Where designers never stop learning 💪 Dive Club is an interview series hosted by Ridd 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. You can find all of the episodes, key takeaways, and bonus resources here 👉 Dive.club
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June 16, 202650 min
Brett Williams - How a Visual Designer Became a Builder
What does it look like when a designer with zero technical background commits to shipping something real?That’s what this week’s episode with Brett Williams is all about.He gives us a behind-the-scenes of his journey building Gather including:Brett’s process for iterating on a designBrett’s new prototyping.md skill workflowHow Brett maintains control while building with AIBrett’s strategy for adding sound design to GatherWhen Brett relies on Figma vs. explores directly in codea lot more
June 9, 202654 min
Ron Goldin - Building your ideas as a design leader
This week's episode is with Ron Goldin who has led design at Google, Shopify, UberEats, and in my opinion... he's the perfect example of what it looks like to thrive as a design leader in an AI world.So this week’s episode is a deep dive into his journey as a builder and it’s full of stories:Redesigning the Shopify checkoutRon’s unique research tactics for UberEatsBuilding MTCHMKR from scratch in LovableNavigating the job market as a design leadera lot more
June 2, 202639 min
How Anthropic, Every, & Ramp design with AI
A couple of weeks ago I recorded my first ever episode in front of a live audience (at Ramp HQ in NYC) 🗽So today I’m excited to share the panel discussion recording with 3 incredible guests:Meaghan Choi who is the design lead for Claude Code and CoworkDan Shipper who is the CEO of Every and one of my favorite thinkers when it comes to AIAnd Bradley Ziffer who is a design engineer at RampIt’s a deep dive into AI design workflows at Anthropic, Ramp, and Every and I think you’ll enjoy it :)The event was hosted by Double Diamond and Ramp
May 26, 202652 min
Andy Madrick - Why AI changed design handoff forever
⭐️ Check out Andy’s course - Craft at Speed https://join.dive.club/maven-aff-andy-madrickUse code DIVECLUB for 15% offAndy Madrick ( https://x.com/andymadrick ) is rethinking what it means to be a designer in 2026.While at Notion, he’s developed a workflow where he prototypes directly in code, ships frontend PRs, and uses AI tools like Cursor to own the final polish of user interfaces.In this episode we get a look into how he keeps all these things in motion and still designs with insane attention to detail.Some highlights:Building one of Notion’s most visible UIsWhy recreating interactions teaches you craftOwning the last 5-20% of frontend polish workThe “jelly bean factory” problem with AI outputWhen to start in Figma vs. jumping straight to codeHow Andy creates prototypes that content teams can edita lot more
May 19, 20261 hr 0 min
Tommy Geoco - The state of the design industry right now
Over the last few months, Tommy Geoco has went on site to study today’s top design teams (Vercel, Perplexity, Metalab, Ramp, etc.).So this week’s episode is a deep dive into all of the trends he’s seeing around AI workflows and where design is headed next.Some highlights:Why 59% of designers build their own toolsTommy’s current tool stack for AI design workWhat signals show AI fluency in job interviewsWhy internal tool building is the new career pathWhy now is the best time to grow in the design communityHow design workflows have become creative director rolesa lot moreBen Blumenrose (mentioned as having good insights on design)
May 12, 202655 min
Katarina Batina - Making big bets with design
How do the best designers shape strategy at companies like Shopify?That’s what today’s episode with Design Director Katarina Batina is all about.Some highlights:Balancing metrics and visionRedesigning the shopping cart UXTaking a big bet on the shopping feedHow product strategy has changed with AIHow to get people excited about your ideasHow to make sure you don't overcook your appa lot moreKatarina mentioned John Rundle and Luke Dupont
May 5, 202659 min
Rafa Conde - Make your designs memorable
