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Background

About

The longer story.

How I got here

I started in graphic design but quickly moved toward product — I liked solving problems more than polishing pixels.

Since then, I've spent 17 years leading design at startups and growth-stage companies. I've scaled teams, built systems, and shipped products across platforms.

I also code. I've shipped production features in React and Next.js, which means I prototype fast, speak engineering fluently, and understand the constraints my team is working with.

I care about craft. Not in a precious way — in a "the details compound" way. Small choices add up to products that feel right.

Photo of Mahdi Farra
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Places I've called home

View of Amman, Jordan
🇯🇴
Amman, Jordan
Birth — 2013
View of Dubai, UAE
🇦🇪
Dubai, UAE
2013 — 2014
View of Rotterdam, Netherlands
🇳🇱
Rotterdam, Netherlands
2014 — 2016
View of Boston, MA
🇺🇸
Boston, MA
2016 — 2018
View of Bay Area, CA
🇺🇸
Bay Area, CA
2018 — Present

What's on rotation

Podcasts & books

Syntax - Tasty Web Development Treats
Wes Bos & Scott Tolinski - Full Stack JavaScript Web Developers
How I Built This with Guy Raz
Guy Raz | Wondery
Land of the Giants
Vulture
Business Wars
Wondery
Darknet Diaries
Jack Rhysider
Malicious Life
Malicious Life
Acquiring Minds
Will Smith
Acquired
Ben Gilbert and David Rosenthal
99% Invisible
Roman Mars
Worklife with Adam Grant
TED
WeCrashed
Wondery
The Startup Ideas Podcast
Greg Isenberg
Starter Story
Pat Walls
Smashing Security
Graham Cluley
Science Vs
Spotify Studios
Reply All
Gimlet
Planet Money
NPR
The Missing Cryptoqueen
BBC Sounds
My First Million
Hubspot Media
Lenny's Podcast: Product | Career | Growth
Lenny Rachitsky
Indie Hackers
Courtland Allen and Channing Allen
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
DOAC
The DesignQA Podcast
Mahdi Farra
Syntax - Tasty Web Development Treats
Wes Bos & Scott Tolinski - Full Stack JavaScript Web Developers
How I Built This with Guy Raz
Guy Raz | Wondery
Land of the Giants
Vulture
Business Wars
Wondery
Darknet Diaries
Jack Rhysider
Malicious Life
Malicious Life
Acquiring Minds
Will Smith
Acquired
Ben Gilbert and David Rosenthal
99% Invisible
Roman Mars
Worklife with Adam Grant
TED
WeCrashed
Wondery
The Startup Ideas Podcast
Greg Isenberg
Starter Story
Pat Walls
Smashing Security
Graham Cluley
Science Vs
Spotify Studios
Reply All
Gimlet
Planet Money
NPR
The Missing Cryptoqueen
BBC Sounds
My First Million
Hubspot Media
Lenny's Podcast: Product | Career | Growth
Lenny Rachitsky
Indie Hackers
Courtland Allen and Channing Allen
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
DOAC
The DesignQA Podcast
Mahdi Farra
Syntax - Tasty Web Development Treats
Wes Bos & Scott Tolinski - Full Stack JavaScript Web Developers
How I Built This with Guy Raz
Guy Raz | Wondery
Land of the Giants
Vulture
Business Wars
Wondery
Darknet Diaries
Jack Rhysider
Malicious Life
Malicious Life
Acquiring Minds
Will Smith
Acquired
Ben Gilbert and David Rosenthal
99% Invisible
Roman Mars
Worklife with Adam Grant
TED
WeCrashed
Wondery
The Startup Ideas Podcast
Greg Isenberg
Starter Story
Pat Walls
Smashing Security
Graham Cluley
Science Vs
Spotify Studios
Reply All
Gimlet
Planet Money
NPR
The Missing Cryptoqueen
BBC Sounds
My First Million
Hubspot Media
Lenny's Podcast: Product | Career | Growth
Lenny Rachitsky
Indie Hackers
Courtland Allen and Channing Allen
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
DOAC
The DesignQA Podcast
Mahdi Farra
Steal like an artist
Austin Kleon
The E-myth revisited
Michael E. Gerber
Million Dollar Weekend
Noah Kagan
No Rules Rules
Reed Hastings & Erin Meyer
The Startup Owner's Manual
Steve Blank & Bob Dorf
Contagious
Jonah Berger
