Dive Club 🤿

Remember when the Carl Rivera (https://www.dive.club/deep-dives/carl-rivera) told us about his vision to create the new Shopify Product Design Studio?Well in this episode I got to sit down with Marvin Schwaibold (https://x.com/MSchwaibold) from Molly studio who Shopify recently acquired to bring that vision to life.We go deep into creativity, Marvin's journey with Molly, how he's building his ideas with AI, and a lot more.Some highlights:- How to become a well of creative ideas- How AI unlocks how designers work at Shopify- What design differentiation looks like at Shopify- What Marvin has learned diving into Claude Code- How designers at Shopify create and leverage internal tools- Behind-the-scenes of redesigning the famous Collins website- + a lot more- Jaytel - Marvin’s design partner from Molly studio https://x.com/Jaytel- Brian Collins - legendary designer who worked on the Collins website redesign https://wearecollins.com/- Carl Rivera - Shopify’s Chief Design Officer (referenced previous Dive Club episode) https://www.dive.club/deep-dives/carl-rivera- Design Fluid Interfaces video from Apple’s Human Interface team (2019) [https://developer.apple.com/br/videos/play/wwdc2018/803/?time=1551](https://developer.apple.com/videos/play/wwdc2019/808/)- Claude Code - AI coding tool by Anthropic https://claude.ai/login- Artifact - internal Shopify tool for showcasing design work https://www.linkedin.com/posts/jaytel_this-was-meant-to-stay-inside-shopify-but-activity-7422739773561384960-oqiU/

Flora Guo (https://x.com/floguo) has one of the more impressive career trajectories of anyone I've interviewed on this show.She's currently the founding design engineer at Paradigm. But before that Guillermo (Vercel CEO) personally DM'd her to join the Vercel team.So we're going deep into career growth, design engineering, what it's like being a founding designer at an AI-native startup.- What it’s like being a founding design engineer at Paradigm- The challenges of designing AI-first products that work at scale- Flora’s experiments with new design tools like Paper and Variant- What Flora learned working alongside top design engineers at Vercel- How Flora evolved her workflow with Claude Code over the past year- Mental models for using AI as a learning tool rather than just a task executor- + a lot more- Tokyo Design Forum (February 2026) - https://www.tokyodesignforum.com/- UI Engineering 101 by Mariana Castillo and Derek Briggs - https://maven.com/pixeljanitor/uiengineering-101-for-designers- We talked about Rauno Freiberg's portfolio (Vercel design engineer) - https://rauno.me/- New tools: Paper - https://join.dive.club/paper-ad-email

Today's episode is with Kris Puckett who has led design at Mercury, Dropbox, and now as a design manager at Stripe.His journey is the perfect example of what it looks like to lean into this moment in time with AI.Some highlights:- Behind the scenes of Kris’s Epilogue app- How to create custom skills with Claude Code- How to start building personal systems with AI- How Kris taught Claude to be a metal shader expert- Building internal tools and workflows with AI at Stripe- + a lot more

What does it look like to demonstrate uncommon care in the way you design and build an interface?Josh Puckett has has spent nearly two decades designing products like Wealthfront, Dropbox and helping dozens of startups.But recently he released Interface Craft which is a library of everything he's learned about through the years about designing with “uncommon care” 👇⭐ Use this code for 20% off Interface Craft: DIVE20Some highlights:Josh’s principles for great designMorphing strategies for micro-interactionsHow the value proposition of design is shiftingHe builds a custom pattern generator on the flyHow Josh makes storyboards to collaborate with AIWalks us through how he designed the onboarding flow

