Dive Club 🤿

This week, Zach Leach (Head of Design at Gamma ) gives a behind-the-scenes of what it’s like designing one of the hottest AI products in the world today. He shares a ton of techniques and lessons learned from working with LLMs—including some ways to make AI fun again :) And we also learn what makes design at Gamma a bit unorthodox in all the best ways. Some highlights: What makes Gamma a team of “...

The more I study today's top design teams, the more clear it’s becoming that we're entering the era of a new type of design leader— one with taste and the skills necessary to uphold craft. So this episode studies this new archetype of leader by highlighting clips from design leaders at Airbnb, Ramp, Duolingo, and more… Alex Schleifer (Former Chief Design Officer at Airbnb) Mig Reyes (VP of Product...

Mig Reyes is the VP of Product Experience at Duolingo (and a design director at Instagram before that). In this episode he shared a behind-the-scenes of how design operates at Duolingo (as well as some harsh truths designers need to hear). Common portfolio review mistakes How communication skills build influence Mig’s strategy behind hiring junior designers How to succeed in executive product revi...

I talk to a lot of designers at the pinnacle of their career… So I’m always trying to figure out how they’ve evolved the way they practice design over the years. Once I hear the same answer from a few different people I start to pay attention 👀 So here are a few trends I’m noticing for how the best designers get alignment on their teams. Alex Cornell (Gen AI at Meta) Yuan Wang (Head of Design at...

Anthropic has quickly become a category-defining company and in this episode Kyle Turman (their first full-time designer) shares a behind-the-scenes of what it was like designing Claude. If you’re interested in startups, AI products, or the art of prompting then this conversation will be right up your alley. Some highlights: Kyle’s story of wearing every hat for Claude What it’s like designing con...

There's a parallel I'm noticing between what's happening today with AI and what happened way back in 2013. So this episode studies the early days of Snapchat, the emergence of high-fidelity prototyping tools, and answers the question “what does it look like to have agency in 2025?” Jack Brody (Chief Product Officer at Suno) Jorn van Dijk (CEO of Framer) Julius Tarng (Research engineer at Anthropic...

Tuhin Kumar has designed at some of the most prolific companies in the world (early Facebook, Airbnb and Apple). But everything’s changing in his new role… Because now he’s the Head of Design at Luma AI which is one of the companies leading the charge on generative AI. So this episode goes deep on how the value prop of design is shifting. Some highlights: The #1 trait of craft-oriented companies W...

There are two goals that designers almost always group together: Make a useful product Make it easy to understand But my interview with Sam Stephenson changed my thinking completely 👀 So this episode breaks down Granola ’s go-to-market strategy and why I’m copying it for my own startup. Sam Stephenson (Co-founder of Granola) Colin Dunn (Co-founder of Visual Electric)

Jack Brody joined Snapchat as one of the early designers where he spent 10 years and eventually became Head of Product. 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 w...

I’ve interviewed a lot of designers who have landed some pretty high profile roles and I’m starting to notice some trends 👀 So this video breaks down 6 portfolio tips that you can use to stand out.

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 . 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 Fig...

My #1 source of imposter syndrome is when I see designers prototyping beautiful interactions like this or even this . 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 wee...

I use Granola every single day and it’s quickly become a beloved product in the tech community. 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...

I’ve spent a lot of time studying how the best design teams operate and two of my favorites are Ramp and Plaid . So this episode shines a light on specific practices they put in place to create a culture of craft 👇

What do Raycast, Daylight, Amo, The Browser Co, and Mainframe all have in common? 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...

AI introduces an opportunity for all kinds of novel interaction patterns. 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 Des...

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. 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 or...

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

This week’s episode is with Christophe Tauziet who is the Head of Design at Plaid —one of today’s leading fintech companies. 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...

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 👇 Vincent van der Meulen (Design engineer at Figma) Soleio pt. 1 / pt. 2 (second designer at Facebook) Kevin Wong (Head of product a...

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 complexity… So in this week’s episode, Design Lead Aashman Goghari gives us a behind-the-scenes of what it’s like d...

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 I’ve met. So here are a few of my favorites. Watch the full episode with Smi...

If you asked me “who has the best taste in design right now?” one of the first people I’d mention is Thiago Costa. 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...

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. 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 collaborat...

How do designers from today’s top teams collaborate with engineers? 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 Anthr...