EDDiE - Solar Design Tool

Portfolio, Ventures & What I Build

Product/systems design that turns AI tech into business results

I'm Gil, an AI Product Design Engineer. I take complex workflows and turn them into AI-native systems, from discovery through shipped product.

My north star is the complete practitioner: the idea that the best AI-native products are shaped by one mind that can hold design, engineering, and AI logic simultaneously, not handed off through layers of interpretation.

When the same person who defines the workflow also builds the prototype and wires the AI, translation loss disappears. Teams move faster and the gap between what we designed and what shipped closes.

What I Bring

Enterprise Systems

Enterprise End-to-End Systems Builder

I've designed complex product ecosystems at enterprise scale — multi-product platforms, multi-role workflows, and long-running transformation initiatives as a solo designer. Systems thinking, not just screen design.

AI Product Engineering

AI-Native Product Design Engineer

I design and prototype AI-native product systems — RAG pipelines, agentic workflows, human-in-the-loop interfaces, structured outputs, and context-aware products. AI product work grounded in real systems, not demos.

Education & Evangelism

Technical Educator & Evangelist

I help people understand, adopt, and build with new technologies — through demos, workshops, tutorials, and product systems thinking. Teaching as adoption; adoption as product design.

A consistent practice across technology cycles

Tech Speaker Microsoft · 5,000+ developers

Co-founder 8th Light · Digital transformation

Startups + Enterprise Engine Yard · ThoughtWorks · Dev tools

Founder Skowak · Design engineering · Teaching

Enterprise Focus SunPower · Digital transformation · Ecosystems

AI Eng Focus Craftal · CareDash · Multi Agent Systems

Now Contextus · Craftal v.2 · AI-native systems

How I Work

I don’t start with AI. I start with how work actually happens.

The method works in cycles. Each one scoped small enough to prove value fast, wide enough to compound across the whole system.

Each cycle makes the next one faster, safer, and more valuable. Real workflows before AI use cases. No baseline, no proof. No proof, no scale.

01 — 03

Understand

Discover
Model
Baseline

Know before you build

04 — 06

Intervene

Design
Adapt & Script
Measure

Build small, prove value

07 — 08

Promote

Promote
Orchestrate

Make it durable and connected

09 — 10

Scale

Govern
Reuse & Expand

Govern and compound

Where most AI projects break down

Most AI failures aren't technical. They're structural: siloed teams, AI built without real workflows, ideas that can't survive contact with production. The method closes those gaps.

Design, engineering, and AI in separate rooms

Work lands in three different hands. Every handoff is a translation, and translation is where ideas lose fidelity.

One practitioner across all three layers

I lead design, write code, and wire the AI as one strategic partner across all three disciplines. No handoffs, no interpretation layers, no gap between what was designed and what shipped.

AI built without a workflow to plug into

Teams rush to launch LLM features with minimal ROI. Without mapping real workflows or solving real problems, the result is unused chatbots and shallow automation.

Bridge between LLMs and real work

I map how work actually happens first, then wire the AI stack into those real decisions. The result is automation that runs, not a chatbot no one uses.

Technical Toolkit

The full stack, from workflow model to deployed AI system.

My stack spans the full system: AI engineering (OpenAI & Anthropic APIs, LangChain, LangGraph, DSPy, RAG pipelines, vector stores, structured outputs, agent orchestration), frontend and prototyping (React, Angular, Vue, TypeScript, API-connected interfaces), backend and tooling (Python, FastAPI, Rails, PostgreSQL/pgvector, Docker), and product and design (systems modeling, workflow mapping, information architecture, interaction design, design engineering).

As a product generalist, I choose the right tool for each layer (design, front end, data, or model) so ideas travel from workflow model to shipped system without unnecessary handoffs.

Getting personal

Things I do when I'm not building

Still-life sketching, coastal hiking, PC teardowns, and slow travel through cities with good architecture.

I draw to stay sharp. I travel to stay curious. I take things apart to stay honest about how they work.

Back

EDDiE - Solar Design Tool

A homeowner-facing solar app that helped customers learn, design, compare savings, sign, track installation, and monitor performance.

Residential solar was hard for homeowners to understand because education, design, savings, contracts, installation, and monitoring lived across disconnected conversations and tools.

I designed a guided homeowner experience that connected solar education, roof design, savings comparison, contract flow, installation tracking, and energy monitoring into one clear journey.

The Problem

Homeowners needed confidence before they could commit.

Residential solar was a complex buying decision. Homeowners had to understand energy production, utility costs, panel technology, financing, installation steps, and long-term system value before they could feel confident.

The traditional process relied heavily on dealer conversations, static proposals, follow-up calls, and manual explanation. That made solar feel opaque, technical, and slow.

