Manikandan

Open to design leadership and product engineering roles. Building for businesses at Iyal Labs →

I find where the work actually breaks, then design and build the system that fixes it.

Photography got me into design. I spent nine years at Qube Cinema designing the software that delivers and plays films in 3,000+ theatres, and built its design team from scratch. Now I take the same thinking to factories, accounting firms and online stores, and I write the code myself.

name: "Manikandan Annamalai"
location: "Chennai, India"
experience: 10 // years
status: "open to work"
builds: true
$ curl -O resume.pdf ↓
theatres use my work
3,000+
design team I built
0 → 5
cloud cost at Qube
−65%
order errors
8% → 0.5%
products shipped
10+

Chapters

Sep 2025 – now

Iyal Labs Founder

Scope
Business systems and AI tools for a garment unit, a CA firm, a field-services company, and products of my own.
Decision
AI reads, people check. Every automation leaves the exceptions to a person.
Result
One founder got 30 hours a week back.

Read

  1. MonGST matchChasing docsLeaveReview · 15 min
  2. TueGST matchChasing docsLeaveReview · 15 min
  3. WedPayslipsChasing docsGST matchReview · 15 min
  4. ThuGST matchChasing docsLeaveReview · 15 min
  5. FriPayslipsGST matchChasing docsReview · 15 min
  6. SatPayslipsChasing docsLeaveReview · 15 min

0 hrs back this week.

One founder got 30 hours a week back. A few minutes a day stay with a person.

Illustrative week. Total reported by the client.

2025 – now

Pleated Up Tech and operations

Scope
A custom clothing brand that grew from 5 to 40 people.
Decision
Stop retyping the order. One record from Shopify to the tailor to dispatch.
Result
Order errors 8% → 0.5%. ₹40,000 a month in software cancelled.

Read

8 in 100 orders went out wrong.

Each dot is an order. One record from Shopify to the tailor took errors from 8% to 0.5%.

2016 – 2025

Qube Cinema Senior Product Designer, design team lead

Scope
First design hire. Built the team from 0 to 5. 10+ products for studios, distributors and 3,000+ theatres.
Decision
Fix the structure, not just the screen. An inbox redesign changed the data model and cut cloud cost 65%.
Result
Qube Wire NPS 46 → 68. Slate carries about 40% of revenue.

Read

Ready · Show 2 loaded

Projectionists asked for their big buttons back. Full-screen playback became the most-used screen in Qube XP.

Work

  1. Building Qube's design team from zero Qube Cinema · 4 min read
  2. A design system that halved design‑to‑dev back‑and‑forth Qube Cinema · 4 min read
  3. Cutting cloud cost 65% by redesigning an inbox Qube Cinema · 4 min read
  4. Two big buttons: twice‑as‑fast scheduling in 3,000+ cinemas Qube Cinema · 5 min read
  5. From manual ad ops to a platform behind 40% of revenue Qube Cinema · 4 min read
  6. A garment unit grew from 5 to 40 people without more errors Pleated Up · 5 min read
  7. GST filing for every client, without the Excel matching Iyal Labs · 4 min read
  8. The whole business, visible and answerable in one place Pleated Up · 4 min read
  9. A CA firm's founder got 30 hours a week back MAK Associates · 3 min read
  10. Payroll straight from verified site attendance AV Tech Stone Care · 3 min read

How I use AI

  1. AI reads, people check.

    Tangent reads printed and handwritten invoices. Every manual edit is marked, and exact matches are the only thing accepted automatically. See it

  2. Look it up live. Don't let the model guess.

    In Company Brain, order questions go straight to Shopify with no AI in between. See it

  3. Fail closed.

    If live data is missing, the assistant says so instead of answering. See it

  4. AI in the design process, not instead of it.

    At Qube I brought AI prototyping into the team's workflow and designed an AI engine that matches theatre records from many sources. This site was built the same way. See it

Hiring

Design leadership or product engineering.

Read the work above, or take the one-page version.

Download résumé manikandan.maneye@gmail.com

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