Dive Club 🤿

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. 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

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.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 clientsCreating a personal knowledge system in NotionFinding companionship as an independent designerStructuring your schedule and maintaining momentumCommunicating your services and pricing yourself effectivelyDealing with uncertainty and all of the unknowns in your first yeara lot moreGet a special offer on Joey’s “Level Up with Figma” courseJoey’s Baseline website and newsletterPaul Millerd’s “Pathless Path” book and his episode on Lenny’s podcastJoey mentioned Oliur’s episode as one of his favorite YouTube creatorsHe also mentioned Stephen Robles YouTube channel

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.Henry Modisett (Head of Design at Perplexity): https://www.dive.club/deep-dives/henry-modisettRaphael Schaad (founder of Cron / Notion Calendar): https://www.dive.club/deep-dives/raphael-schaadBrad Frost (author of Atomic Design): https://www.dive.club/deep-dives/brad-frost

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.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 AICrafting a product strategy in today’s landscapeNavigating the idea maze as an early stage founderWhat it means to have an “AI native” product strategyHow the flattening of the talent stack impacts designersWhy Nim was so inspired by the head of design at UnsplashWhat “taste” looks like when operating as a creative directora lot moreCheck out the Dessn websiteNim mentioned V0.dev as a way to create software (also might like Meng To’s recent episode)The short story Library of BabelStudio Ghibli animation studiosGraza olive oil as an example of what a strong brand looks like in a commoditized product line