Alle afleveringen
226 afleveringen, van nieuw naar oud
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Jack Brody - Designing Snapchat and the future of music
11 april 2025 · 1 uur 1 min
Jack Brody joined Snapchat as one of the early designers where he spent 10 years and eventually became Head of Product. Lees meer
So this week’s episode features a lot of lessons learned from the early design team at Snap and an inside look at what makes their culture so special.
But we also go deep into Jack’s new role as the Chief Product Officer at Suno where he’s helping design the future of music. So we end up having quite the discussion on creative launchpads and the impact of AI.
Some highlights:
Suno’s vision for the future of music
How AI flips the design process on its head
Jack’s viral Kim Kardashian moment at Snap
How Jack grew his strategy muscles at Snap
The 3 types of competitive advantages with AI
The big unlock while designing Suno’s creation UX
a lot more
Suno is hiring!
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6 tips to make your portfolio stand out💡
9 april 2025 · 13 min
I’ve interviewed a lot of designers who have landed some pretty high profile roles and I’m starting to notice some trends 👀 Lees meer
So this video breaks down 6 portfolio tips that you can use to stand out.
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Nad Chishtie - A new way to design and build with AI
4 april 2025 · 54 min
Lovable has quickly become the go-to way I build my ideas with AI and this week we get to hear from their first designer Nad Chishtie. Lees meer
We go deep into what it takes to succeed as a founding designer and all of the ways AI is shaping modern product teams.
Some highlights:
Nad’s tips for collaborating creatively with AI tools
How designers can be enablers instead of bottlenecks
How Nad balances Figma with new AI tools like Lovable
Why Lovable built and deleted a Figma-like layers panel
What it’s like at the fastest growing startup in European history
a lot more
Nad mentions one of his favorite AI tools Granola
I talked about Unicorn Studio
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Designing on expert mode
1 april 2025 · 9 min
My #1 source of imposter syndrome is when I see designers prototyping beautiful interactions like this or even this. Lees meer
It’s one thing to create gorgeous interfaces, but crafting complex interactions from first principles is designing on expert mode. And it’s a big reason why Linear lists interactions as a requirement three separate times in their job description for principal designer.
So this week’s episode is all about how to unlock the skill of interaction design 👇
Gavin Nelson (Mobile designer for Linear)
Janum Trivedi (Prototyping specialist at Airbnb)
Alex Cornell (Gen-AI designer at Meta)
Dennis Muller (Founder + designer at Amie)
Dan LaCivita (Co-founder of Play)
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Sam Stephenson - The journey of designing an AI product
28 maart 2025 · 51 min
I use Granola every single day and it’s quickly become a beloved product in the tech community. Lees meer
But it was a winding journey to get there…
So in this episode their co-founder and designer, Sam Stephenson, gives a behind-the-scenes of what it was like going 0 → 1 with Granola:
How to navigate the idea maze for an AI product
What Sam has learned about prompt engineering
What it takes to succeed as an early stage startup designer
How they arrived at Granola’s breakthrough interaction pattern
A glimpse of Granola’s future product roadmap and teams strategy
The piece of advice that reshaped how they think about onboarding
a lot more
⭐ Granola is offering 3 months free for you and anyone on your team(!!) using this link
They’re also hiring a founding designer
Sam mentions Soleio who was their first investor
Daniel Kahneman is the psychologist Sam mentions
The Science of Managing our Digital Stuff
David Lee is the YC Partner who gave them onboarding advice
If you liked this episode then you’ll enjoy the interview with Colin Dunn (co-founder and designer of Visual Electric)
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How Ramp and Plaid create a culture of craft💡
25 maart 2025 · 7 min
I’ve spent a lot of time studying how the best design teams operate and two of my favorites are Ramp and Plaid. Lees meer
So this episode shines a light on specific practices they put in place to create a culture of craft 👇
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Ellis Hamburger - Storytelling for today’s top startups
21 maart 2025 · 57 min
What do Raycast, Daylight, Amo, The Browser Co, and Mainframe all have in common? Lees meer
They all hired Ellis Hamburger to help tell their story.
So this episode is a bit different...
We're going to get away from the pixels and go deep into how you can use language to tell a compelling story about your product.
