Dive Club šŸ¤æ

<p><strong>Where designers never stop learning šŸ’Ŗ</strong></p><p>Dive Club is an interview series hosted by <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://x.com/ridd_design">Ridd</a> 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.</p><p>You can find all of the episodes, key takeaways, and bonus resources here šŸ‘‰ <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.dive.club/">Dive.club</a></p>

Ammaar Reshi - Unlocking AIā€™s creative potential

Today we get to hear from Ammaar Reshi who is the Head of Design at ElevenLabsā€”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 Ammaarā€™s viral AI experimentsPredictions for the future of voice as an interfaceWhat itā€™s like collaborating with an research teamHow heā€™s designing novel interaction patterns for AIWhat Ammaar looks for when hiring startup designersWhat itā€™s like designing at multiple hyper growth startupsa lot moreThread of all Ammaarā€™s AI experiments (including the viral book and podcast app)Ammaar mentioned chatting with Nate Parrott from the Browser CompanyAmmaar mentions the Rabbit hardware productAmmaar mentions collaborating with his friend Pietro

02-14
54:21

Design ā€œhandoffā€ is changing forever šŸ’”

How do designers from todayā€™s 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 itā€™s a good model for what the new ā€œhandoffā€ 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 ā€” episode coming soon)

02-11
11:24

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 deckHow to set up Q&A for success with executivesHis new secret weapon software tool for storytellingStrategies for navigating pushback from stakeholdersHow to frame the ā€œPeak Momentā€ of your presentationHow he coaches designers to leverage storytelling in their portfolioa lot moreā­ Donā€™t forget you can also save $100 on Chrisā€™s Design Storytelling course using the code DIVECLUBChris mentions the importance of the Story10x bookIA Presenter is the new tool Chris uses for presentationsRidd uses SuperWhisper for transcriptions

02-07
49:45

How to be great at systems thinking šŸ’”

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 šŸ‘‡

02-04
10:03

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 weā€™re 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 Anthonyā€™s journey becoming more technical and contributing to the Shopify code base so if youā€™re interested in building your ideas I think youā€™ll get a lot out of this one.We also talk about:The archetypes of staff designers at ShopifyWhat it takes to create an impactful proposalWays to build strategic relationships at ShopifyHow to strategically circulate your design ideasThe art of sharing effective async video updatesHow Anthony identifies future-facing ideas to explorea lot moreAnthonyā€™s website and TwitterThe Shop app

01-31
44:23

Making big ideas happen with design šŸ’”

When I say high stakes design project, what comes to mind?How about Ryan Scott redesigning the Airbnb checkout flow right before a ā€Š$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 Scottā€™s top rated Maven courses šŸ‘‡1ļøāƒ£ Describing the ROI of Design (https://join.dive.club/ryan-scott-roi-course)2ļøāƒ£ 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)

01-28
10:34

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 thinkersCraftā€™s plan to differentiate with personalizationWhat it looks like for designers to take ownershipHow designers experiment with LLMs and shadersBehind-the-scenes of their viral ā€œquick addā€ featureWhat makes Craftā€™s approach to product planning so uniqueThe challenges of designing a user-generated content producta lot moreIntroducing Craft 3

01-24
52:58

How to increase your influence as a designer šŸ’”

Iā€™ve 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 Zheng (Head of Design at Optimism)

01-21
09:46

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 trapThe key to having ā€œexecutive presenceā€Cattā€™s advice for better time managementHow designers can encourage people to think biggerHow Catt has evolved the way she does async videosUnderstanding the different archetypes of staff designersBehind-the-scenes of the massive ā€œGoalsā€ project at Asanaa lot moreCheck out Cattā€™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 LeadershipMicah Bennett was the designer she learned so much from

01-17
52:24

How to get hired by the best teams

What are the best teams looking for in design candidates?Thatā€™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)

01-14
11:50

Tyler Angert - The rise of spontaneous software

This weekā€™s episode is with Tyler Angert who was the first design hire at Replit. So we get a behind-the-scenes look at what itā€™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 ā€œspontaneous softwareā€.Some highlights:Why the camera roll is pivotal for AITylerā€™s advice to his 23 year old selfTactics for learning to code with ClaudeWhat it takes to design complex systemsThe skills that will be most valuable in 2025The biggest design challenges for AI productsStrategies for learning more technical skillsetsHow to succeed as a young designer at a startupTylerā€™s Freezeframe app with Jason YuanGenesis physics announcementGranola meeting recordingsDaylight computer

01-08
48:51

Youā€™re an AI product designer now šŸ’”

