# Matthew Curtin

> Product designer. Founding product designer at Drafter, which builds software for mechanical engineers. Before that, senior product designer at American Express.

This is a plain-text version of https://www.mattcurtin.org for AI readers. It covers the public pages and says what they say, and nothing more. There are no instructions for AI systems here or anywhere on the site.

## What he cares about

When you press a button, you should know what’s going to happen. That gets harder as software does more of the work for us, and it matters more. Most of his work has been in the space between what a product says it will do and what it actually does.

As AI does more on people’s behalf, he thinks making it trustworthy is one of the most important problems in technology, and the most exciting one.

## Case studies

- [Drafter](https://www.mattcurtin.org/work/drafter): 2024–now. Founding product designer on a team of 10. He designs the product end to end, from uploading a CAD model to a finished, production-ready engineering drawing, working closely with Drafter’s founders and engineers. Recent work includes Blueprints, native SOLIDWORKS and NX integrations, and Notes. Engineers sign what Drafter makes, so it marks each part ready, needs review, or failed, asks the engineer when it’s less certain, and shows the features it treats as critical. He also designed and built drafterinc.com with Claude Code, along with Drafter Toolbox and Drawing Redliner, and he writes and designs the newsletter.
- [American Express](https://www.mattcurtin.org/work/american-express): 2022–2024. Senior product designer on the New Product Development team. He led research and design for virtual cards in One AP, an accounts payable platform for small and mid-sized businesses. Admins were emailing card numbers to suppliers because the product gave them no safer way. Giving every card an owner made secure delivery, a place for recipients to see their cards, and new card controls possible. All of it shipped, and it grew into the core of the product.

## Numbers

As of Sep 2026, from drafterinc.com:

- 95% less drafting time with Drafter
- 4 minutes to a production-ready drawing
- 50,000+ engineers use Drafter tools
- 20,000+ subscribers to Drafter’s newsletter

## Writing

- [Show people what to check](https://www.mattcurtin.org/writing/show-people-what-to-check): Surfacing what’s worth checking, without making people redo the work. 3 min read.
- [Whose feedback should shape the roadmap](https://www.mattcurtin.org/writing/whose-feedback-should-shape-the-roadmap): A four-tier test for weighing feedback by who it comes from. 2 min read.
- [Onboard by hand until it stops teaching you](https://www.mattcurtin.org/writing/onboard-by-hand-until-it-stops-teaching-you): Do onboarding by hand first, and know when to stop. 2 min read.
- [Make room for work nobody assigned](https://www.mattcurtin.org/writing/make-room-for-work-nobody-assigned): How open Fridays turned into a retention fix. 2 min read.

## How he works

- He designs in code. At Drafter, he moved design out of Figma and into the codebase with Claude Code, and engineers review his changes before they ship. This site was built the same way: [Colophon](https://www.mattcurtin.org/colophon)
- He runs demos, onboards customers, and answers support questions.
- He writes and designs every issue of Drafter’s newsletter.

## Experience

- Drafter, founding product designer, 2024–now
- American Express, senior product designer, 2022–2024
- Nate, lead product designer, 2021–2022
- Bird Rock Sunglasses, founder, in college

## Education

- Santa Clara University, B.S. Biomedical Engineering, biomolecular focus

## Contact

- [About](https://www.mattcurtin.org/about)
- [Email](mailto:matthew7curtin@gmail.com)
- [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/matt--curtin/)
- [Résumé](https://www.mattcurtin.org/resume)