Samuel Fatoki

Realtime

Product design

A social platform focused on live, authentic digital interactions, where I was the first and only product designer.

2021-22 iOS

Realtime 2021-22
Realtime’s explore screen on an iPhone: a brunch invite in Midtown, under “Meet up in 10 min or less”

The product aimed to create spontaneous, community-driven experiences that felt fast, expressive, and human.

My part

  • Served as the first and only product designer, shaping the app’s core experience from onboarding to real-time interactions.
  • Defined product structure and early design language while iterating toward product⁠–⁠market fit.
  • Collaborated daily with founders and engineers in standups, shipping new features weekly and refining based on user data.
  • Conducted in-person interviews to validate assumptions and improve usability.

Impact

  • Helped the team reach 3× retention and increase engagement by improving onboarding and interactive UX flows.
  • Strengthened the product’s identity through a fast, expressive real-time interface that users found addictive.
  • Delivered polished, developer-ready designs that accelerated build velocity and supported weekly feature releases.

The hard part

  • Balancing experimentation speed with design consistency while building the product’s identity from the ground up.