Exactly What to Say
Phil M Jones et al.
The Catalyst
Jonah Berger
The mom test
Rob Fitzpatrick
Radical Candor
Kim Scott
Build
Tony Fadell
The Cold Start Problem
Andrew Chen
Inspired
Marty Cagan
Continuous Discovery Habits
Teresa Torres
Nine Lies About Work
Marcus Buckingham & Ashley Goodall
Make Time
Jake Knapp & John Zeratsky
Getting Things Done
David Allen
The Making of a Manager
Julie Zhuo
Getting to yes
Roger Drummer Fisher
Atomic Habits
James Clear
Be the Boss Everyone Wants to Work For
William A. Gentry Ph.D.
The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable
Patrick Lencioni
Hooked
Nir Eyal
Anything You Want
Derek Sivers
The Motivation Myth
Jeff Haden
Never Enough
Jennifer Breheny Wallace
Company of One
Paul Jarvis
Oversubscribed
Daniel Priestley
The Lean Startup
Eric Ries
The Hype Machine
Sinan Aral
Inside the tornado
Geoffrey A. Moore
Influence
Robert B. Cialdini
When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing
Daniel H. Pink
Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action
Simon Sinek
Good to Great
Jim Collins
Dare to Lead
Brené Brown
Inspired
Marty Cagan
Steal like an artist
Austin Kleon
The E-myth revisited
Michael E. Gerber
Million Dollar Weekend
Noah Kagan
No Rules Rules
Reed Hastings & Erin Meyer
The Startup Owner's Manual
Steve Blank & Bob Dorf
Contagious
Jonah Berger
Exactly What to Say
Phil M Jones et al.
The Catalyst
Jonah Berger
The mom test
Rob Fitzpatrick
Radical Candor
Kim Scott
Build
Tony Fadell
The Cold Start Problem
Andrew Chen
Inspired
Marty Cagan
Continuous Discovery Habits
Teresa Torres
Nine Lies About Work
Marcus Buckingham & Ashley Goodall
Make Time
Jake Knapp & John Zeratsky
Getting Things Done
David Allen
The Making of a Manager
Julie Zhuo
Getting to yes
Roger Drummer Fisher
Atomic Habits
James Clear
Be the Boss Everyone Wants to Work For
William A. Gentry Ph.D.
The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable
Patrick Lencioni
Hooked
Nir Eyal
Anything You Want
Derek Sivers
The Motivation Myth
Jeff Haden
Never Enough
Jennifer Breheny Wallace
Company of One
Paul Jarvis
Oversubscribed
Daniel Priestley
The Lean Startup
Eric Ries
The Hype Machine
Sinan Aral
Inside the tornado
Geoffrey A. Moore
Influence
Robert B. Cialdini
When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing
Daniel H. Pink
Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action
Simon Sinek
Good to Great
Jim Collins
Dare to Lead
Brené Brown
Inspired
Marty Cagan
Steal like an artist
Austin Kleon
The E-myth revisited
Michael E. Gerber
Million Dollar Weekend
Noah Kagan
No Rules Rules
Reed Hastings & Erin Meyer
The Startup Owner's Manual
Steve Blank & Bob Dorf
Contagious
Jonah Berger
Exactly What to Say
Phil M Jones et al.
The Catalyst
Jonah Berger
The mom test
Rob Fitzpatrick
Radical Candor
Kim Scott
Build
Tony Fadell
The Cold Start Problem
Andrew Chen
Inspired
Marty Cagan
Continuous Discovery Habits
Teresa Torres
Nine Lies About Work
Marcus Buckingham & Ashley Goodall
Make Time
Jake Knapp & John Zeratsky
Getting Things Done
David Allen
The Making of a Manager
Julie Zhuo
Getting to yes
Roger Drummer Fisher
Atomic Habits
James Clear
Be the Boss Everyone Wants to Work For
William A. Gentry Ph.D.
The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable
Patrick Lencioni
Hooked
Nir Eyal
Anything You Want
Derek Sivers
The Motivation Myth
Jeff Haden
Never Enough
Jennifer Breheny Wallace
Company of One
Paul Jarvis
Oversubscribed
Daniel Priestley
The Lean Startup
Eric Ries
The Hype Machine
Sinan Aral
Inside the tornado
Geoffrey A. Moore
Influence
Robert B. Cialdini
When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing
Daniel H. Pink
Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action
Simon Sinek
Good to Great
Jim Collins
Dare to Lead
Brené Brown
Inspired
Marty Cagan