Some highlights:
How to tell a story that people care about
Lessons from the Language team at Snapchat
Breaking down specific copywriting strategies
Questions to help you figure out your product’s story
What we can learn from the CEOs of Snapchat vs. Browser Co.
How to make your product onboarding unforgettable
a lot more
Ellis talks about the Browser Company’s “Peek” video
Jordan Singer’s Mainframe website
Daylight computer website
Ellis mentions the 222 onboarding
The Permanent website (”design is how its made”)
Ellis quotes the Build book
Amo’s “Where did our friends go?” manifesto
Raycast’s “Why” page and Focus mode
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The challenge of designing AI products💡
18 maart 2025 · 11 min
AI introduces an opportunity for all kinds of novel interaction patterns. Lees meer
But it creates a whole new category of design challenges too…
And this episode breaks down the biggest challenge of all.
Colin Dunn (Founder and Designer of Visual Electric)
Maheen Sohail (Gen-AI designer at Meta)
Tyler Angert (Founder of Patina Systems)
Maggie Appleton (Design engineer at Normally)
Ammaar Reshi (Head of Design at ElevenLabs)
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Alejandro Matamala Ortiz - Designing the future of AI video
14 maart 2025 · 46 min
This week’s episode is with Alejandro Matamala Ortiz, the cofounder and Chief Design Officer at Runway—one of the leading generative AI companies in the world today. Lees meer
The way they work is incredibly unique. So a big focus of this interview is digging into how AI is shifting the way products get built and what it all means for designers:
How the lines are blurring between roles
How AI flips the order of building new features
What it means to “carve” AI products vs. build them
How Alejandro believes the role of design will change
Why the embed frontend engineers on the design team
Where the film and video industry might be headed next
a lot more
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How to pitch your designs like a pro💡
11 maart 2025 · 6 min
Most designers fall into the same trap when presenting their ideas. Lees meer
So this ~5 min episode breaks down how to pitch your designs like a pro.
Chris Abad
Gabe Valdivia
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Christophe Tauziet - Plaid’s culture of craft, tips for CRIT, and lessons from early Facebook
7 maart 2025 · 55 min
This week’s episode is with Christophe Tauziet who is the Head of Design at Plaid—one of today’s leading fintech companies. Lees meer
We go deep into the ways he’s building a culture of craft and the rituals they’ve 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 “polish reviews”
Ways to foster collaboration within a design org
Practical advice for giving better design feedback
How Christophe changed what he looks for in design candidates
a lot more
Brian Lovin’s article “Teams should work with the garage door up”
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2 ways to make your design ideas compelling💡
4 maart 2025 · 7 min
You can have the greatest design concepts in the world, but none of that matters if they don't make it into production. Lees meer
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 👇
Vincent van der Meulen (Design engineer at Figma)
Soleio pt. 1 / pt. 2 (second designer at Facebook)
Kevin Wong (Head of product at Webflow)
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Aashman Goghari - Tackling complex design challenges at Palantir
1 maart 2025 · 59 min
Palantir is one of the most powerful products in existence today. Lees meer
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 complexity… So in this week’s episode, Design Lead Aashman Goghari gives us a behind-the-scenes of what it’s like designing products at Palantir.
Becoming better at “problem decomposition”
Two patterns for handling complex interfaces
How to think through systems like a developer
How data models can impact your design process
Designing new user experiences for “Ferrari products”
How to collaborate more effectively with backend engineers
Finding the balance between edge cases and the golden path
a lot more
Aashman mentions the Concepts app for sketching on iPad
Palantir is currently hiring designers
You can follow Aashman on Twitter
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4 brand strategy tips from Smith & Diction 💡
25 februari 2025 · 7 min
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). Lees meer
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 I’ve 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
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Thiago Costa - Cultivating taste as a designer
21 februari 2025 · 58 min
If you asked me “who has the best taste in design right now?” one of the first people I’d mention is Thiago Costa. Lees meer
His product Fey is in the S-tier of design and I’ve studied his visual techniques for many years.
