How to pitch your designs like a proš”
Most designers fall into the same trap when presenting their ideas. So this ~5 min episode breaks down how to pitch your designs like a pro. Chris Abad Gabe Valdivia
Mar 11, 2025ā¢6 min
Dive Club š¤æ
Where designers never stop learning šŖ
Dive Club is an interview series hosted by Ridd that is designed to unlock knowledge from today's most prolific designers. We go deep into craft, storytelling, tools, design engineering, startups, and much more.
You can find all of the episodes, key takeaways, and bonus resources here š Dive.club
Episodes
Christophe Tauziet - Plaidās culture of craft, tips for CRIT, and lessons from early Facebook
This weekās episode is with Christophe Tauziet who is the Head of Design at Plaid āone of todayās leading fintech companies. We go deep into the ways heās building a culture of craft and the rituals theyāve evolved to consistently sweat the details. There are a lot of practical processes and ideas in this episode. Some highlights: Keys to a great async video share out How to foster a winning CRIT environment Why Christophe implemented āpolish reviewsā Ways to foster collaboration within a design...
Mar 07, 2025ā¢55 minā¢Ep. 97
2 ways to make your design ideas compellingš”
You can have the greatest design concepts in the world, but none of that matters if they don't make it into production. So this episode is all about how to create an aura of inevitability around your ideas. It features stories from early Facebook, Webflow, and Figma š Vincent van der Meulen (Design engineer at Figma) Soleio pt. 1 / pt. 2 (second designer at Facebook) Kevin Wong (Head of product at Webflow)...
Mar 04, 2025ā¢7 min
Aashman Goghari - Tackling complex design challenges at Palantir
Palantir is one of the most powerful products in existence today. It provides critical government and enterprise infrastructure from the factory floors to the front lines. You can literally build your own Airbnb on top of their development platform. But with great power comes lots of complexityā¦ So in this weekās episode, Design Lead Aashman Goghari gives us a behind-the-scenes of what itās like designing products at Palantir. Becoming better at āproblem decompositionā Two patterns for handling ...
Mar 01, 2025ā¢59 minā¢Ep. 96
4 brand strategy tips from Smith & Dictionš”
When comes to brand design, Mike and Cara from Smith & Diction are pretty much top of the game (you might recognize them as the ones who did the brand identity for Perplexity). During our interview, it didn't take me long to realize that these two have more hacks and mental models for creativity than just about anyone Iāve met. So here are a few of my favorites. Watch the full episode with Smith & Diction here: https://www.dive.club/deep-dives/smith-diction...
Feb 25, 2025ā¢7 min
Thiago Costa - Cultivating taste as a designer
If you asked me āwho has the best taste in design right now?ā one of the first people Iād mention is Thiago Costa. His product Fey is in the S-tier of design and Iāve studied his visual techniques for many years. Finally, after over a 12 months of pestering he agreed to share his secrets in a interview š We go deep into: Mastering the finer details of craft Putting AI at the heart of the new Fey 2.0 Where Thiago draws inspiration outside of UI What it looks like to have a āheightened awarenessā...
Feb 21, 2025ā¢58 minā¢Ep. 95
Ammaar Reshi - Unlocking AIās creative potential
Today we get to hear from Ammaar Reshi who is the Head of Design at ElevenLabs āthe AI audio platform that has come up multiple times in past episodes. So a big focus of this conversation is learning what it's like designing an AI-native product. We go deep into topics like: The backstory of Ammaarās viral AI experiments Predictions for the future of voice as an interface What itās like collaborating with an research team How heās designing novel interaction patterns for AI What Ammaar looks for...
Feb 14, 2025ā¢54 minā¢Ep. 94
Design āhandoffā is changing forever š”
How do designers from todayās top teams collaborate with engineers? After many interviews I'm starting to notice a trendā¦ The highest functioning product teams throw away a lot of code and itās a good model for what the new āhandoffā process will look like. So this video highlights how it works at teams like Figma, Vercel, Perplexity, Airbnb, and more. Jenny Wen (OG designer of Figjam now at Anthropic) Teo Connor (VP of Design at Airbnb) John Pham (former design engineer at Vercel) Vincent van d...