Rafa Conde (https://x.com/rafahari) is a design engineer at Retro and one of the most creative designers I know. I still remember where I was when I first saw the video on his personal site (https://rafa.design/) 😂In this episode we unpack what it means to design experiences that bring delight :)Some highlights:- Finding ways to introduce delight- How to make users feel something- The power of humor in your design- How to lean into video as a superpower- Balancing accessibility and delightful UX- Behind the scenes of Rafa's side projects- + a lot more- Metal Gear Solid (PlayStation 1) — directed by Hideo Kojima, referenced for its fourth-wall-breaking design moments (Meryl’s codec frequency hidden on the game box; Psycho Mantis boss fight requiring the controller to be switched from port 1 to port 2)- Sunlit app — gyroscope-based app for tracking sun position and light direction, referenced as a recent example of surprising UI: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=io.lonepalm.coloringworld&pli=1- Retro app — private social network for friends and family (what Instagram used to be); Rafa’s current employer: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/retro-photos-with-friends/id6443709020- Splat app — Retro’s generative AI app for iPad/iPhone that turns photos of kids into coloring book pages: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/splat-magic-coloring-book/id6749165093- Hand Mirror app — Rafa’s most popular side project, a menu bar camera app: [https://handmirror.app](https://handmirror.app/)- Gabe Valdivia’s episode — early Dive Club episode (~ep. 30) where Gabe talked about designers needing to be like “little TikTok creators” inside their orgs: https://www.dive.club/deep-dives/gabe-valdivia- Final Cut Pro — Rafa’s video editing tool of choice: https://creatorstudio.apple.com/info/try?itscg=20201&itsct=acs-sem-187498456050-794866723417&pt=2003&ct=css-187498456050-794866723417
April 28, 202655 min
Polly D’Arcy - Going from IC to VP of Design at Wealthsimple
Imagine going from IC to leading the Wealthsimple design team in a few short years…That was Polly D’arcy’s (https://www.linkedin.com/in/pollydarcy/) journey and today’s episode covers everything she’s learned along the way. We go deep into design leadership, craft, hiring, and a lot more.Some highlights:- Why Polly hires specialists over generalists- Tactics to nail your next portfolio presentation- What it looks like to lean into the moment with AI- How Polly defines design quality at WealthSimple- Polly’s go-to interview question to evaluate designers- How AI is changing team composition and design roles
April 21, 202652 min
Brandon Jacoby - Seeing Taste vs. Creating Taste as a designer
Capital, early Cash App, and most recently, X, all have one designer in common — [Brandon Jacoby](https://x.com/JacobyBrandon).In this episode Brandon is talking about how he’s combining his years of experience designing with fresh, high-functioning teams and is now launching an all-new independent practice to help founders push past good enough.He shares some really interesting thoughts on taste, being creative with AI, and how to thrive in a 0->1 environment.Some highlights:- The types of designer who get most amplified by AI- What it takes to thrive while designing a 0→1 experience- How Brandon is positioning himself as a new independent- The difference between "seeing taste" and "creating taste"- What Nikita (X Head of Product) taught Brandon about onboarding- + a lot more- John Lasseter (Pixar director) quote - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFbOOjAC_Fg- Tolan app (mentioned as example of creative onboarding) - https://www.tolans.com/- Owen Jennings at Block (Brandon’s mentor for 4 years) - https://www.linkedin.com/in/owenbrittonjennings/- Nikita (former Head of Product at X) - https://x.com/nikitabier
April 14, 202655 min
Brian Lovin - How to level up with AI as a designer
When it comes to tools and workflows, Brian Lovin (https://x.com/brian_lovin) is someone I pay very close attention to.He’s actually the one who first got me hooked on Conductor (https://www.conductor.build/).But times are changing (again 😅)…So today’s episode is a deep dive into his design process and all of the ways he’s iterating on his approach to both using AI tools as well as building AI tools at Notion.If you like getting into the weeds of how the best designers are wrangling AI then you’re going to love this episode.Some highlights:- Why his first Notion design offsite was so impactful- How Brian built Notion’s prototyping playground- Why Brian has started using Cursor again- Practical tips for prompting AI more effectively- Behind-the-scenes of Brian’s new side project- How to stay relevant as a designer in an AI world- + a lot more- Agentation and Dialkit for frontend ([https://agentation.com](https://agentation.com/), https://joshpuckett.me/dialkit)- Cursor and Conductor for coding ([https://conductor.build](https://conductor.build/))- Brian’s side project Shiori ([https://shiori.sh](https://shiori.sh/))- Max Schoening nerd snipes Brian (https://x.com/mschoening)- Karri’s issue tracking is dead article (https://linear.app/next)
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