Designers from Hyper Island

René Simonsson Al-Assadi is a Stockholm-based Product Designer at Spotify, currently leading design for the iconic Wrapped 2026 experience. With a deep specialization in growth, social, and in-home product experiences, René has shaped some of Spotify's most engaging and shareable user moments across multiple high-impact teams. A guest speaker at Hyper Island, René brings both industry expertise and a passion for design education to a multifaceted creative practice.

Tobias Ahlin is a Stockholm-based designer and engineer with a rare command of both craft and code, most recently serving as Principal Product Designer at GitHub after spending years there as a Staff and Principal Design Engineer. He runs Tappily as a consultant and speaker, and has shaped design education as an Industry Leader at Hyper Island. His work sits at the intersection of design systems, interaction, and engineering, reflecting a distinctive fluency across disciplines that few designers can match.