Feb 11, 2025ā¢11 min
Chris Abad - Storytelling tactics for senior designers
This week's episode is with Chris Abad who has led design teams at companies like Google, Square and Dropbox so needless to say he's given a lot of design presentations over his 20+ year career. So this conversation is a deep dive into storytelling and everything you can do as a designer to effectively share your vision and persuade stakeholders. He shares every step of his process including a ton of practical tactics like: Strategies for designing a great deck How to set up Q&A for success ...
Feb 07, 2025ā¢50 minā¢Ep. 93
How to be great at systems thinking š”
Systems thinking is often mentioned as the #1 trait teams are looking for in designers. But what does it look like to be great at it? This episode answers that question by highlighting stories from Notion, Anthropic, and more š
Feb 04, 2025ā¢10 min
Anthony Menecola - Insights from a staff designer at Shopify
This week's episode is with Anthony Menecola who is a longtime staff product designer at Shopify so weāre going to do a deep dive into ways you can make a bigger impact at your company as an IC. One of the big themes of this episode is Anthonyās journey becoming more technical and contributing to the Shopify code base so if youāre interested in building your ideas I think youāll get a lot out of this one. We also talk about: The archetypes of staff designers at Shopify What it takes to create an...
Jan 31, 2025ā¢44 minā¢Ep. 92
Making big ideas happen with design š”
When I say high stakes design project, what comes to mind? How about Ryan Scott redesigning the Airbnb checkout flow right before a $3.5 billion IPO? Now THAT is a big time projectā¦ So this episode is all about tactics you can use to make big ideas happen at your company (even as an IC). And if you want to go even deeper you can use these links to get $100 off Ryan Scottās top rated Maven courses š 1ļøā£ Describing the ROI of Design ( https://join.dive.club/ryan-scott-roi-course ) 2ļøā£ PM Mastercl...
Jan 28, 2025ā¢11 min
Balint Orosz - What it takes to design an award-winning product
What does it take to create a product worthy of winning Mac app of the year? I interviewed the founder of Craft Docs, Balint Orosz, to find outā¦ So this episode is a deep dive into how they work and what it takes to achieve this level of design excellence, including: What Balint looks for in systems thinkers Craftās plan to differentiate with personalization What it looks like for designers to take ownership How designers experiment with LLMs and shaders Behind-the-scenes of their viral āquick a...
Jan 24, 2025ā¢53 minā¢Ep. 91
How to increase your influence as a designer š”
Iāve interviewed a lot of staff designers to figure out what it takes to have real influence at companies like Shopify, Github, Airbnb, etc. One thing is clearā¦ if you want to make strategic impact as a designer then you have to get to a place of altitude that allows you to see the bigger picture. This episode is designed to help you do just that. Catt Small (Staff Product Designer at Dropbox) Mia Blume (Early design leader at Square, Pinterest + more) Soren Iverson (Founder of Iverson) Kathy Zh...
Jan 21, 2025ā¢10 min
Catt Small - How to influence and lead as a staff designer
How do the best staff designers influence and lead as individual contributors? I interviewed Catt Small to answer that question and it turned into one of the most practical episodes yet. She pulls from her 14+ years of experience designing products like Etsy, Asana, and Soundcloud to share techniques you can use to level up your influence and scale your impact as an IC. Some highlights: Ways to get out of the execution trap The key to having āexecutive presenceā Cattās advice for better time man...