Finally, after over a 12 months of pestering he agreed to share his secrets in a interview 🙌
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 “heightened awareness”
How Thiago evolved the Fey aesthetic from 1.0 to 2.0
Specific visual techniques for making your UI more lifelike
a lot more
Caravaggio is the painter who Thiago calls the “master of light”
The Local Project interior design channel on YouTube
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Ammaar Reshi - Unlocking AI’s creative potential
14 februari 2025 · 54 min
Today we get to hear from Ammaar Reshi who is the Head of Design at ElevenLabs—the AI audio platform that has come up multiple times in past episodes. Lees meer
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 Ammaar’s viral AI experiments
Predictions for the future of voice as an interface
What it’s like collaborating with an research team
How he’s designing novel interaction patterns for AI
What Ammaar looks for when hiring startup designers
What it’s like designing at multiple hyper growth startups
a lot more
Thread of all Ammaar’s AI experiments (including the viral book and podcast app)
Ammaar mentioned chatting with Nate Parrott from the Browser Company
Ammaar mentions the Rabbit hardware product
Ammaar mentions collaborating with his friend Pietro
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Design “handoff” is changing forever 💡
11 februari 2025 · 11 min
How do designers from today’s top teams collaborate with engineers? Lees meer
After many interviews I'm starting to notice a trend…
The highest functioning product teams throw away a lot of code and it’s a good model for what the new “handoff” 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 der Meulen (design engineer at Figma)
Balint Orosz (cofounder of Craft Docs)
Derek Briggs (Design + Code at Hypermode)
Anthony Menecola (Staff designer at Shopify)
Ammaar Reshi (Head of Design at ElevenLabs — episode coming soon)
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Chris Abad - Storytelling tactics for senior designers
7 februari 2025 · 50 min
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. Lees meer
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 with executives
His new secret weapon software tool for storytelling
Strategies for navigating pushback from stakeholders
How to frame the “Peak Moment” of your presentation
How he coaches designers to leverage storytelling in their portfolio
a lot more
⭐ Don’t forget you can also save $100 on Chris’s Design Storytelling course using the code DIVECLUB
Chris mentions the importance of the Story10x book
IA Presenter is the new tool Chris uses for presentations
Ridd uses SuperWhisper for transcriptions
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How to be great at systems thinking 💡
4 februari 2025 · 10 min
Systems thinking is often mentioned as the #1 trait teams are looking for in designers. Lees meer
But what does it look like to be great at it?
This episode answers that question by highlighting stories from Notion, Anthropic, and more 👇
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Anthony Menecola - Insights from a staff designer at Shopify
31 januari 2025 · 44 min
This week's episode is with Anthony Menecola who is a longtime staff product designer at Shopify so we’re going to do a deep dive into ways you can make a bigger impact at your company as an IC. Lees meer
One of the big themes of this episode is Anthony’s journey becoming more technical and contributing to the Shopify code base so if you’re interested in building your ideas I think you’ll get a lot out of this one.
We also talk about:
The archetypes of staff designers at Shopify
What it takes to create an impactful proposal
Ways to build strategic relationships at Shopify
How to strategically circulate your design ideas
The art of sharing effective async video updates
How Anthony identifies future-facing ideas to explore
a lot more
Anthony’s website and Twitter
The Shop app
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Making big ideas happen with design 💡
28 januari 2025 · 11 min
When I say high stakes design project, what comes to mind? Lees meer
How about Ryan Scott redesigning the Airbnb checkout flow right before a $3.5 billion IPO? Now THAT is a big time project…
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 Scott’s top rated Maven courses 👇
1️⃣ Describing the ROI of Design (https://join.dive.club/ryan-scott-roi-course)
2️⃣ PM Masterclass for Designers (https://join.dive.club/ryan-pm-masterclass-course)
Ryan Scott (design lead at Airbnb + DoorDash)
Tyler Angert (1st designer at Replit and founder of Patina Systems)
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Balint Orosz - What it takes to design an award-winning product
24 januari 2025 · 53 min
What does it take to create a product worthy of winning Mac app of the year? Lees meer
I interviewed the founder of Craft Docs, Balint Orosz, to find out…
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
Craft’s 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 “quick add” feature
What makes Craft’s approach to product planning so unique
