A little over a year ago, Joey Banks and I were DMāing each other in Slack about leaving our W-2 jobs and going independent. So this weekās episode is a reflection on his journey working for himself and itās as human and relatable as any conversation Iāve ever had on this show. We go deep into: Managing your pipeline of clients Creating a personal knowledge system in Notion Finding companionship as an independent designer Structuring your schedule and maintaining momentum Communicating your serv...
Nov 20, 2024ā¢52 minā¢Ep. 81
The pendulum has swung too far with design systems. Somehow theyāve become synonymous with scale. But I believe theyāre the perfect first step for startups. So this episode looks at stories from Perplexity and Cron to reframe design systems as the key to speed in the early days. Henry Modisett (Head of Design at Perplexity): https://www.dive.club/deep-dives/henry-modisett Raphael Schaad (founder of Cron / Notion Calendar): https://www.dive.club/deep-dives/raphael-schaad Brad Frost (author of Ato...
Nov 18, 2024ā¢9 min
After writing a viral article called ā The Missing Tool ā I was fortunate to meet Gab and Nim who are the co-founders of a startup called Dessn . Dessn is a new way to ship design changes without having to write code. Their extension overlays a Figma-like interface on your live web app so designers can easily make changes. Their AI then writes the code and pushes it to your Github. That means designers can now contribute directly to production. Over the last few months weāve had regular jam sess...
Nov 13, 2024ā¢49 minā¢Ep. 80
Over the last few months, Iāve interviewed the people designing cutting edge AI products like Perplexity, Claude, Dot, Humane, Visual Electric, and moreā¦ During that time Iāve created a running list of all the metaphors and mental models theyāve used to explain what itās like. So this episode breaks down 7 mental models for designing AI products. Maggie Appleton (Design engineer at Normally): https://www.dive.club/deep-dives/maggie-appleton Henry Modisett (Head of Design at Perplexity): https://...
Nov 11, 2024ā¢13 min
One of the most impressive things Iāve seen a designer make all year is Meng Toās Dreamcut . Itās the perfect example of what it looks like to transition from traditional designer to builder šŖ So if youāre interested in becoming a designer who ships then this is the episode for you. Meng gives a highly practical breakdown of what it looks like to go from 0 to 50,000+ lines of code as a designer. And Meng is the perfect person to onboard you into tools like Claude and Cursor because heās spent 1...
Nov 06, 2024ā¢51 minā¢Ep. 79
Airbnb is making 3 big design investments to bring soul back to the app. So this episode pulls from interviews with their VP of Design, Teo Connor, and prototyping specialist Janum Trivedi. Learn why Airbnb is investing in 3D, motion design, and leaders who still have their hands in the clay. Teo Connor (VP of Design at Airbnb): https://www.dive.club/deep-dives/air-bnb Alex Schleifer (former Chief Design Offer at Airbnb): https://www.dive.club/deep-dives/alex-schleifer Janum Trivedi (prototyping...
Nov 04, 2024ā¢10 min
As soon as I finished our original interview , I knew I had to have Soleio on as the first repeat guest. He led early design efforts at Facebook and Dropbox. Now he invests in design-driven startups like Figma, Framer, Vercel, etc. So this weekās episode is all about how designers and startups can succeed in a world where everything is changing. We go deep into: Ideal traits for a founding designer How startups can strategically attack incumbents Why the future belongs to designers who can ship ...
Oct 30, 2024ā¢1 hr 2 minā¢Ep. 78
This weekās episode is with Joel Lewenstein who is the Head of Product Design at Anthropic where he works on cutting edge AI products like Claude . After 80+ episodes, I can honestly say this oneās ājuice per minuteā score is off the charts. Some of my favorite highlights: How the team prototyped Claude Artifacts New mental models for designing AI products The way designers shape strategy at Anthropic How to master the dark art of prompting as a designer The future of language as the dominant in...
Oct 23, 2024ā¢50 minā¢Ep. 77
Airbnb is one of the truly iconic design-driven companies. They set the bar for design innovation in so many ways. So this weekās episode is a deep dive with their VP of Design, Teo Connor. She gives us a behind-the-scenes look at how design operates at Airbnb including: How Airbnb is bringing vitality to the visual language How Airbnb is empowering designers to be designers How to succeed in a design review with Brian Chesky Why itās not enough to think in terms of flows and screens Why Airbnb ...
Oct 16, 2024ā¢48 minā¢Ep. 76
Imagine your first traditional āproduct designā job is designing the Snapchat messaging UX for millions of people across the globeā¦ Well thatās what Dan Moreno ās journey looked like as an engineer turned designer. So this weekās episode is a deep dive into his 5+ years designing Snapchat as well as his new role at a rocket ship startup called Captions . Some highlights: Danās formula for presenting design ideas How Dan grew his visual skills as an engineer Inside look at the AR exploration team...
