Address
Pittsburgh, PA
Work Hours
Monday to Thursday: 9AM - 5PM ET
Friday: 9AM -1PM
An AI-first product design lab 🧪
Our work lives at the intersection of design leadership, emerging technology, and hands-on experimentation.
What we explore:
🤔 Why this lab exists
Experiment safely
Experiment with emerging technologies through real prototypes and real constraints, without the pressure of risking half-baked ideas in production.
Learn publicly
Learning happens faster when it’s visible. By building in public, we turn experiments into shared lessons that build clarity and confidence.
AI moves fast. This lab turns hands-on experiments into practical insights teams can actually use to design better products with less time and effort.
Work that often qualifies as R&D
Under recent legislation, this type of work often supports R&D classification under § Section 174 because it involves experimentation, feasibility testing, rapid prototyping, and reducing uncertainty in software development. Many clients choose to treat portions of this work as R&D expenses. It’s a win win. As always confirm with your tax advisor.
Designed for 🦄
Product leaders
Looking to understand how AI and modern workflows are changing discovery, design, and decision-making.
Designers and builders
Who want to learn by doing, experiment responsibly, and build real things instead of slide decks.
Teams and organizations
Exploring new ways of working and learning through workshops, labs, and hands-on training.
🥷 Learn by doing
Big Nerd hosts live workshops, hackathons, and training sessions designed to help designers and teams experience modern product discovery firsthand. These sessions are how we share what we’re learning and how organizations can engage with the lab.
Product Design Webinar
March 2026
Explore collaborative rituals that pull your team back to the heart of product making. Surface patterns that work and turn insights into the shared principles that shape how you build together.
Registration opens soon
Supported by:
Vibe Coding Hackathon
Feb 19, 2026 @ 5:00 pm MT
Have an idea waiting for its moment? Bring it to life at our upcoming rapid prototyping hackathon. You will build quickly, learn even faster, and compete for prizes as our guest judge selects the winners.
Supported by:
Vibe Coding Hackathon
Jan 15, 2026 @ 5:00 pm MT
Have an idea waiting for its moment? Bring it to life at our upcoming rapid prototyping hackathon. You will build quickly, learn even faster, and compete for prizes as our guest judge selects the winners.
Supported by:
Our Rapid 5-Step Cycle
We use a structured, time-boxed format to explore ideas, test assumptions, and learn quickly. This cycle powers our internal experiments, public workshops, and hands-on training sessions.
Discover
The process begins by aligning on the problem, goals, and success metrics. Stakeholder input, lightweight research, and requirement definition typically happen at this stage.
Prototype & Review
A functional prototype is created and reviewed to gather fast, actionable feedback.
User Test & Refine
Feedback is incorporated, the prototype is refined, and usability testing helps surface risks and opportunities early.
Harden & Secure
Validated prototypes are hardened and prepared for dev, with an emphasis on quality, feasibility, and clarity.
Reflect & Share
Outcomes are reviewed, learnings are captured, and insights inform next steps.
A few insights from our blog 🧐
Behind-the-scenes look at how we launch apps faster, and deliver quality results.
Narrow Intent: A Field Study in Building Something Small That Matters
“I built this app for myself, but it turns out it was never just for me. It was for anyone who needed a familiar voice to say something kind at the right moment. That…
Meta Quest 3: Early Signals
This isn’t a spec review or a first-impressions take. It’s a lived-in account of what it’s like to bring something new into your home, use it in real conditions, and notice the small moments…
The Great AI Race: From Silicon to Singularity
We are living through a rare moment where the foundations of technology are being rebuilt in real time. Artificial intelligence did not arrive all at once. It is emerging through a series of interconnected…
🤩 Select collaborations
We occasionally partner with teams who want to apply our experimental workflows inside real products. These engagements are limited, intentional, and focused on learning as much as delivery.