Dive Club 🤿

Ridd

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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212 episodes
Updated Wednesday
Explicit

Episodes212

Newest first

Aug 6, 2025 · 21 min
From Uber to Apple to new design founder 💡
If I told you someone had a background as a senior designer at companies like Uber, Dropbox, Apple, and Patreon then you'd be pretty impressed, right? Same. But Adam Noffsinger walked away from all of that to start Alma (which you might remember from the Smith+Diction episode). So this episode is a deep dive into what it really looks like to go 0→1 as a design founder. Adam even walks us through his Figma file for Alma so if you’re interesting in startups or designing something from nothing, then I think you’ll really enjoy this conversation 👇
Aug 1, 2025 · 1 hr
Pietro Schirano - AI just gave designers a promotion
This week’s episode is with Pietro Schirano who is the founder of the new design tool MagicPath and one of the true forward thinkers on AI. We go deep into the future of prototyping, design workflows, and what it takes to catalyze your career with AI. Some highlights: How design workflows will evolve Using AI as a collaborator not just a tool How Pietro was able to build influence at Anthropic Why interactive prototypes are becoming table stakes What designers need to understand to master the models Why design architects will be the highest paid role in the future a lot more DesignerGPT (5 million users) TweakCN Origami (Facebook’s prototyping tool) Figma.ai domain purchase
Jul 25, 2025 · 51 min
Why AI has changed prototyping forever
This week I got an inside look at Figma Make while talking to Holly and Nikolas all about the future of prototyping… We get into real world use cases for different kinds of prototypes and how our workflow is evolving as designers. One thing is abundantly clear, things aren’t so linear anymore. Some highlights: How Figma Make fits into your workflow Rethinking what “high fidelity” means for a prototype How code is the glue and what it means for collaboration What are the less obvious use cases for prototyping with AI Meta prototyping with interactive playgrounds and inspect panels a lot more Figma Make - AI-powered prototyping tool within Figma Variables in Figma Advanced Prototyping in Figma
Jul 23, 2025 · 28 min
How product design works at Raycast 💡
Last month we did the ultimate Raycast Deep Dive, but there's a lot in there… so this week I want to highlight just the segment from the product design team. We go deep into how they collaborate, why they’ve started shipping more code, and what it takes to build a culture obsessed with craft. Don’t forget to use code DIVE20YT to get 20% off your first purchase of any Lovable plan ❤️ Valid until August 21, 2025. Go to dive.club/lovable to start creating Full Raycast episode - The Raycast Deep Dive
Jul 18, 2025 · 54 min
Gunnar Gray - Designing Perplexity, shaders, and voice interfaces
This week, Gunnar Gray (Product Design Lead at Perplexity) dives into the art of designing AI-native experiences. He shares lessons from shaping Voice Mode and how prototyping with AI is changing the design process at Perplexity. Some highlights: Why Perplexity is racing to get ideas into code What it’s like designing at a hyper growth startup What it’s like designing dynamic voice experiences Gunnar’s journey learning metal shaders with Cursor How Gunnar strategically invests in his design skillset a lot more Perplexity - AI-powered search and discovery platform Cursor - AI-powered code editor Particle News app
Jul 11, 2025 · 57 min
Ryo Lu - Designing the future of Cursor
Cursor is easily one of the most impactful companies in all of tech… And this week's episode is with their Head of Design, Ryo Lu. You might've heard of Ryo in this episode back when we talked about early Notion and systems design. So this week we're going to get an inside look at how design operates at Cursor and all of Ryo's experiments with AI 👀 Some highlights: What Ryo believes about the future of HCI How Ryo handles a barrage of user feedback How Ryo approaches systems thinking at Cursor How Ryo unified the core primitives of Cursor’s system Laying the foundation for the future of Cursor’s system design Inside Ryo’s design process and how he knows what to pursue Why Ryo thinks specialization will matter less in an AI-enabled future Why Ryo believes the future of interfaces will match how people think a lot more
Jul 2, 2025 · 51 min
Julian Lehr - How storytelling works at Linear
This week's episode is with Julian Lehr who is the storytelling lead at Linear So we're going to step out of the pixels for this conversation and focus more on how you can get people excited about what you're designing. Because in the age of AI, stories are what makes your product defensible. So we're going to go deep into Julian's creative process and how he kinda thinks of his role more as packaging. Some highlights: Julian’s sources of inspiration Understanding Julian’s creative process The new analogy that Julian is working on for Linear Linear’s strategy for storytelling for their “Agents” release The importance of visual design in copywriting and marketing How Linear’s in-house creative studio collaborates on storytelling How Linear evolved from using “opinionated” to “purpose-built” over 3 years a lot more Antimetal website Arena for inspiration Julian’s website Linear’s hands of god visual for Agents release
Jun 27, 2025 · 1 hr 3 min
Emmet Connolly - Transitioning into the next era of design
