About Karl

Hi, I'm Karl Friend, a Tauranga-based Senior Product Designer and Product Lead with 15+ years' experience designing SaaS products, web platforms, mobile apps, onboarding flows and complex customer workflows.

I've founded, led and designed products used by hundreds of organisations, worked with boards and investors, helped raise funding, managed product and development teams, and stayed close to the customers using the software every day.

15+

Years in product & SaaS

1M+

Active platform users

700+

Organisations served

$2m

Equity funding helped raise

Founder, product leader, hands-on designer

I co-founded and led Friendly Manager, growing it to over $1.5 million in recurring revenue, 700 clients, 1 million active users and a team of 17. I've sat on both sides of the table — setting product strategy and working with boards and investors, and designing and shipping the software itself.

Today I focus on hands-on senior product design: understanding complex customer workflows, simplifying them, and using AI to move faster from problem to buildable product.

What makes my background different

I understand business, not just design

I've worked across pricing, packaging, sales demos, onboarding, retention, funding and product strategy.

I can talk to customers directly

I don't need all insight to come through someone else. I'm comfortable asking questions, finding the real pain and turning that into product direction.

I work well with developers

I understand technical trade-offs, edge cases, integrations, permissions and what it takes to make designs buildable.

I use AI practically

I use Claude and ChatGPT to explore flows, logic, specs, edge cases and build paths faster.

My story

A few years ago, I stepped back from day-to-day CEO responsibilities while my newborn daughter recovered from open-heart surgery. That season changed how I think about work, focus and what matters. Since then, I've moved deeper into hands-on product design, SaaS strategy and AI-assisted product building.