Outside of work

Piano, guitar, photography, sketching, and hunting for the best restaurants in the Bay Area.

Mahdi Farra playing electric guitar

Playing guitar

A few sketches from my iPad

iPad sketches

Mahdi Farra's photo from Venice, Italy trip

Venice, Italy

Mahdi enjoying pizza with salami and pesto at a restaurant

Fav Pizza in Redwood City

Travelers at Schiphol Airport arriving to the Netherlands

First time in Amsterdam

View of Pacifica neighborhood from Mori Point hiking trail

Mori Point, Pacifica

Rocky coastline with waves crashing at Mori Point

Mori Point coastline

Dutch bike by a pond with fountain in Rotterdam park

My bike in Rotterdam

Bikes on a bridge over Amsterdam canal with traditional houses

Amsterdam canal

Iced latte in a mason jar on desk with keyboard and monitor

Iced latte at desk

Latte with tulip art in speckled mug on espresso machine

Homemade latte art

Lobster roll with fries and butter sauce

Lobster rolls = life

Vintage Macintosh SE on modern desk with mechanical keyboard

Macintosh SE

MacBook Pro at cafe with latte, remote working

Remote work at cafe

Scheveningen beach boardwalk with people and beach clubs

Scheveningen Beach

Mahdi Farra playing electric guitar

Playing guitar

A few sketches from my iPad

iPad sketches

Mahdi Farra's photo from Venice, Italy trip

Venice, Italy

Mahdi enjoying pizza with salami and pesto at a restaurant

Fav Pizza in Redwood City

Travelers at Schiphol Airport arriving to the Netherlands

First time in Amsterdam

View of Pacifica neighborhood from Mori Point hiking trail

Mori Point, Pacifica

Rocky coastline with waves crashing at Mori Point

Mori Point coastline

Dutch bike by a pond with fountain in Rotterdam park

My bike in Rotterdam

Bikes on a bridge over Amsterdam canal with traditional houses

Amsterdam canal

Iced latte in a mason jar on desk with keyboard and monitor

Iced latte at desk

Latte with tulip art in speckled mug on espresso machine

Homemade latte art

Lobster roll with fries and butter sauce

Lobster rolls = life

Vintage Macintosh SE on modern desk with mechanical keyboard

Macintosh SE

MacBook Pro at cafe with latte, remote working

Remote work at cafe

Scheveningen beach boardwalk with people and beach clubs

Scheveningen Beach

Mahdi Farra playing electric guitar

Playing guitar

A few sketches from my iPad

iPad sketches

Mahdi Farra's photo from Venice, Italy trip

Venice, Italy

Mahdi enjoying pizza with salami and pesto at a restaurant

Fav Pizza in Redwood City

Travelers at Schiphol Airport arriving to the Netherlands

First time in Amsterdam

View of Pacifica neighborhood from Mori Point hiking trail

Mori Point, Pacifica

Rocky coastline with waves crashing at Mori Point

Mori Point coastline

Dutch bike by a pond with fountain in Rotterdam park

My bike in Rotterdam

Bikes on a bridge over Amsterdam canal with traditional houses

Amsterdam canal

Iced latte in a mason jar on desk with keyboard and monitor

Iced latte at desk

Latte with tulip art in speckled mug on espresso machine

Homemade latte art

Lobster roll with fries and butter sauce

Lobster rolls = life

Vintage Macintosh SE on modern desk with mechanical keyboard

Macintosh SE

MacBook Pro at cafe with latte, remote working

Remote work at cafe

Scheveningen beach boardwalk with people and beach clubs

Scheveningen Beach