You probably know Intercom… but did you know they recently incubated a new startup called Fin that has already surpassed the core business? They’ve pulled off a massive transition to an AI-native product and design org so today we’re going behind-the-scenes with their VP of Design Emmet Connolly. Some highlights: Why Emmett believes designers will own the frontend The opportunity for design systems in an AI-first world What Emmett looks for when hiring designers in the AI era Why liquid glass represents the wrong direction for design How Intercom’s AI product Fin overtook their core business Why the start of an S-curve is the best time to be a designer How AI is flipping the traditional product development process a lot more Plato’s cave analogy OpenAI’s forward deployed engineer role Apple’s liquid glass design Fons Mans helped on the design of Fin
Jun 25, 2025 · 8 min
My playbook for vibe coding💡
In last week’s episode, the Head of Design at The Browser Company shared a totally new way to think about your portfolio. He says one of the most valuable things you can demonstrate today is the ability to solve real problems with code (no matter how small). I’m literally doing this with a side project right now and I’ve learned a lot so I decided to share my new playbook for vibe coding 👇 Teo Connor (VP of Design at Airbnb): https://www.dive.club/deep-dives/air-bnb Alex Schleifer (former Chief Design Offer at Airbnb): https://www.dive.club/deep-dives/alex-schleifer Janum Trivedi (prototyping specialist at Airbnb): https://www.dive.club/deep-dives/janum-trivedi
Jun 20, 2025 · 58 min
Dustin Senos - Designing Dia (the AI-native web browser)
Dia from The Browser Company has completely taken over the internet. We’re finally seeing what an AI-native browser can be and it’s pretty exciting :) So this episode is a behind-the-scenes with their Head of Design, Dustin Senos. Some highlights: How to build a product strategy around AI How The Browser Co approaches prototyping Dustin’s perspective on MCP and agentic design How their definition of “good” evolved from Arc to Dia Their process for exploring patterns for interacting with AI The #1 piece of advice Dustin would give younger designers a lot more We mentioned Nate Parrott’s episode who was the first design hire at The Browser Company
Jun 16, 2025 · 2 hr 3 min
The Ultimate Raycast Deep Dive (craft, AI, hype, & more)
This week’s episode is a first of its kind because we’re doing the ultimate deep dive into one of my favorite products: Raycast We’ll here from the founders, design team, and even the hype team and go deep into all kinds of topics: The hilarious story of Raycast’s YC application 3 weekly rituals that are perfect for remote teams What they’ve learned about designing AI experiences What we can learn from how their hype team operates How the design team has changed the way they collab with engineers a lot more This is easily the most in-depth episode I’ve ever made so I hope you enjoy it :) Thomas and Petr (Raycast founders) Roy can Rooijen (Designing AI) Jordan Amblin (Designing mobile) Alexander Antonov (Designing windows + DS) Pedro Duarte (Hype lead) Inga Hampton (Designer + Illustrator)
Jun 11, 2025 · 12 min
Behind the scenes of my design founder journey
The last two weeks with Inflight have been the most exhilarating of my entire career… So I want to use Dive Club to provide unprecedented levels of access to life as a design founder. I’m talking about the messy behind-the-scenes, hideous Figma concepts, and all of the winding turns that we've taken to get where we're at today. This is gonna be as raw as it gets. And hopefully by shining a light on some of the things I'm learning, it turns into a video series that you want to keep watching ✈️
Jun 6, 2025 · 1 hr 3 min
Darrin Henein - The new bar for design excellence at Shopify
This week's episode is with Darrin Henein who is the VP of Design at Shopify. We talk about how they create a culture of excellence and how AI is influencing the way they practice the design. Some highlights: What makes for a great design critique culture Darrin’s expectation for how designers prototype How Shopify’s new AI mandate impacts designers Traits Darrin notices in promising younger designers What designers can learn from the best communicators at Shopify Why Darrin believes designers need to think beyond static prototypes a lot more GKIII’s Cost of Craft article Frenzy drop sales product Astronaut video game that Darrin released Red Dot Design Award won by Shopify’s POS hardware
Jun 4, 2025 · 37 min
Vibe designing with Subframe
There’s a new design tool called Subframe that’s officially caught my eye 👀 So I asked their co-founder Filip Skrzesinksi to give us a demo and talk through their vision. I found some of their AI interaction patterns fascinating (especially the way they approach prototyping and contextual edits). If you’re interested in the future of design tooling then I think you’ll like this episode and you can use the code DIVECLUB to get your first month free 👌
May 30, 2025 · 1 hr 4 min
Ioana Teleanu - The right (and wrong) ways to design AI into your product