Oct 09, 2024ā¢1 hrā¢Ep. 75
I remember the exact moment where I first explored MercuryOS . It was clear Jason Yuan was one of the most skilled design thinkers I'd ever encountered. No wonder he landed a role designing AI products at Apple shortly after. But the main reason I wanted to interview him was to learn more about his new product called Dot . It's by far my favorite personal AI and a beautifully designed experience. So this conversation is a behind-the-scenes of his latest journey and a fun glimpse at what the futu...
Oct 02, 2024ā¢49 minā¢Ep. 74
Mariana Castilho has one of the most impressive career trajectories of any designer Iāve ever met. I first saw her while mentoring through Shift Nudge and within a few years sheās landed roles at Universe, Vercel, and most recently as the first designer at Pierre . One of the keys to her growth has been investing in her skills as an engineer. So a big part of this interview is learning what it takes to transition from designer to builder. Some highlights: The future of design engineering What ma...
Sep 25, 2024ā¢50 minā¢Ep. 73
This weekās episode is with Janum Trivedi who makes some of the most stunning prototypes in all of design. So the main goal of this conversation is to answer the question āwhat makes a piece of software feel great?ā Some of the key talking points: The 3 levels of animation Shipping a major refresh of the Netflix iOS app Why shaders are a big deal (and how they work) How Janum built the download animation for Arc Why Janum built his own animation engine ( Wave ) Learning the principles of fluid d...
Sep 18, 2024ā¢49 minā¢Ep. 72
Ben Blumenrose was one of the earliest designers at Facebook and has spent the last 12 years as a co-founder and Managing Partner of Designer Fund . Thatās allowed him to invest in many of the design founders that youāve heard from on this shown (like Jorn from Framer or Colin from Visual Electric ). So the goal of this conversation is to tap into Benās perspective as a designer turned investor. This episode creates a blueprint for people interested in designing for startups or maybe even buildi...
Sep 12, 2024ā¢52 minā¢Ep. 71
Imagine leading the design of an AI product that skyrockets to a billion+ dollar valuation in under two yearsā¦ Thatās the story of Perplexity and today we get to hear from their founding designer and current Head of Design, Henry Modisett . Some of the highlights from this conversation: What it takes to thrive as a founding designer Why Henry likes hiring designers who can code The challenges of designing dynamic interfaces Why Henry didnāt want to anthropomorphize the AI The initial creative di...
Sep 04, 2024ā¢53 minā¢Ep. 70
This week's episode is with Ryan Scott who was an early designer at Doordash and then spent years as a design lead at Airbnb. Nowadays Ryan teaches hundreds of designers ranging from seniors to VPs how to make a bigger impact at your company. This episode is jam-packed with insights about: What itās like presenting at Airbnb CRIT Ways to unlock your credibility as a designer How to mitigate risk when presenting your ideas What it takes to speak the language of the business Types of āPM-yā questi...
Aug 29, 2024ā¢1 hr 7 minā¢Ep. 69
Investing in my personal brand has been the best investment Iāve ever made in my career. So I wanted to find the perfect designer to give a personal branding masterclass and I think itās Oliur . Heās built a massive audience across YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, etc. and he shares his hard-earned knowledge in this episode: Oliurās keys to growing on social media Different ways to create leverage in your career How he (accidentally) landed a billion-dollar client How you can get more confident putt...
Aug 28, 2024ā¢58 minā¢Ep. 68
This weekās episode is with Maheen Sohail who is a senior staff designer working on generative at Meta. She joined as one of the earliest designers on both the VR and AI teams, so a big part of this discussion is about navigating ambiguity when thereās no clear playbook to follow. We go deep into: New types of interface patterns for AI The unique ways she thinks about prototyping Ethical considerations when designing AI produdcts How Maheen explores AI models through side projects Why the goal p...
Aug 22, 2024ā¢46 minā¢Ep. 67
After 8 years designing at Meta, George Kedenburg III pulled a 180 and joined Humane as a design lead. So this conversation is a deep dive into designing AI products and how the role of product designer evolves in an AI-native company: How to become a creative problem solver How George navigates ambiguity at Humane Why thereās no such thing as an edge case with AI What George learned while using AI to learn Python How AI is reshaping the landscape for software design Why George created a Slackbo...
Aug 15, 2024ā¢49 minā¢Ep. 66
Visual Electric has quickly become my go-to product for image generation and in this weekās episode we get to learn from the founder and designer, Colin Dunn . The whole discussion is an excellent look at the design founder journey as well as a deep dive into AI-native creative tools. We get into the weeds about: Visual Electricās big bet to take on Canva The hidden challenges with designing AI products Colin's approach to early user and market research The art and science of raising funds for y...