The challenge was not only helping homeowners design a system. It was helping them understand why the design mattered, how it affected savings, and what would happen after they said yes.

diagram eddie 01 — The old journey split education, design, savings, and installation across disconnected steps.

Without a clearer digital journey, homeowners risked delaying decisions, misunderstanding tradeoffs, or depending too heavily on a sales rep to explain every part of the process.

Solution

Starting with education, not just configuration.

I designed EDDiE as a guided solar journey, not just a design tool. The experience started by helping homeowners understand solar in their neighborhood, their energy context, and the value of clean energy.

sunpower eddie homeowners 01 — Neighborhood solar signals helped homeowners understand local adoption.

This opening gave homeowners social and environmental context before asking them to make technical decisions. It made solar feel less abstract and more connected to their area.

sunpower eddie homeowners 02 — Energy education made the value of solar easier to understand.

The educational panels explained grid power, utility mix, environmental impact, and the practical reason solar mattered. The goal was to reduce confusion before the homeowner reached the design step.

sunpower eddie homeowners 03 — Product education explained why SunPower panels mattered.

Technology education introduced SunPower’s panel value in plain language. Efficiency, durability, and warranty were framed as decision factors, not technical jargon.

Turning solar design into a guided visual workflow

Once homeowners understood the value context, the experience moved into design. The system generated an optimized solar layout and gave users a simple way to adjust it.

sunpower eddie homeowners 04 — The system generated an initial optimized solar design.

The design canvas made the system tangible. Instead of reading about a solar configuration, homeowners could see panels placed across their roof and understand the relationship between roof space, panel count, and energy production.

diagram eddie 02 — EDDiE connected roof design, energy feedback, and package choices in one workflow.

Inline guidance helped homeowners adjust the system without feeling lost. The interface explained how adding or removing panels changed offset and savings.

sunpower eddie homeowners 05 — Inline tips explained how panel changes affected savings.

The system also provided suggestions, helping users improve the design without needing to understand every technical rule behind panel placement.

sunpower eddie homeowners 07 — Design suggestions helped homeowners improve system value.

Making energy impact understandable in real time

A core interaction pattern was immediate feedback. As the design changed, production and energy offset updated in the sidebar.

sunpower eddie homeowners 09 — Real-time offset helped homeowners understand design impact.

This was important because homeowners needed to see the tradeoff between fewer panels, lower energy production, monthly bill impact, and overall system value.

The experience then connected design choices to package selection, helping homeowners understand how product bundles mapped to goals and budget.

sunpower eddie homeowners 10 — Energy packages connected design choices to budget and goals.

Packages turned a technical configuration into a buying decision. Performance, aesthetics, economics, and custom choices helped users compare paths without requiring solar expertise.

Connecting savings, proposal, and contract flow

The Savings section translated the design into financial language. Homeowners could compare cash, loan, and lease options, monthly utility impact, and long-term cost differences.

sunpower eddie homeowners 11 — Savings views compared payment paths and monthly utility impact.

This shifted the experience from “what fits on my roof?” to “what does this mean for my life and budget?” That connection was essential for decision confidence.

The proposal output gave homeowners and sales teams a polished artifact that summarized the design and buying path.

sunpower eddie homeowners 13 — Proposal output packaged the design into a customer-ready artifact.

The contract flow moved the homeowner from exploration into commitment. Account creation helped the customer return later, view status, and continue through the solar journey.

sunpower eddie homeowners 14 — Account creation moved homeowners from proposal to contract workflow.

Extending the journey beyond the sale

EDDiE also supported the homeowner after commitment. The installation flow explained milestones like getting started, site verification, permitting, installation, and system activation.

sunpower eddie homeowners 16 — Installation tracking explained each milestone in plain language.

This mattered because the solar purchase does not end at contract signing. Homeowners still need clarity around forms, site verification, permitting, scheduling, inspection, and activation.

After installation, monitoring helped homeowners stay connected to the system’s performance and value.

sunpower eddie homeowners 21 — Monitoring kept homeowners connected to system performance.

The experience closed the loop: learn, design, compare, commit, install, and monitor.

Outcome

EDDiE made solar feel understandable, interactive, and continuous.

EDDiE helped turn residential solar from a rep-led explanation process into a guided homeowner experience. It gave customers a clearer way to understand solar, explore their roof, compare savings, and move confidently into installation.

diagram eddie 03 — Design decisions flowed into savings, proposal, contract, and installation readiness.

Estimated impact based on project context:

Faster homeowner education
Higher confidence during design exploration
Reduced dependency on sales explanations
Clearer connection between roof layout and savings
Better continuity from proposal to contract
Improved homeowner visibility during installation
Stronger post-install engagement through monitoring

The project showed that solar design was not just a technical configuration problem. It was a trust-building journey. By connecting education, design, savings, contract, installation, and monitoring, EDDiE helped make solar feel more understandable and achievable.