The challenges of designing a user-generated content product
a lot more
Introducing Craft 3
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How to increase your influence as a designer 💡
21 januari 2025 · 10 min
I’ve interviewed a lot of staff designers to figure out what it takes to have real influence at companies like Shopify, Github, Airbnb, etc. Lees meer
One thing is clear… 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 Zheng (Head of Design at Optimism)
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Catt Small - How to influence and lead as a staff designer
17 januari 2025 · 52 min
How do the best staff designers influence and lead as individual contributors? Lees meer
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 “executive presence”
Catt’s advice for better time management
How designers can encourage people to think bigger
How Catt has evolved the way she does async videos
Understanding the different archetypes of staff designers
Behind-the-scenes of the massive “Goals” project at Asana
a lot more
Check out Catt’s course Staff Designer: Influence & Lead as an Individual Contributor (Dive Club listeners get $100 off)
Catt mentions the books Radical Candor & 15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership
Micah Bennett was the designer she learned so much from
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How to get hired by the best teams 💡
14 januari 2025 · 12 min
What are the best teams looking for in design candidates? Lees meer
That’s 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)
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Tyler Angert - The rise of spontaneous software
8 januari 2025 · 49 min
This week’s episode is with Tyler Angert who was the first design hire at Replit. So we get a behind-the-scenes look at what it’s 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 “spontaneous software”. Lees meer
Some highlights:
Why the camera roll is pivotal for AI
Tyler’s advice to his 23 year old self
Tactics for learning to code with Claude
What it takes to design complex systems
The skills that will be most valuable in 2025
The biggest design challenges for AI products
Strategies for learning more technical skillsets
How to succeed as a young designer at a startup
Tyler’s Freezeframe app with Jason Yuan
Genesis physics announcement
Granola meeting recordings
Daylight computer
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You’re an AI product designer now 💡
6 januari 2025 · 9 min
I’m designing a new product and a few months ago I would’ve confidently said it’s not an AI product. But I was wrong. Lees meer
This new technology creates endless opportunities… we just have to be able to see what AI makes possible. And that’s 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)
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Mike and Chara Smith - Designing for the love of the game
3 januari 2025 · 57 min
I’ve followed Mike Smith ever since he designed the Perplexity brand identity and quickly realized he’s one of the most creative designers I’ve 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. Lees meer
So this week’s 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 strategy
Why the best brands have lots of “moves”
Mike’s #1 piece of advice for younger designers
What people really mean when they say “timeless”
Their experience using Visual Electric in brand design
Positioning Smith & Diction in today’s agency landscape
a lot more
We talk about how they used Visual Electric for their latest project (Alma Food). ⭐ Don’t forget you can use the code DIVECLUB to get your first month free.
You can also check out the episode with Colin Dunn (CEO of Visual Electric)
Mike says to make sure you watch the episode with Phi from Perplexity
We talk about Topo, Cotopaxi and Steady bags
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Thinking like an engineer is a super power for designers 💡
30 december 2024 · 11 min
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. Lees meer
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)
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Pranathi Peri - Designing v0 from Vercel
27 december 2024 · 53 min
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: Lees meer
Growing your taste and intuition quickly
How Pran thinks about the design language of v0
Pran’s personal experiments using 3D and physics
Why Pran wants to bring “onboarding roulette” to v0
How Pran showed potential without having extensive experience
What it’s like collaborating with engineers like ShadCN and Rauno
a lot more
Manuel is the VP of Design at Vercel
We discuss what it’s like collaborating with Shadcn
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What true obsession with craft looks like 💡
23 december 2024 · 6 min
Craft is so much more than a shimmering landing page or micro animation… Lees meer
It’s sweating all of the tiny details and having a thorough understanding of the edge cases in your product.
But there’s one detail most designers miss… 👀
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).