Aug 07, 2024ā¢51 minā¢Ep. 65
The Arc browser is one of the best products Iāve downloaded in the last few years which is why Iām so excited about this interview with their founding designer, Nate Parrott . This conversation, we get an inside look at what makes design at the Browser Company so unique. We discuss: How Nate went from engineer at Snap to the Browser Co. Why design at Arc prioritizes fingerprints > consistency How Nate collaborates with engineers on Arc The story behind Arc Searchās hook feature The Browser Co...
Aug 01, 2024ā¢52 minā¢Ep. 64
This weekās episode is with Dan LaCivita who is a co-founder of Play āa new way to design mobile apps using native iOS materials. As soon as I saw this app clip I knew it was a big deal and that I had to interview him to learn more. So in this conversation we go deep into: How to unlock the skill of interaction design What Appleās sandbox unlocks for designers Why they decided to launch Play as a mobile app The importance of keeping your hands in the clay How AI might impact the future of intera...
Jul 24, 2024ā¢42 minā¢Ep. 63
Gavin Nelson is currently designing the Linear mobile app in addition to the best app icons on the internet. So this episode is a deep dive into prototyping and interaction design: Gavinās journey learning SwiftUI How Gavin got into designing app icons How to design physics-based interactions What itās like designing for power users at Linear Why interaction design is so important for mobile apps Why Gavin uses code almost exclusively for prototyping now When it makes sense to prototype at the b...
Jul 18, 2024ā¢57 minā¢Ep. 62
If you watched last weekās episode , then you heard Jordan Singer say how visual search was actually the ākiller featureā (not generative AI). Whatās interesting is that this feature was actually a mid-project pivot . So in this episode we get the full behind-the-scenes of visual search from design engineer Vincent van der Meulen : Why they decided to pivot How Vincent went cowboy mode A look at the future of design engineering What good design looks like in an AI world Why visual search is a bi...
Jul 11, 2024ā¢43 minā¢Ep. 61
Live from Config, this episode with Jordan Singer follows his journey from the Diagram acquisition all the way to Figmaās 2024 AI release. We go deep into: What didnāt ship at Config and why How they navigated the early idea maze How the role of designer will be impacted by AI What it will be like designing dynamic interfaces What makes Jordanās new role at Figma so unique Why renaming layers was such a big internal debate Why the sparkle icon will become the new floppy disk The surprising pivot...
Jul 05, 2024ā¢49 minā¢Ep. 60
This weekās episode is with Kathy Zheng who is currently the Head of design at a Web3 protocol called Optimism . But before that she was the first designer at Patreon and went on to spend over 6 years at Github. So the goal of this conversation is to look at how Kathy grew as a designer while at Github and identify the specific milestones on her journey to reaching senior and eventually staff designer. We get into the weeds about: How the role of staff and senior designers differ The traits shar...
Jun 26, 2024ā¢49 minā¢Ep. 59
When you think about storytelling in design... Alex Cornell is often the person that comes to mind. And that's a big reason why he's one of the most requested guests on the show. So this episode is a deep dive into the finer details of communication. We talk about: The story behind his startup Cocoon How Alex leverages his background in video Alexās precision and obsession with language Why Alex left linear to work on generative AI at Meta Why getting buy-in for your ideas is kind of like a math...
Jun 20, 2024ā¢55 minā¢Ep. 58
This weekās episode with Maggie Appleton is a deep dive into designing for AI products and LLMs. Maggie shares about her experience as the first designer at Elicit (an AI assistant for research papers) and all of the unique challenges surrounding helping users interface with LLMs. We also go deep into: How Maggieās grown as a frontend developer Why Maggie feels like sheās in a short-run limbo Strategies for improving your technical literacy How writing online has impacted Maggieās career The AI-...
Jun 12, 2024ā¢53 minā¢Ep. 57
Remember how Michael Wandelmeier told us Metalab hired a storytelling coach ? Well that coach is Ian Wharton. Heās an Apple Design Award winner, CEO of Aide Health, and he teaches storytelling techniques to teams like Dyson, BBC, Huge, etc. So this episode breaks down the key storytelling concepts that he shares in his course Sell the Idea . We talk about the importance of the inciting incident, how to empower others to share your ideas, and a lot moreā¦ But he also presents some compelling ideas...
Jun 06, 2024ā¢53 minā¢Ep. 56
~6 months ago Amy Lima was laid off and has been preparing for this episode ever since. So in this interview she gives us an inside look at her process for landing a dream role at Duolingo. If youāre looking for your next role then this conversation is quite the playbook. She has the job hunt process down to a science. Some topics covered: Avoiding burnout amidst the chaos How Amy negotiated her Duolingo offer Amyās advice to proactively prepare for a layoff The ways Amy iterated on her portfoli...
Jun 04, 2024ā¢52 minā¢Ep. 55