Today's episode is with Luis Ouriach (https://x.com/disco_lu) whose role as a designer advocate at Figma means he's constantly helping teams navigate this rapidly changing landscape... especially when it comes to design systems.So we're going to do a deep dive into the trends he's noticing and what it all means for designers.Some highlights:- How design systems are changing with AI- Luis’s ideas around agentic design systems- Pitfalls to avoid when adopting AI with your team- What trends we can ignore vs. what is really important- Luis’s journey as a builder and his career plan moving forward- What Figma's new integration with Claude and Codex unlocksLuis’s agentic design systems article: https://medium.com/@disco_lu/building-agentic-design-systems-the-future-of-ai-enhanced-design-6ad0470cf1e3

Today's episode with Cameron Worboys (Head of Product Design at Cash App) is an inside look at how an AI-native design org operates and the ways designers can thrive in this new world.We go deep into:The new archetypes of designersCam's vision for bespoke softwareThe #1 trait that Cam looks for in design hiresHow >90% of designers at Cash are shipping PRsWhat to do if you don't want to become an IC builderHow to create an emotional attachment to your productHow Cash has replaced the old engineering/product/design triadJulien Martin's episode - https://www.dive.club/deep-dives/julien-martin

A few weeks ago, Stripe launched their [new site (https://stripe.com/) and reminded everyone who the 🐐 of web design is…So I asked their Head of Design, Katie Dill (https://www.linkedin.com/in/katie-dill-79168b3) , to walk us through some of the tiny design decisions that make it so special.But we also did a deep dive into how the practice of design is evolving at Stripe and everything they’re doing to push past the status quo.Some highlights:- How the “call for a new aesthetic” is influencing design culture at Stripe- How their internal tool Protodash is changing the way designers prototype- The most important signals that Katie looks for when hiring designers- What the concentration of craft looks like in an AI era- + a lot moreCall for a new aesthetic - Patrick Collison and Tyler Cowen’s grant program (https://newaesthetics.art/)Cultural Tutor YouTube video: https://youtube.com/watch?v=tWYxrowovts“Beauty is the New Business Tool” - 1927 Atlantic article (https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1927/08/beauty-the-new-business-tool/376227/)

As software becomes easier to create than ever, what does it look like to truly differentiate with design?Today's episode with Julien Martin (https://x.com/julienmartin_?lang=en) is an attempt to answer that question.He was the Head of Design at Zenly, Snapchat, and Amo which is some of the most uniquely impressive consumer design I've ever seen.Some highlights:- Behind the scenes of early Amo explorations- How the composition of design orgs is changing- The unlock that led to Amo's unique visual language- Julien’s advice for how to succeed in today’s job market- The untold story of how Julien joined in the early days of Behance- Why side projects are now the strongest signal when hiring designers*- Andy Allen (https://www.dive.club/deep-dives/andy-allen) (referenced multiple times for his “not boring” article and Camera app)- Off Market (https://offmarketjobs.substack.com/) (Julien’s talent agency for designers)- Retro app (https://retro.app/) and Duolingo (https://www.duolingo.com/) (mentioned as inspiration)

Today's episode is with Tommy Smith who recently landed a new role as a part of the Dive Talent Network.So we're doing a deep dive into what makes his portfolio so effective:Making his side project a first-class citizenPositioning himself as a new design engineerAdding personality by experimenting with RiveHighlighting what matters most in his case studiesFlexing his craft muscles and nailed the finer details

Ryan Stephen (https://x.com/Ryan__Stephen) is a product designer at Microsoft, but the reason I wanted to interview him is because he's the man behind some of my favorite design experiments on Twitter.So in this episode Ryan gives us a behind-the-scenes look at his creative process, the tools in his stack, and how he approaches effective storytelling in design.Some highlights:- How Ryan sparks creativity- The power of putting your work on Twitter- How Ryan thinks about investing in his career- Ryan’s mental model for fidelity and prototyping- The lessons Ryan’s learned about effective storytelling- The tools and techniques Ryan uses to make ideas feel real- + a lot more

