How one product leader uses Balsamiq to reduce costs and speed up delivery

At a glance

• Company name: BRAC IT
• Industry: Enterprise IT solutions
• Use case: feature design, client alignement, early discovery
• Team size: 500-1000
• Key result:
  • 25% less time spent getting ideas ready to share
  • 40% fewer client feedback loops
  • MVPs delivered weeks faster

Meet Farhan Sikder

Farhan Sikder is a product leader, educator, and business strategist. He’s currently a Global Strategy and Business Adviser at BRAC IT, a 700-person software company that delivers enterprise IT solutions to clients with complex stakeholder needs (think government agencies and large corporations).

With experience spanning IT & tech firms, his own startup, and academia, Farhan has seen firsthand how hard it can be to align teams—especially when time is short and clarity is critical.

That’s why he’s kept one tool in his toolkit across every role: Balsamiq.

“Any pitch I go to, any client I propose a new feature to—it always starts with Balsamiq.”

When clarity wins the pitch

Farhan first realized Balsamiq’s power during a spontaneous pitch while working on his startup. While visiting a government facility in Bangladesh, he was asked how he’d approach building an ERP inventory system. He opened his laptop, launched Balsamiq, and sketched out a potential solution on the spot.

“They were so impressed, they said, ‘Let’s do it.’ That wireframe started a long-term partnership.”

In another product role at SELISE, a Swiss software company, Farhan faced more structured challenges. One of them included designing a clinic management platform for a client with multiple stakeholder groups: doctors, admins, and leadership.

Before Balsamiq, requirement gathering was slow and wordy. Stakeholders misinterpreted specs. Clarification meetings dragged on. Designers got looped in too early (and HATED to waste their time). Engineers built the wrong thing.

Every iteration meant adding more people and more cost to the project.

“You don’t want to bring in a UX engineer and designer for every idea. That’s expensive. With Balsamiq, you don’t need to.”

Farhan needed a tool that showed just enough, so clients could understand structure and flow without getting caught up in fonts or colors.

Wireframing as a go-to alignment tool

Pretty quickly, Balsamiq wireframes became Farhan’s go-to tool for client pitches, stakeholder workshops, and internal alignment.

• For the Clinic Management Platform, he wireframed appointment flows, patient records, and billing systems in Balsamiq.
• Instead of long documents, clients reviewed and discussed visual flows, which led to faster agreement and fewer misunderstandings.
• Because the wireframes were intentionally low-fidelity, discussions stayed focused on what it should do, not how it should look.

“When you show a polished prototype, people focus on colors. With Balsamiq, they focus on functionality.”

Even in enterprise consulting environments where high-fidelity prototypes are expected, Farhan helped clients embrace low-fidelity thinking.

The reduced cost, faster feedback, and better alignment spoke for themselves:

• 25% less time spent getting ideas ready to share
• 40% fewer client feedback loops
• Cutting UX staffing costs by 20%
• MVPs delivered weeks faster

“Once clients saw how fast they were getting value, they were all in,” Farhan says.

Beyond the office: teaching product thinking with Balsamiq

Farhan doesn’t just use Balsamiq, he teaches with it:

• At the University of Southern California, where he assists with product management courses
• With the Human Development Network in Bangladesh, where he’s trained 100+ students
• And through his own consulting firm, coaching early-career PMs

To scale his teachings, Farhan adapted Balsamiq’s “Rapid Wireframing” course into a curriculum.

“Balsamiq helps people bring ideas to life. It develops product judgment. You don’t need design skills—you just need to think.”

How Farhan uses Balsamiq

For Farhan, Balsamiq does more than speed up projects. It changes how people think about product development.

• Think in wireframes: Whether he’s solo sketching or prepping for a client pitch, Balsamiq helps him explore and pressure-test ideas quickly without getting bogged down by high-fidelity details.
• Speed up client alignment: Instead of long docs or slide decks, he shares quick wireframes that show what the feature should do. Clients give faster, more focused feedback—saving time and avoiding miscommunication.
• Reduce project overhead: Balsamiq helps him skip unnecessary meetings and delays by getting aligned early. This means fewer people involved, fewer revisions later, and a faster path to MVP.
• Teach product thinking: From USC classrooms to remote workshops, Farhan uses Balsamiq to help students build product sense. It’s hands-on, accessible, and keeps the focus on solving real user problems.

“Balsamiq democratizes design by providing a simple tool to convey ideas without extensive design knowledge or lengthy user stories. Anyone can use it. It’s one of the best tools I’ve used—across projects, countries, and even classrooms.”

Even with AI, Farhan still starts in Balsamiq

Fast tools are everywhere. But Farhan’s not interested in moving fast and breaking things—he’d rather move fast and get it right.

That’s why, even in the AI age, he starts with Balsamiq.

“With AI tools, no one questions you in the early stages—but that doesn’t mean what you’re building is right. Just because you can build it, doesn’t mean you should.”

Whether he’s pitching a feature, mentoring students, or untangling enterprise workflows, Balsamiq keeps the focus where it belongs: on solving the right problem.

“You don’t need a shiny output in the ideation phase. You need clear thinking. Balsamiq keeps the noise out so you can make better decisions faster.”

Plus, the ideation phase can still have some AI-power too.