It’s a fantastic example of what it looks like to obsess over the craft of your product
You can find his full episode here — https://www.dive.club/deep-dives/raphael-schaad
And this episode also pulls in part of my conversation with Julius Tarng about his time at Linear — https://www.dive.club/deep-dives/julius-tarng
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Sam Peitz - The intersection of art and product
18 december 2024 · 49 min
This week's episode is with Sam Peitz who quickly became one of my favorite designers to follow in 2024. Lees meer
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 he’s redefined his career path over the past ~10 months. We go deep into:
Sam’s go-to source of design inspiration
The power of setting the right constraints
What Sam has learned about building with v0
How to think creatively and design out of the box
How to position yourself for the type of work you want to do
a lot more
Koto branding studio is where Sam worked previously
Sam likes Arena for design inspiration
We talked about the episode with Dennis from Amie
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Don’t trust the design process 💡
16 december 2024 · 11 min
Designers have become servants of “the process” so this episode features stories of people who are breaking the mold in the way they explore and prototype ideas. Lees meer
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 Figma):
https://www.dive.club/deep-dives/figma-prototyping
Michael Wandelmaier (Former Head of Design at Metalab): https://www.dive.club/deep-dives/michael-wandelmaier
And lastly it features insights from Jenny Wen including her original blog post that inspired this episode (definitely bookmark this it’s awesome)👇
https://jennywen.substack.com/p/dont-trust-the-design-process
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Andrei Herasimchuk - The 1st designer at Adobe
11 december 2024 · 50 min
Did you know that the very first interface designer at Adobe was also the first designer to work on Figma? 🤯 Lees meer
His name is Andrei Herasimchuk and he knows a lot about design tooling…
So this week’s 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 that… Andrei gives us a behind-the-scenes of his new design tooling startup and shares his vision for where software creation is headed next 👀
Some highlights to expect:
How AI fits into his new product strategy
The bizarre story of Andrei’s first day at Adobe
The 3 types of designers that will exist in the future
What it was like joining Figma as the first designer in 2012
How Andrei defined the initial keyboard shortcuts in design tools
The #1 trait of designers he’s worked with over the last 3 decades
When to break out of the familiar interaction patterns for design tooling
a lot more
Bryan Lamkin was Andrei’s first manager at Adobe
Mark Hamburg was who he collaborated with on the original keyboard shortcuts
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Become a 10x startup designer 💡
9 december 2024 · 10 min
Many of my favorite episodes are when we get to hear from the earliest designers at companies like Linear, Perplexity, Ramp, Facebook, etc. Lees meer
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/soleio-2
Marco Cornacchia (Founding designer at Diagram): https://www.dive.club/deep-dives/marco-cornacchia
Henry Modisett (Founding designer at Perplexity): https://www.dive.club/deep-dives/henry-modisett
Helen Tran(Design leader at AngelList): https://www.dive.club/deep-dives/helen-tran
Diego Zaks (2nd designer at Ramp): https://www.dive.club/deep-dives/diego-zaks
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Diego Zaks - Designing the fastest growing startup ever
4 december 2024 · 51 min
Imagine joining an early stage startup as the first senior designer and within a few years, it becomes the fastest growing company ever. Lees meer
Well… that's the story of Diego Zaks who is now the VP of design at Ramp.
This week’s 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 “truth seeking pods”
How Diego creates a culture of collaboration
What it takes to be a great founding designer
The #1 trait Diego looks for in design candidates
How Diego has changed the way he gives feedback
How designers are empowered to make strategic calls
a lot more…
Want to work with Diego at Ramp? They’re hiring ✌️
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Attacking ambiguity with design💡
2 december 2024 · 11 min
Imagine you’re asked to lead the design of a new project. It’s complex, open-ended, and full of interconnected problems… Lees meer
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 Design at Meta AI): https://www.dive.club/deep-dives/alex-cornell
Rich Arnold (Design leader at Vine, IG, and Coinbase): https://www.dive.club/deep-dives/rich-arnold
Andrei Herasimchuk (first designer at Adobe and Figma): Episode coming soon
Jenny Wen’s Eigenquestions Figjam template
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Phi Hoang - Creativity, Midjourney, and the future of brand design
27 november 2024 · 48 min
2024 was the year the Perplexity brand took over the design community. And a big reason why is because of Phi Hoang. Lees meer
So this week’s episode is a deep dive into brand experience design and creativity with AI tools. We get an inside look at:
Phi’s creative process with Midjourney
Why Perplexity thinks of the brand in “seasons”
Phi’s 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 > visual consistency
a lot more
Phi referenced the episode with Henry Modisett the Head of Design at Perplexity
Mike Smith from Smith & Diction is who Phi collaborated with on the initial brand identity
Phi uses Midjourney for image creation
He also mentioned Runway, Luma, and Krea for video work.
