From catching employee theft with a no-code app to salsa dancing, Airbnb hosting, and building AI-powered hiring tools — Michael Rurka’s career journey is anything but ordinary.

In this episode of the Design QA Podcast, I sit down with my friend Michael, who started as a designer and is now a Director of Product. We talk about:

→ Why he still thinks like a designer (even as a PM)

→ Letting go of control and trusting your team

→ The messy reality of building products and making unpopular decisions

→ How he reduced employee theft by 99% with a system he built himself

→ The role of gut instinct in product and design decisions

→ Lessons from salsa dancing and Airbnb hosting that apply to building products

→ The future of design in an AI-driven world

→ Why apps and websites as we know them might soon disappear

If you’re a designer, PM, or just someone who loves hearing real stories from people building interesting things, you’ll enjoy this one.

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🔗 Links & Resources

👋 Connect with me (Mahdi Farra):

LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/mahdif/

Twitter/X – https://twitter.com/mahdif

DesignQA – https://designqa.com

👋 Connect with Michael Rurka:

LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelrurka/

Amori – https://amori.life

🎙 Listen to the podcast on your favorite platform:

Podcast Website: https://designqa.com/podcast

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7338K2AkncE4ms1d7zFXRn

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-designqa-podcast/id1823275839

Pocket Casts: https://pocketcasts.com/podcasts/c40bc7d0-35ab-013e-985d-0affe3af2217

Overcast: https://overcast.fm/itunes1823275839/the-designqa-podcast

Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/543c75b1-0cea-4fc0-9775-014018425e1b/the-designqa-podcast

Chapters

00:00 Intro

01:09 Michael’s background: from design to Director of Product

03:25 Transitioning from Design to Product Management

05:19 What he had to “unlearn” moving into product

07:56 Navigating product decisions and mistakes

10:04 Rebuilding products and lessons from failures

12:39 Reducing employee theft by 99% with a custom-built system

14:55 The importance of user experience

18:01 One product truth that’s constant across all industries

19:48 Trusting your gut (but only when to do it)

22:21 Salsa dancing & Airbnb hosting lessons for product building

24:55 Exploring new roles and future aspirations

29:19 The power of curiosity and being a generalist

31:44 Advice for designers moving to PM

33:18 How AI will impact design and product management

36:41 Apps without interfaces — the coming shift

40:10 Emotional connection with AI assistants

43:40 Why AI lacks “personal experience”

44:12 Rapid-fire questions

54:55 Closing thoughts & future projects

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✉️ Want to be on the show?

Got strong opinions about design QA? Reach out: ⁠⁠podcast@designqa.com⁠⁠

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