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Digital Canvas · Active
Building Design Culture at Global Scale.
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This is AI - it can get details wrong or be out of date. Answers are in Mariam's style, not a substitute for speaking with her.
Selected Work
Twilio Flex · Early AI integration · 5→23 designers · ~$15B TAM
Cisco ThousandEyes · AI-native product
Cloud Control · Platform unification · Cisco
AI Canvas · Generative UI · Cisco Cloud Control
AI-native design practice · Built from scratch · Cisco
Cisco Real Speed · Consumer app · Internet experience
Conversational Insights · Contact centre AI
Developer Experience · Org behaviour change · Twilio
Design culture · Retention, promotion · Method
Portfolio as Prototype · AI-native build · 2025–26
Writing
Culture · AI · Personal
Everyone is writing about AI. I’m a bit tired.
Not really a piece about models - more like vertigo: the ground keeps shifting, we perform fine in public, and admitting the pace is brutal still feels off-limits. Fixed points, imposter syndrome 2.0, and what actually helps.
April 2026
Design · AI · Behaviour
We Changed. The UI Didn't.
We didn't wait for AI to change how we interact with products. The behaviour shifted first - quietly, before most product teams noticed. What a ninety-second hotel booking taught me about the future of UI.
March 2026
AI · Trust · Design
We Trust AI More Than We Should. Judgement Is the Skill Nobody Is Talking About.
We've quietly stopped questioning AI-generated outputs the way we used to question a Google result. That shift has consequences - and designers are the ones who need to name them first.
Coming soon
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Mariam
Taraif
Taraif
Head of Design Foundations · Cisco · London
I've spent over 15 years designing products where the complexity is real and the stakes matter. I studied psychology and neuropsychology, and understanding human behaviour is as important as understanding the system itself.
I care about craft and taste, but what I care about more is whether the work actually changes something. I'm currently leading design at Cisco and running an internal AI lab where we're figuring out what it means to design with AI, not just bolt it on. We're all students in this, including me. I write about it too, because the honest version of this moment is more useful than a confident one.
Outside work, family comes first. Then a dog with strong opinions, a cat who outranks us all, long walks, bad films, surfing, and eating my way through cities whenever I get the chance.