Today's episode is with Hannah Hearth who recently became the Head of Product Design at Vercel. We talk about all of the changes that are happening in our industry and what it all means for designers. Everything from how AI tools are changing the practice of design to how this impact the way we think about our career paths.Some highlights:Hannah’s #1 trait for great designersThe most underrated storytelling tacticDoing more with less while not burning outExamples of how AI is changing the design processHow design orgs should think about adopting AI toolsHow much coding is happening on the Vercel design teamPreserving craft and design thinking with collapsed timelinesa lot more

Get 10% off Karl's Become a Design Engineer course: https://join.dive.club/karlToday’s episode is with Karl Koch (https://x.com/_kejk?lang=en) and it’s filled with practical tips for new design engineers looking to push past what AI gives you out of the box.We go deep into:- Adopting the design engineering mindset- What the job market looks like for design engineers- The difference between frontend and design engineers- Specific language to create better interaction design- The details Karl is sweating in his role at Duck Duck Go- + a lot moreGet 10% off Karl's Become a Design Engineer course: https://join.dive.club/karl

This episode is a deep dive into Rive—the engine powering experiences like Spotify Wrapped, next-gen car dashboards, and so much more.After hearing Luigi and Guido Rosso’s vision for the future of interactive software, I’m convinced it will be a big deal for designers 👀

One of the biggest parts of my design practice is knowing which tool to reach for when coding with AI.There are a lot of options and they’re changing every week 😅So in this episode, I break down:1. The mental model I use to think about different types of AI coding workflows2. How that model guides which tools I actually reach for day to day3. The new AI coding product I’m completely hooked on right now- Tools listed: - Lovable (https://lovable.dev/) - Figma Make (https://www.figma.com/make/) - Dessn (https://www.dessn.ai/) - Conductor (https://www.conductor.build/) - Warp (https://www.warp.dev/) - Inflight (https://www.inflight.co)

Sometimes you open up a website and it's so good that you're left wondering... how the heck did they pull that off?In this episode the designer of the original Amie website, Xavier Jack (https://x.com/KMkota0), is going to give us a little tutorial of what it looks like to bring web experiences to life with 3D.Some highlights:- How he prototyped the viral Amie website- How he made the Amie interactive balloons from scratch- How he uses mental models to understand 3D design tools- Amie.so (http://amie.so/)- Desktop.fm (https://desktop.fm/)- Three.tools (https://three.tools/)- Shopify Winter 2026 https://shopify.com/editions/winter2026- Wiggle bones https://wiggle.three.tools/docs/manual/getting-started- Blender (3D modeling software)- Three.js (JavaScript 3D library)

Last month the head of design at Lovable, Nad Chishtie, walked us through the portfolio of one of their recent design hires, Matt Sellers.So today's episode is a behind-the-scenes of what it actually takes to create a portfolio that gets you hired at one of today's top startups.He shares some really tactical mental models that I think everyone can benefit from.Some highlights:Why Matt removed 80%+ of his workWhat made Matt's micro copy so effectiveHow Matt built his micro animations in FramerThe finer details of Matt’s portfolio and micro-interactionsHow Matt changed his portfolio strategy and why it workedWhat it takes to make your portfolio an experience rather than a cataloga lot moreNad Chishtie’s episode

There's been a heck of a debate around the future of coding and design tools lately... but what's actually happening inside of today's top teams?Where is all this headed and how does the future of our tools shape the role of a designer?Today's episode is with Stephen Haney (https://x.com/sdothaney) who is the founder of the new design tool Paper.And for the last few months he's studied how design teams actually use AI in their everyday roles... everything from tooling to prototyping to process.He walks us through some of his key findings and how that's shaping his product strategy for Paper 👇Some highlights:- The “designer playground” approach- How AI adoption looks at startups vs. big companies- Why designers at big companies aren’t PRing to production- AI usage being mandated in performance reviews for designers- The new localhost sharing problem and how teams are solving it- Why local development is winning over cloud tools for design teams- Why companies use of AI tools doesn’t match what you see on Twitter- + a lot moreBasecamp’s “Shape Up” project management philosophy (https://basecamp.com/shapeup)

