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Rationale:The Design Practice of Matt Hanson

Matt Hanson — designer-engineer working across AR, AI, and experiential systems for 25 years. Animation and creative direction at Psyop, Imaginary Forces, Buck, and Hush; VR/AR pitchwork at Framestore; screen content direction at Viacom and MTV; eight years at Meta leading product design across Spark AR, Orion, and FAIR Embodied AI; now applying that experience solo, shipping consumer products with AI as a coding partner.

NOW

Matt Hanson · Product Founder · Designer · Developer

01

iOS · live

Heirloom

Recipe preservation, social cookbooks, AI-assisted import. Native iOS, live on the App Store. Built solo.

02

Web + iOS · live

Silly Questions

A 2-player AI art party game. Live on iOS and the web. Eight art styles, no app download required.

03

Cross-platform · deprioritized

Zero

Shortform email. Swipe-first triage with AI-extracted action items. Shipped cross-platform, then deprioritized — read why.

✱

Confidential · client + concept

Vault

Confidential client work and concept ventures. Locked — request access.

LEADER

2017 — 2025

AR platform leadership. Spark, Orion, FAIR Embodied AI.

04

Senior Product Design Manager · 2023–2025

FAIR Embodied AI

SIRo + Motivo · embodied agent UX. Built and led 4+ teams across simulation and real-world environments.

05

Senior Product Design Manager · 2023–2025

Orion

UX for Meta's first true AR glasses, in a regular glasses form factor. Senior Product Design Manager across Day-1 use cases.

06

Senior Product Design Manager · 2017–2023

Spark AR

Built and led the Experiences team that turned Spark from a few flagship effects into a creator platform across Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger. Scope spanned design, prototyping, education, and the F8 stage.

DIRECTOR

2000 — 2017

07◊ NDA

CONFIDENTIAL · 2017

Framestore VR

Creative Director · 2017. VR/AR pitch portfolio — the bridge into Meta.

08

DIRECTOR · 2015–2017

Viacom

Director, Screen Content. The Past Present and Future room, Outrage Machine billboards, MTV Open Your Eyes Tilt Brush at the White House.

09

MULTI-STUDIO · 2000–2015

Studio Era

Psyop, Imaginary Forces, Buck, own studio, Hush. Animation, creative direction, mixed-reality installations.

WRITING · LATEST

When to Hire AI: the longer version

Substack · Companion to the Sendfull interview

A year of building solo, and the parts that didn’t fit in 30 minutes — the dependency map I drew the day I pulled Zero, what “the cave” means for product decisions, and why the preservation gap is bigger than recipes.

Twice a month after that, on Mondays. Notes on building solo, AI as a coding partner, and what I’ve learned across the chapters.

Read the post Or start with Stef Hutka’s interview at Sendfull →

GET IN TOUCH

Available for very selective partnership work.

hanson@rationale.work
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