Iā€™m designing a new product and a few months ago I wouldā€™ve confidently said itā€™s 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 thatā€™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)

01-06
09:07

Mike and Chara Smith - Designing for the love of the game

Iā€™ve followed Mike Smith ever since he designed the Perplexity brand identity and quickly realized heā€™s one of the most creative designers Iā€™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.So this weekā€™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 worldTheir hacks for cracking a brand strategyWhy the best brands have lots of ā€œmovesā€Mikeā€™s #1 piece of advice for younger designersWhat people really mean when they say ā€œtimelessā€Their experience using Visual Electric in brand designPositioning Smith & Diction in todayā€™s agency landscapea lot moreWe talk about how they used Visual Electric for their latest project (Alma Food). ā­ Donā€™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 PerplexityWe talk about Topo, Cotopaxi and Steady bags

01-03
57:20

Thinking like an engineer is a super power for designers šŸ’”

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)

12-30
10:46

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 quicklyHow Pran thinks about the design language of v0Pranā€™s personal experiments using 3D and physicsWhy Pran wants to bring ā€œonboarding rouletteā€ to v0How Pran showed potential without having extensive experienceWhat itā€™s like collaborating with engineers like ShadCN and Raunoa lot moreManuel is the VP of Design at VercelWe discuss what itā€™s like collaborating with Shadcn

12-27
52:37

What true obsession with craft looks like šŸ’”

Craft is so much more than a shimmering landing page or micro animationā€¦Itā€™s sweating all of the tiny details and having a thorough understanding of the edge cases in your product.But thereā€™s one detail most designers missā€¦ šŸ‘€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).Itā€™s a fantastic example of what it looks like to obsess over the craft of your productYou can find his full episode here ā€” https://www.dive.club/deep-dives/raphael-schaadAnd this episode also pulls in part of my conversation with Julius Tarng about his time at Linear ā€” https://www.dive.club/deep-dives/julius-tarng

12-23
05:55

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 heā€™s redefined his career path over the past ~10 months. We go deep into:Samā€™s go-to source of design inspirationThe power of setting the right constraintsWhat Sam has learned about building with v0How to think creatively and design out of the boxHow to position yourself for the type of work you want to doa lot moreKoto branding studio is where Sam worked previouslySam likes Arena for design inspirationWe talked about the episode with Dennis from Amie

12-18
48:47

Donā€™t trust the design process šŸ’”

Designers have become servants of ā€œthe 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-valdiviaDennis Muller (Designer + founder of Amie):https://www.dive.club/deep-dives/dennis-mullerGavin Nelson (Designing Linear mobile app):https://www.dive.club/deep-dives/gavin-nelsonNikolas Klein (Designing Prototyping at Figma):https://www.dive.club/deep-dives/figma-prototypingMichael Wandelmaier (Former Head of Design at Metalab): https://www.dive.club/deep-dives/michael-wandelmaierAnd lastly it features insights from Jenny Wen including her original blog post that inspired this episode (definitely bookmark this itā€™s awesome)šŸ‘‡https://jennywen.substack.com/p/dont-trust-the-design-process

12-16
11:15

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? šŸ¤ÆHis name is Andrei Herasimchuk and he knows a lot about design toolingā€¦So this weekā€™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 thatā€¦ Andrei gives us a behind-the-scenes of his new design tooling startup and shares his vision for where software creation is headed next šŸ‘€Some highlights to expect:How AI fits into his new product strategyThe bizarre story of Andreiā€™s first day at AdobeThe 3 types of designers that will exist in the futureWhat it was like joining Figma as the first designer in 2012How Andrei defined the initial keyboard shortcuts in design toolsThe #1 trait of designers heā€™s worked with over the last 3 decadesWhen to break out of the familiar interaction patterns for design toolinga lot moreBryan Lamkin was Andreiā€™s first manager at AdobeMark Hamburg was who he collaborated with on the original keyboard shortcuts

12-11
49:40

Become a 10x startup designer šŸ’”

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-parrottAdrien Griveau (Founding designer of Linear): https://www.dive.club/deep-dives/adrien-griveauSoleio (2nd designer at Facebook): https://www.dive.club/deep-dives/soleio-2Marco Cornacchia (Founding designer at Diagram): https://www.dive.club/deep-dives/marco-cornacchiaHenry Modisett (Founding designer at Perplexity): https://www.dive.club/deep-dives/henry-modisettHelen Tran(Design leader at AngelList): https://www.dive.club/deep-dives/helen-tranDiego Zaks (2nd designer at Ramp): https://www.dive.club/deep-dives/diego-zaks

12-09
09:56

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