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Storytelling masterclass for designers 💡
25 november 2024 · 13 min
It doesn’t 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. Lees meer
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 of design at Optimism): https://www.dive.club/deep-dives/kathy-zheng
Yuan Wang (head of design at Maven): https://www.dive.club/deep-dives/yuan-wang
Alex Cornell (design lead for Gen AI at Meta): https://www.dive.club/deep-dives/alex-cornell
Noam Segal (senior research leader): https://www.dive.club/deep-dives/noam-segal
Femke (design lead at Gusto): https://www.dive.club/deep-dives/femke
Gabe Valdivia (independent designer): https://www.dive.club/deep-dives/gabe-valdivia
Dive is where the best designers never stop learning 🤿 🌐 dive.club 🐦 twitter.com/joindiveclub
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Joey Banks - Designing your career path
20 november 2024 · 52 min
A little over a year ago, Joey Banks and I were DM’ing each other in Slack about leaving our W-2 jobs and going independent. Lees meer
So this week’s episode is a reflection on his journey working for himself and it’s as human and relatable as any conversation I’ve 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 services and pricing yourself effectively
Dealing with uncertainty and all of the unknowns in your first year
a lot more
Get a special offer on Joey’s “Level Up with Figma” course
Joey’s Baseline website and newsletter
Paul Millerd’s “Pathless Path” book and his episode on Lenny’s podcast
Joey mentioned Oliur’s episode as one of his favorite YouTube creators
He also mentioned Stephen Robles YouTube channel
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Time to rethink design systems 💡
18 november 2024 · 9 min
The pendulum has swung too far with design systems. Somehow they’ve become synonymous with scale. But I believe they’re 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. Lees meer
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 Atomic Design): https://www.dive.club/deep-dives/brad-frost
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Dessn - The missing tool for product designers
13 november 2024 · 49 min
After writing a viral article called “The Missing Tool” I was fortunate to meet Gab and Nim who are the co-founders of a startup called Dessn. Lees meer
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 we’ve had regular jam sessions about the future of design tooling, how AI impacts software creation, and everything in between…
These jam sessions have been some of the most inspiring conversations I’ve had this year. So this week’s episode is a way to loop you in on some of those conversations. We go deep into:
The future of design systems with AI
Crafting a product strategy in today’s landscape
Navigating the idea maze as an early stage founder
What it means to have an “AI native” product strategy
How the flattening of the talent stack impacts designers
Why Nim was so inspired by the head of design at Unsplash
What “taste” looks like when operating as a creative director
a lot more
Check out the Dessn website
Nim mentioned V0.dev as a way to create software (also might like Meng To’s recent episode)
The short story Library of Babel
Studio Ghibli animation studios
Graza olive oil as an example of what a strong brand looks like in a commoditized product line
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7 mental models for designing AI products💡
11 november 2024 · 13 min
Over the last few months, I’ve interviewed the people designing cutting edge AI products like Perplexity, Claude, Dot, Humane, Visual Electric, and more… Lees meer
During that time I’ve created a running list of all the metaphors and mental models they’ve used to explain what it’s 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://www.dive.club/deep-dives/henry-modisett Joel Lewenstein (Head of Product Design at Anthropic): https://www.dive.club/deep-dives/joel-lewenstein George Kedenburg III (Designer at Humane): https://www.dive.club/deep-dives/george-kedenburg-iii Colin Dunn (Co-founder of Visual Electric): https://www.dive.club/deep-dives/colin-dunn Jason Yuan (Co-founder of Dot): https://www.dive.club/deep-dives/jason-yuan
Chapters 0:00 AI as an organism we grew 1:49 AI as the middle of a field 6:24 AI as a chef in a kitchen 7:37 AI as a new child 8:42 AI as a new material 10:20 AI as the meat of our design deliverable 12:11 AI as electricity
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Meng To - How to build your ideas with AI
6 november 2024 · 51 min
One of the most impressive things I’ve seen a designer make all year is Meng To’s Dreamcut. Lees meer
It’s the perfect example of what it looks like to transition from traditional designer to builder 💪 So if you’re 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 he’s spent 10+ years teaching designers how to code through Design+Code. So in this episode we go deep into:
Meng’s tech stack and go-to AI tools
How to fine-tune visual details in code
The secret to an effective first 10 prompts
How to find the perfect first project to build
How much code you need to know to build with AI
What parts were easier/harder than Meng expected
