4. June 2026
The fifth Inside Design workshop took place at the Antler office in Helsinki and centered on what it means to be the first designer at a company. Three founding designers — Niko Salkola (Zero), Jenna Pitkälä (Userlens), and Veeti Huotari (Realm) — joined to share what their work looks like at the earliest stages of a startup.
The discussions explored what it actually takes to shape a product before there is a system, a team, or a playbook in place. Topics ranged from working closely with founders and translating ambiguous ideas into something tangible, to moving fast without losing craft, and figuring out what design even means inside a company that is still defining itself.
As with previous sessions, the format was dialogue-driven. Students were split into small groups of 5–8, each guided by one of the founding designers, creating space for honest conversation about the realities of being a designer at an early-stage startup — the trade-offs, the pace, and the responsibility that comes with shaping a product from zero.
The evening reinforced the core idea behind Inside Design: bringing students closer to how design is actually practiced, and making the work of designers more visible through shared experience.
