Rishu · dev
Feature · The PracticeBy Rishu Raj · FreelanceEst. read · 4 min

№ 001 — Practice Notes

Cinematic
interfaces,
built by hand.

The Deck

Rishu Raj is a product engineer working at the seam of design and code — building quiet, exacting web products for founders who care how a thing feels, and refuse to look like everyone else.

Full-stack

React · Node · Postgres

Gurgaon

IN · UTC +5:30

Open

for new commissions

Async

clear, written, on time

Section IIThe Storypp. 14 — 22

A quiet practice, kept honest by shipping.

Rishu writes software the way a printmaker pulls a proof — one careful pass at a time, with an eye on the register marks. This is a short account of how the studio came to be.

  1. 1
    Ch. 012019

    Curiosity

    First lines of CSS at a Delhi coffee shop. A quiet obsession begins with how software feels.

  2. 2
    Ch. 022021

    Craft

    Ships end-to-end products with two small startups. Learns the shape of a good decision.

  3. 3
    Ch. 032023

    Practice

    Falls hard for design systems, edge performance, and the joy of a codebase that reads like prose.

  4. 4
    Ch. 042026

    Studio

    Independent studio of one. Works with a small number of founders, once a season.

Section IIIThe CraftFour disciplines

Four disciplines,
one hand on the pen.

The studio is a T-shape — deep in a handful of tools, wide enough that a project rarely needs three more people to move.

01Discovery · Systems · Interaction

Product Design

Small-team product design: turning a founder's fuzzy pitch into a spare, opinionated interface. Component libraries designed to age well.

  • Figma
  • Design tokens
  • Motion
  • Accessibility
02React · TypeScript · Performance

Frontend Engineering

SSR, streaming and edge-first React. Modern architectures without the churn. Ninety-plus Lighthouse as a baseline, not a milestone.

  • React
  • Next.js
  • TanStack
  • Tailwind
03Node · Postgres · Infra

Full-Stack Delivery

APIs, database schemas, background jobs, deploys. End-to-end ownership so nothing gets stuck in a handoff between two people who don't exist.

  • Node
  • Postgres
  • Prisma
  • tRPC
  • Docker
04LLMs · RAG · Agents

AI Integration

Bringing language models into products in ways that feel honest — carefully scoped, measured, and unafraid to say 'I don't know'.

  • OpenAI
  • Embeddings
  • Vector DBs
  • Evals
Section IVThe Case Files4 works

Work, as documented.

A short shelf of recent projects. Click a case to swap the feature.

taskrelay.app
TaskRelay — Task management platform
Fig. 01Task management platform — 2025

Featured case · 2025

TaskRelay

Relay your work, effortlessly.

A collaborative task management platform that helps teams organise, track and hand off work with clarity and speed.

Role
Full-Stack Engineer
Time
8 weeks
Focus
Collaboration, UX, Realtime
  • Designed a fluid, keyboard-first task board
  • Built realtime updates for team collaboration
  • Implemented role-based access and workflow states
  • Shipped a clean dashboard with progress insights
ReactNode.jsExpressMongoDBTailwind CSS
View on GitHub →

Also on the shelf

Section VThe MethodHow we work

A calm, six-week way of working.

No pitch decks, no war rooms. A short brief, weekly rhythm, and a finished product you actually recognise as yours.

  1. 01

    Week 0

    Brief

    A short call, a shared doc, and a written scope. We agree on the shape of the thing before a single pixel moves.

  2. 02

    Week 1

    Blueprint

    Wireframes, references, and a working design language. You see the frame of the house before we pour concrete.

  3. 03

    Weeks 2 – 5

    Build

    Daily updates, a staging URL from day one, and short async loops. Small, reviewable pull requests — never a mystery box.

  4. 04

    Week 6

    Ship

    Production launch, a one-page handover, and two weeks of aftercare included. No goodbye, just a soft close.

House rules

Four principles the studio runs on.

  • 01One project at a time — no parallel context-switching.
  • 02Fixed weekly rhythm, not hourly billing.
  • 03You own the repo, the design files, the domain — all of it.
  • 04Boring stack over trendy stack, unless there's a real reason.

Frequently asked

A few things people write in about.

How do we start?Q. 01
Send a note through the form below with a rough scope. I reply within a day and, if it's a fit, we book a 30-minute intro call.
What does a project cost?Q. 02
Most engagements land between a small landing site and a full product build. I quote fixed weekly rates once the brief is clear — no surprises.
Do you work with existing codebases?Q. 03
Yes. Refactors, revivals and gentle rescues are welcome — provided the goal is honest craft, not just more features.
Section VIThe ColophonCorrespondence

Write in.

The studio opens a new commission each season. Send a note about the shape of the thing you'd like to build. Every letter gets a reply, usually within a day.

Post
rishut681@gmail.com
Phone
+91 88829 05323
Studio
Gurgaon · UTC +5:30
Elsewhere
GitHubLinkedIn

Sends directly to WhatsApp.