Why Meng considers Claude the newest design tool
a lot more…
Meng uses Claude + Cursor to build his ideas
Meng’s original .svg pattern product that he build to get started
Meng’s new Dream Cut editor
Meng previously used Screen Studio (which is awesome), CapCut, and Eleven Labs for videos
AI typically uses TailwindCSS (Meng also mentioned the Shadcn component library)
Meng also mentioned V0 and Bolt as alternatives to Claude
Scratch is visual programming for kids
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How Airbnb is bringing soul back to their design 💡
4 november 2024 · 10 min
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. Lees meer
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 specialist at Airbnb): https://www.dive.club/deep-dives/janum-trivedi
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Soleio - The rise of designers who ship
30 oktober 2024 · 1 uur 2 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. Lees meer
So this week’s 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
The backstory behind Soleio’s investment in Perplexity
A potential future where one designer can service 5+ startups
What you can do to invest in your future founder journey today
How Soleio approaches the design tooling space as an investor
Why we won’t use smartphones the same way 5 years from now
a lot more
Soleio’s first episode
Meng To’s video editing product (episode coming soon)
Granola (Sam and Chris are the founders)
Interview with Perplexity’s head of design (Henry Modisett)
Pattern Breakers by Mike Maples, Jr
Chapters 0:00 Intro 1:32 Designers who can ship 11:18 Dealing with the velocity of tech as an investor 13:27 The importance of brand for startups 18:00 Why Soleio beleives we won't be using smartphones the same way in 5 years 34:23 Qualities that Soleio looks for in first-time founders 36:58 How to succeed as a founding designer 44:53 Founders living in the future 55:05 How to invest in your future founder journey today
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Joel Lewenstein - Pursuing ambitious design ideas
23 oktober 2024 · 50 min
This week’s 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 one’s “juice per minute” score is off the charts. Lees meer
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 interface for AI
Designing for infinite degrees of freedom vs. user journeys
How Joel designed his interview process at Airtable/Anthropic
a lot more…
The CEO of Anthropic (Dario Amodei)’s essay: Machines of Loving Grace
A new 3 minute video showing how the team built Claude Artifacts
Chad Thornton was the Head of Design at Airtable
Everett Katigbak is the Brand Creative Director at Anthropic
Kim Bost is the design leader Joel collaborates with a lot
Joel mentioned Jason Yuan’s interview about designing AI products with soul
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Teo Connor - How Airbnb innovates with design
16 oktober 2024 · 48 min
Airbnb is one of the truly iconic design-driven companies. They set the bar for design innovation in so many ways. So this week’s episode is a deep dive with their VP of Design, Teo Connor. Lees meer
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 it’s not enough to think in terms of flows and screens
Why Airbnb is updating their design system to use more 3D
How they redesigned the checkout and welcome experience
Why Airbnb has prioritized prototyping in code earlier in the process
a lot more
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Dan Moreno - Challenging the status quo as a designer
9 oktober 2024 · 1 uur
Imagine your first traditional “product design” job is designing the Snapchat messaging UX for millions of people across the globe… Lees meer
Well that’s what Dan Moreno’s journey looked like as an engineer turned designer.
So this week’s 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:
Dan’s formula for presenting design ideas
How Dan grew his visual skills as an engineer
Inside look at the AR exploration team at Snapchat
How to get the CEO of Snap excited about your idea
Why designing at a startup brings more responsibility
How Dan rethought what Snapchat messaging could be
a lot more
Snap’s Lens Studio
Andrew McPhee (Dan’s first manager at Snap)
Gaurav Misra (founder of Captions)
Pop a component plugin for Figma
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Jason Yuan - Going beyond craft to design with soul
2 oktober 2024 · 49 min
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. Lees meer
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 future might hold for software products. We go deep into:
What it looks like to design with soul
What makes Jason’s design process unique
Why Jason left Apple to build New Computer
How Dot is the spiritual successor to MercuryOS
How more designers need to become AI engineers
Why Jason thinks dynamic interfaces are over-hyped
How to design a product based on one magical interaction
What Jason learned about storytelling from his background in theatre
a lot more
Download Dot or check out the website
Jason's original MercuryOS project
The original Dot website featuring Mei’s story (from the Wayback machine so give it a minute to load)
Jason references Shigeru Miyamoto (the creator of Super Mario Bros)