Dive Club 🤿 Episode: 2 Ways to Make Your Design Ideas Compelling 💡
Host: Ridd
Release Date: March 4, 2025

Introduction: The Power of Compelling Design Ideas

In this episode of Dive Club, host Ridd delves into the crucial aspect of transforming great design concepts into actionable, production-ready ideas. The focus centers on creating an "aura of inevitability" around design proposals to ensure they gain the necessary traction and approval within organizations. Ridd emphasizes that even the most innovative designs are futile if they fail to enter the production pipeline.

Case Study: Vincent's Journey at Figma

Timestamp [00:00]

Ridd introduces the episode by highlighting a real-world example from Vincent at Figma, who successfully prioritized and launched AI search at the Config 2024 conference. Vincent shares his initial struggle with getting buy-in for his text search feature:

Vincent [00:21]: "I actually really wanted to build text search instead of this more complex autocompletes. And I'd written this text document, this PRD where I basically outlined the case for text search where it's like, hey, we should build text search for these reasons and given this machine learning model and a fine tune like this, we can probably pull it off. And that PRD just completely went nowhere. People were excited about it, but everyone was like, I'm not sure if I believe what's written here. Do you have any proof that we can indeed pull off text search? That's like, what you're writing about these machine learning models is actually true."

The Value of Prototyping

Timestamp [00:53]

Ridd relates Vincent’s experience to his own, underscoring the pivotal role of prototyping in validating design ideas:

Ridd [00:53]: "I've had pretty much this exact same experience before, and it's really a case study in the value of prototyping. So here's what Vincent did next."

Vincent took a proactive approach by developing an end-to-end prototype to demonstrate the technical feasibility of his text search idea:

Vincent [01:02]: "So I made an end to end prototype just to show that from a technical perspective this is possible. And it was this prototype that kind of showed, okay, you can do selection search, you can do image search, you can do text search."

This hands-on demonstration made the idea harder to dismiss, as it provided tangible evidence of its viability.

Creating an Aura of Inevitability

Timestamp [01:13]

Ridd draws parallels to Saleo’s experience with Project Motion at Facebook, which successfully convinced Zuckerberg to incorporate video functionalities into the platform:

Saleo [01:25]: "Code Wins Arguments was a poster that we had at Facebook, but I understood and internalized that less than years prior to that poster being created, just through the experience of building the project and kind of creating this aura of inevitability around it. Because it was functional, it was working, people inside the company could use it, and we were running out of obstacles to keeping us from shipping it more broadly."

Leveraging Code Prototypes as Designers

Timestamp [01:50]

Ridd emphasizes that designers today have unprecedented access to code prototypes, even without extensive coding knowledge. He shares his personal experience using tools like Lovable and Cloud Artifacts to explore and validate design ideas:

Ridd [01:50]: "The cool thing is that you as a designer now have the power of code prototypes in your toolkit, even if you have no idea how to write any syntax. Like, I've been using lovable and cloud artifacts a lot recently to explore ideas, even just to get a sense of what's possible. Like, I'm working on a new canvas experience for Inflight and I thought it'd be pretty neat to dynamically theme the canvas to match the UI that you upload. Now, this is the exact type of project that normally gets deprioritized but using Claude, I was able to figure out exactly how it could work and realized that actually it's pretty straightforward. In this case, sending someone a working prototype is 10 times more compelling than presenting the idea as a slack message."

The Dual Power of Prototypes and Video

Timestamp [02:46]

Understanding that a prototype alone might not suffice, Vincent complemented his technical demonstration with a narrative video, effectively combining visual and verbal persuasion:

Vincent [02:46]: "I figured that the prototype by itself wouldn't be enough. What are you going to do? Are you going to send people a link? So you have to trust that people like, understand the prototype about your narration. So one thing I did in addition to the prototype was create this video around it where I'm basically going through the prototype and I'm basically pitching the idea of hey, we should focus on search instead. And here are all the three ways that would truly enrich like, you know, Figma's product."

Ridd reiterates the mantra that "design is sales," highlighting the increasing reliance on video for internal communication:

Ridd [03:11]: "I'll say it again, design is sales. And it's a big reason why video has quickly become the go-to way that I share my work internally. When people can hear you talk about the problem and why you have so much conviction in a specific, specific idea, it's so much more compelling."

Collective Insights from Industry Leaders

Timestamp [03:45] - [06:58]

Ridd references a poll he conducted, revealing that video sharing has significantly surpassed Figma links in internal communications, echoing similar sentiments from industry professionals.

Saleo [03:45]: "Internally, you'll see designers constantly building prototypes, walking through the experience, recorded over a Loom, doing the voiceover, and then you'll see just a flood of feedback coming."

Kevin [03:56]: "I think there's like a mistaken assumption that people will read everything you write and watch everything you post. And that's absolutely not the case. All the same rules around like posting to YouTube and making it engaging and like thinking about how you're going to hold people's attention apply in corporate communications as well."

Ridd also cites Gabe Valdivia on the evolving role of designers as content creators:

Gabe Valdivia [05:42]: "I do believe today that designers are content creators. And as content creators, one of your main tasks is to tell a story in a format that is compelling to an audience."

And highlights Alex Cornell’s perspective:

Kevin [06:30]: "Conveniently I interviewed Alex Cornell too, and he shared the exact same sentiment. You don't get a free pass just because it's the workplace."

These insights collectively emphasize the necessity for designers to master storytelling and engaging content delivery, particularly through video, to effectively communicate and sell their ideas within organizations.

Conclusion: Embracing Video and Prototypes in Design

Ridd wraps up the discussion by affirming the effectiveness of video combined with prototypes in making design ideas compelling. He teases future episodes where he will delve deeper into utilizing video for better team feedback, encouraging listeners to adopt these strategies to enhance their design proposals.

Key Takeaways:

• Prototyping is essential for demonstrating the feasibility of design ideas and making them difficult to overlook.
• Video storytelling complements prototypes by providing context, narrative, and emotional engagement, thereby enhancing the persuasive power of design pitches.
• Designers should embrace their role as content creators, utilizing engaging formats like short-form videos to effectively communicate and sell their ideas within organizations.
• Tools like Lovable, Cloud Artifacts, and Loom empower designers to create compelling prototypes and narratives without deep technical expertise.
• Building an "aura of inevitability" around design ideas increases the likelihood of their adoption and production within companies.

This episode offers invaluable strategies for designers aiming to ensure their innovative ideas are not only heard but also implemented. By combining technical prototypes with compelling storytelling through video, designers can significantly enhance the persuasiveness and impact of their proposals.