Dive Club 🤿

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 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)

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 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 thinkersCraft’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 “quick add” featureWhat makes Craft’s approach to product planning so uniqueThe challenges of designing a user-generated content producta lot moreIntroducing Craft 3

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.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)

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 “executive presence”Catt’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 “Goals” project at Asanaa lot moreCheck 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 LeadershipMicah Bennett was the designer she learned so much from

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

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”.Some highlights:Why the camera roll is pivotal for AITyler’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 startupTyler’s Freezeframe app with Jason YuanGenesis physics announcementGranola meeting recordingsDaylight computer

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.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)

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.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 worldTheir hacks for cracking a brand strategyWhy the best brands have lots of “moves”Mike’s #1 piece of advice for younger designersWhat people really mean when they say “timeless”Their experience using Visual Electric in brand designPositioning Smith & Diction in today’s agency landscapea lot moreWe 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 PerplexityWe talk about Topo, Cotopaxi and Steady bags

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)

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 v0Pran’s personal experiments using 3D and physicsWhy Pran wants to bring “onboarding roulette” to v0How Pran showed potential without having extensive experienceWhat it’s like collaborating with engineers like ShadCN and Raunoa lot moreManuel is the VP of Design at VercelWe discuss what it’s like collaborating with Shadcn

Craft is so much more than a shimmering landing page or micro animation…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 productYou can find his full episode here — 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 — https://www.dive.club/deep-dives/julius-tarng

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 he’s redefined his career path over the past ~10 months. We go deep into:Sam’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

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.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 it’s awesome)👇https://jennywen.substack.com/p/dont-trust-the-design-process

Did you know that the very first interface designer at Adobe was also the first designer to work on Figma? 🤯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 strategyThe bizarre story of Andrei’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 he’s worked with over the last 3 decadesWhen to break out of the familiar interaction patterns for design toolinga lot moreBryan Lamkin was Andrei’s first manager at AdobeMark Hamburg was who he collaborated with on the original keyboard shortcuts

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