Gab and Nim are the co-founders of a startup called Dessn which allows designers to prototype in the context of their production codebase (without any of the setup).So I asked them to hook it up to the Inflight repo and give me a little demo to see what’s possible.I’m pretty sold 👀

Someone asked me recently... if you had to join a design team, who would you want to work for?And my answer was easy... PerplexitySo today's episode with Henry Modisett (https://x.com/henrymodis) (Perplexity's VP of Design) is a deep dive into what makes their design culture so special.Some highlights:- How to create a culture of decisiveness- What signals Henry is looking for in designers- Factors that influence Henry’s leadership style- How to lay the right foundation for your design org- Why Henry is doing feedback differently at Perplexity- Henry’s strategies for building world class design teams- + a lot more

Kyle Zantos is leading the new UX Tools Labs where he's responsible for figuring out what matters for new design tools and workflows.As a result, he's pretty quickly become my go-to source as I transition into more of a builder with AI.So this conversation is a deep dive into very specific tactics you can use on your own design engineering journey.We'll go through recommended tools, workflows, and Kyle's process for building a design engineering "Skill" using Claude Code.Kyle’s portfolio site: https://zantos.coLeva control panel: https://threejsresources.com/tool/levaCompound Engineering plugin: https://github.com/EveryInc/compound-engineering-pluginJhey Tompkins: https://x.com/jh3yyDerek Briggs: https://x.com/PixelJanitorWill King: https://x.com/willkingEmil Kowalski: https://x.com/emilkowalski

We talk a lot about using AI at startups…But what are more established companies doing to scale AI prototyping?What are the best ways to use AI to prototype with your design system?That's what today's episode is all about because we're talking with Lewis Healey (https://x.com/Lewishealey) and Kylor Hall (https://www.linkedin.com/in/kylorhall/) about how they scaled AI prototyping at Atlassian.Some highlights 👇- Their vision for a truly AI-native design system- What's worked to scale AI prototyping adoption- Tips for reducing hallucinations when prototyping- ways to help AI make sense of your design system- Their novel approach to prototyping with “templates”- How the role of design system designers is changing with AI- + a lot more- Atlassian Design System (https://atlassian.design/)- Figma Make (https://www.figma.com/make/?gad_campaignid=23356954992&gbraid=0AAAABCTX0ItGAe7RZBBeUOUindISLe0Un) (AI prototyping tool)- AI Builders Week (Atlassian internal program) (https://www.atlassian.com/blog/inside-atlassian/ai-product-builders-week)

Today's episode goes deep into all of the design details in a new video collaboration tool called Flask.But the reason I’m so inspired by this product goes far beyond the UI/UX…Flask is designed and built by one person—Enrico Tartarotti—who was a PM before this so his journey is the perfect example of what it looks like to thrive as a generalist builder.So this episode tells the story of what it took to build a well-crafted product and all of the lessons that he learned along the way.Enrico references the Mom Test for user research and the episode with the Supercut Founders

As one of the fastest growing companies in the world, Lovable is scaling their design team by tapping into the [Dive Talent Network](https://www.dive.club/talent-network).So I interviewed their Head of Design, [Nad Chishtie](https://x.com/nadonomy), to learn everything I can about how to get hired as a designer at Lovable.Some highlights:- A breakdown of a recent design hire’s portfolio- How to avoid getting your portfolio screened out- How to crush the later stages of the hiring process- How you can win Nad over with side projects alone- What to do if you’re not confident in your visual skills- The 2 things Nad cares most about when hiring designers- Spotify’s cross-functional squad model (https://medium.com/found-ation/agile-team-organization-a-deep-dive-on-the-spotify-model-f5b32dfc37dd)- Matt’s portfolio (designer hired through Dive Talent Network) (https://www.lfs.gd/)