Jan 17, 2025ā¢52 minā¢Ep. 90
How to get hired by the best teamsš”
What are the best teams looking for in design candidates? Thatās become one of my favorite questions to ask so this episode shines a light on some of those traits and what you can do to stand out. It includes insights from: Diego Zaks (VP of Design at Ramp) Soleio (2nd designer at Facebook) Pranathi Peri (designing v0 at Vercel) Maheen Sohail (Gen AI at Meta) Mariana Castilho (Designer at Poolside)...
Jan 14, 2025ā¢12 min
Tyler Angert - The rise of spontaneous software
This weekās episode is with Tyler Angert who was the first design hire at Replit . So we get a behind-the-scenes look at what itās like designing for a hyper growth startup. However in early 2024, Tyler left to pursue a startup of his own, so a good chunk of this discussion focuses on his vision for Patina and the future of āspontaneous softwareā. Some highlights: Why the camera roll is pivotal for AI Tylerās advice to his 23 year old self Tactics for learning to code with Claude What it takes t...
Jan 08, 2025ā¢49 minā¢Ep. 89
Youāre an AI product designer now š”
Iām designing a new product and a few months ago I wouldāve confidently said itās not an AI product. But I was wrong. This new technology creates endless opportunitiesā¦ we just have to be able to see what AI makes possible. And thatās what this episode is all about. Maggie Appleton (former design lead at Elicit) Joel Lewenstein (head of product design at Anthropic) George Kedenburg III (designer at Humane) Michael Wandelmaier (designer at Dropbox)...
Jan 06, 2025ā¢9 min
Mike and Chara Smith - Designing for the love of the game
Iāve followed Mike Smith ever since he designed the Perplexity brand identity and quickly realized heās one of the most creative designers Iāve ever seen. Turns out his wife Chara is a positioning mastermind too so it makes sense why Smith & Diction is one of the hottest agencies in the game today. So this weekās episode is a deep dive into brand strategy and what it takes to stand out in 2025 and beyond. We get into: What it takes to stand out in an AI world Their hacks for cracking a brand...
Jan 03, 2025ā¢57 minā¢Ep. 87
Thinking like an engineer is a super power for designers š”
Being able to think like an engineer helps you collaborate with developers more effectively, design UIs that make sense, and empowers you to build your ideas with AI tools like v0, Claude, etc. So this video is going to break down a few traits of designers who I believe are already doing this at a high level. It includes insights from: Mariana Castilho (designer at Vercel/Pierre) Julius Tarng (prev engineering at Linear) Meng To (Founder of Design+Code)...
Dec 30, 2024ā¢11 min
Pranathi Peri - Designing v0 from Vercel
We've heard a lot on this show about designers becoming builders using tools like v0 and today we get to do a deep dive with Pranathi Peri who is leading the design of v0 at Vercel. We discuss: Growing your taste and intuition quickly How Pran thinks about the design language of v0 Pranās personal experiments using 3D and physics Why Pran wants to bring āonboarding rouletteā to v0 How Pran showed potential without having extensive experience What itās like collaborating with engineers like ShadC...
Dec 27, 2024ā¢53 minā¢Ep. 86
What true obsession with craft looks like š”
Craft is so much more than a shimmering landing page or micro animationā¦ Itās sweating all of the tiny details and having a thorough understanding of the edge cases in your product. But thereās one detail most designers missā¦ š So this episode highlights one of my favorite ideas ever shared on the show from Raphael Schaad (founder of Cron and now the Head of Calendar at Notion). Itās a fantastic example of what it looks like to obsess over the craft of your product You can find his full episode...
Dec 23, 2024ā¢6 min
Sam Peitz - The intersection of art and product
This week's episode is with Sam Peitz who quickly became one of my favorite designers to follow in 2024. He regularly shares experiments like TextOS , his scribble running app , and assorted letter prototypes . So this conversation is a deep dive into his creative process and how heās redefined his career path over the past ~10 months. We go deep into: Samās go-to source of design inspiration The power of setting the right constraints What Sam has learned about building with v0 How to think crea...