There are two types of companies today: Startups birthed out of AI Existing companies figuring out how to adapt to AI This week’s episode is all about #2 because we get to hear from Ioana Teleanu who was the first AI designer at Miro and is now a dedicated AI+Design consultant. So a big theme of this conversation is how to identify the right opportunities to design AI into a product that’s already working. Ioana shares a bunch of stories and lessons learned from her time at Miro as well as a refreshing perspective on AI and design as whole that i think will resonate with a lot of you. Some highlights: What to do if you’re already feeling AI fatigue Why invisible AI is the future of product design How you measure the success of integrating AI Examples of good and bad implementations of AI How the value prop of design shifts in an AI world Ways to invest in your product skills as a designer a lot more Before Miro Ioana designed Clipboard AI which won Times Magazine best invention of 2023
May 23, 2025 · 58 min
Jesse Kulp - Designing the Future of AI at Google
This week we get to hear from Jesse Kulp who is the original designer for Google AI Studio. He shares what it was like going 0→1 as the sole designer and his ideas for where AI design is headed next I think we're gonna look back in a couple years, the kind of silly stuff we're doing today and say it looks like child's play… Jesse Kulp some highlights: How Jesse transformed into the ultimate generalist What Jesse learned about managing lots of stakeholders Exploring different interaction modalities for AI in the future How to handle ambiguity while working in a new problem space How Jesse figured out the initial product strategy for AI Studio a lot more Google AI Studio Vertex AI Studio
May 16, 2025 · 55 min
Stephen Haney - Paper's vision for the future of design tooling
Stephen previously co-founded Modulz which created Radix UI, now used by Vercel, Linear, and Jetsi. Now he’s the founder of the most influential design tool on the market — Paper. In this episode, Stephen gives us a look at how Paper is fundamentally changing the speed of traditional design flows. Some highlights: How to drive alignment as a company How Stephen cultivates empathy in designers How Stephen views the traditional design role How Paper is paving the way for modern design tools How Paper is bringing creativity back to design tools through shaders a lot more David Hoang Strategy is Compressing article Stephen posted on DeviantArt in early days Created Radix UI at Modulz Paper’s Liquid logo release on Twitter
May 13, 2025 · 10 min
The untapped opportunity for design tools💡
A year ago, it felt like AI-generated UI was about to have its moment. But now the landscape looks a LOT different than what people expected. So this episode answers the question "what's next?" Because there's still an untapped opportunity that I believe will become very real soon... Kyle Turman (Designer at Anthropic) https://www.dive.club/deep-dives/kyle-turman Nad Chishtie (1st designer at Lovable) https://www.dive.club/deep-dives/nad-chishtie Zach Leach (Head of Design at Gamma) https://www.dive.club/deep-dives/zach-leach Jordan Singer (AI at Figma) https://www.dive.club/deep-dives/jordan-singer Pranathi Peri (Product designer at Vercel) https://www.dive.club/deep-dives/pranathi-peri Alex Schleifer (Former Chief Design Officer at Airbnb) https://www.dive.club/deep-dives/alex-schleifer
May 9, 2025 · 46 min
Zach Leach - Principles for designing a great AI product
This week, Zach Leach (Head of Design at Gamma) gives a behind-the-scenes of what it’s like designing one of the hottest AI products in the world today. He shares a ton of techniques and lessons learned from working with LLMs—including some ways to make AI fun again :) And we also learn what makes design at Gamma a bit unorthodox in all the best ways. Some highlights: What makes Gamma a team of “AI Pioneers” How Gamma designers prototype ideas in code How Zach has iterated on interaction patterns for AI How to think about AI functionality at the system level How Zach imagines his design role in the coming years What Zach has learned about designing AI-powered flows a lot more ** The core team came over together from Optimizely We talked about prototyping in Bolt and Lovable
May 6, 2025 · 7 min
The new era of design leadership💡
The more I study today's top design teams, the more clear it’s becoming that we're entering the era of a new type of design leader— one with taste and the skills necessary to uphold craft. So this episode studies this new archetype of leader by highlighting clips from design leaders at Airbnb, Ramp, Duolingo, and more… Alex Schleifer (Former Chief Design Officer at Airbnb) Mig Reyes (VP of Product Experience at Duolingo) Derek Briggs (Design + Code at Hypermode) Teo Connor (VP of Design at Airbnb) Diego Zaks (VP of Design at Ramp)

Dive Club 🤿

From Uber to Apple to new design founder 💡

Pietro Schirano - AI just gave designers a promotion

Why AI has changed prototyping forever

How product design works at Raycast 💡

Gunnar Gray - Designing Perplexity, shaders, and voice interfaces

Ryo Lu - Designing the future of Cursor

Julian Lehr - How storytelling works at Linear

Emmet Connolly - Transitioning into the next era of design

My playbook for vibe coding💡

Dustin Senos - Designing Dia (the AI-native web browser)

The Ultimate Raycast Deep Dive (craft, AI, hype, & more)

Behind the scenes of my design founder journey

Darrin Henein - The new bar for design excellence at Shopify

Vibe designing with Subframe

Ioana Teleanu - The right (and wrong) ways to design AI into your product

Jesse Kulp - Designing the Future of AI at Google

Stephen Haney - Paper's vision for the future of design tooling

The untapped opportunity for design tools💡

Zach Leach - Principles for designing a great AI product

The new era of design leadership💡