Canvas and collaborated directly with an engineer. We got it done way faster because we didn't wait for design cycles to even start.

• Marketing Experiments: Our team has used Magic Patterns to prototype landing pages for new products. Pages that would have taken weeks in traditional tools were designed and shipped in days.

• Design Collaboration: Engineers can now build UI concepts even if they're not designers. Before, it was almost impossible to take what's in the product and bring it to a design-ready phase. Now I can just screenshot, prompt, and we're ready for engineers.

Results

The impact has been transformative. We've reduced our time from initial idea to launch by over 50%.

Here's what changed:

• Faster Cycles: As a CTO, my main focus is time to go live from idea to launch. Magic Patterns cuts that time down by a lot.

• Improved Clarity: The team can now communicate visually instead of through text-heavy documents. No more long paragraphs trying to describe UX flows.

• Empowered Non-Designers: Engineers and growth leaders can create UI concepts independently without waiting for design resources.

• Accelerated Go-Lives: Marketing and product updates ship in days, not weeks. It's completely changed our workflow.

Impact

Magic Patterns transformed our engineering workflow from text-based communication to visual collaboration. What used to require design handoffs and multiple iterations now happens seamlessly across product, engineering, and marketing.

Today, our team prototypes, tests, and ships ideas faster than ever, bridging the gap between thought and execution.