Dec 18, 2024ā¢49 minā¢Ep. 85
Donāt trust the design process š”
Designers have become servants of āthe processā so this episode features stories of people who are breaking the mold in the way they explore and prototype ideas. It includes insights from: Gabe Valdivia (Fractional design leader): https://www.dive.club/deep-dives/gabe-valdivia Dennis Muller (Designer + founder of Amie): https://www.dive.club/deep-dives/dennis-muller Gavin Nelson (Designing Linear mobile app): https://www.dive.club/deep-dives/gavin-nelson Nikolas Klein (Designing Prototyping at F...
Dec 16, 2024ā¢11 min
Andrei Herasimchuk - The 1st designer at Adobe
Did you know that the very first interface designer at Adobe was also the first designer to work on Figma? š¤Æ His name is Andrei Herasimchuk and he knows a lot about design toolingā¦ So this weekās episode is jam-packed with stories about designing the earliest interfaces for Illustrator and Photoshop, as well as what it was like seeing the original seed of an idea that became Figma. Not only thatā¦ Andrei gives us a behind-the-scenes of his new design tooling startup and shares his vision for whe...
Dec 11, 2024ā¢50 minā¢Ep. 84
Become a 10x startup designer š”
Many of my favorite episodes are when we get to hear from the earliest designers at companies like Linear, Perplexity, Ramp, Facebook, etc. So this episode pulls out the key insights so you can learn what it takes to thrive as a startup designer: Nate Parrott (Founding designer of Arc): https://www.dive.club/deep-dives/nate-parrott Adrien Griveau (Founding designer of Linear): https://www.dive.club/deep-dives/adrien-griveau Soleio (2nd designer at Facebook): https://www.dive.club/deep-dives/sole...
Dec 09, 2024ā¢10 min
Diego Zaks - Designing the fastest growing startup ever
Imagine joining an early stage startup as the first senior designer and within a few years, it becomes the fastest growing company ever . Wellā¦ that's the story of Diego Zaks who is now the VP of design at Ramp . This weekās episode is all about how they were able to win with design and what makes their culture so special. We go deep into: Why velocity is the key to quality The impact of ātruth seeking podsā How Diego creates a culture of collaboration What it takes to be a great founding design...
Dec 04, 2024ā¢51 minā¢Ep. 83
Attacking ambiguity with designš”
Imagine youāre asked to lead the design of a new project. Itās complex, open-ended, and full of interconnected problemsā¦ How do you attack that ambiguity and get momentum quickly? This episode is an attempt to answer that question by unpacking tactics used by designers like: Jenny Wen (Original designer of Figjam): https://www.dive.club/deep-dives/jenny-wen Michael Wandelmaier (Former head of design at Metalab): https://www.dive.club/deep-dives/michael-wandelmaier Alex Cornell (Director of Desig...
Dec 02, 2024ā¢11 min
Phi Hoang - Creativity, Midjourney, and the future of brand design
2024 was the year the Perplexity brand took over the design community. And a big reason why is because of Phi Hoang . So this weekās episode is a deep dive into brand experience design and creativity with AI tools. We get an inside look at: Phiās creative process with Midjourney Why Perplexity thinks of the brand in āseasonsā Phiās tool stack for creating marketing videos with AI Behind-the-scenes of how Phi stumped the founder of Midjourney Why Perplexity cares about creative consistency > v...
Nov 27, 2024ā¢48 minā¢Ep. 82
Storytelling masterclass for designers š”
It doesnāt matter how good your designs are if they never get built. So this episode breaks down specific tactics you can use to become a better storyteller and get people excited to build your ideas. Michael Wandelmaier (former Head of Design at Metalab): https://www.dive.club/deep-dives/michael-wandelmaier Gavin Nelson (designing the Linear mobile app): https://www.dive.club/deep-dives/gavin-nelson Ian Wharton (storytelling coach): https://www.dive.club/deep-dives/ian-wharton Kathy Zheng (head...
Nov 25, 2024ā¢13 min