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- [00:00]
Host
I talk to a lot of designers who are at the pinnacle of their career, so I'm always trying to figure out, how did they get there? I mean, where are the inflection points? Or how have they evolved the way that they practice design over the years? And once I hear the same answer from a few different people, I start to pay attention. So here are a few trends I'm noticing in the best designers and how they get alignment from their teams. And we're going to start by hearing from Alex Cornell, who's working on Gen AI at Meta.
- [00:28]
Alex Cornell
One thing that I would try to do there, that I think is useful anywhere is not just display the prototype and the idea and show a thousand iterations, because I think sometimes that can overwhelm people where you're like, it could work like this, it could work like this, it could work like this, it could work like this. There's like a hundred options, and people don't know when you came up with those options, they don't know what you had in your mind, what you were trading off, what framework was sort of guiding you as you put those different things together. And the difference is, are just going to be visual at first. The way they, when they see the different things are going to be like, okay, well, that one, the menus on the top, that one sits in the bottom, that one, there is no menu. So I think it's very important to establish and make very clear the framework that was guiding you when you did the thing, so that it can sort of create an architecture around the ideas that you show that is very clear to people, so that it's not like just getting a whole bunch of mocks thrown at you. You actually help them understand what is distinct about this idea, why is it even being included in this combination? And where does it sit on this little map that I'm gonna draw for you?
- [01:32]
Host
You can get alignment at multiple levels. Maybe people don't like this specific concept, but they do agree with the underlying framework behind it. And that's why it's so important to communicate your thinking.
- [01:43]
Alex Cornell
If you're just sharing like a whole bunch of work, like, what do you guys think of this? And you don't really make it clear what you were really toiling over. You're gonna get feedback all over the place.
- [01:53]
Host
Before you get lost in, ask yourself, what is the main variable that will dictate what we design and ship for this project? If you're designing an AI product, maybe it's power versus abstraction, or maybe it's just how much Appetite, the team has to invest in this feature. Once I have that variable, my go to strategy is to present my ideas on a spectrum and this is what most of my in flight projects look like. That way it's easy for stakeholders to say, you know, none of these concepts are quite it, but I think somewhere in between two and three feels right to me. Now if you want another way to get top level alignment, listen to what Yuan Wang from Maven does.
- [02:30]
Yuan Wang
You have these detail level concepts, right? But what if you actually zoom 2x so that you actually summarize like these five different concepts into two directions, you know, so then you can actually debate on a higher level, like the directional level with your cross functional partners because they might have more opinions about that level versus the details. So when you can kind of visualize your thought process that way you actually can guide a conversation. You know, they may disagree with like, you know, option 1A, but they actually will bought in into this direction one but they just maybe there needs to be like a 1D. You know, that's just different but like that's still a really good output from a crit, right? So like you get that some kind of alignment but you know, what are the next level of things that you need to work on?
- [03:21]
Host
One of the questions I picked up from Maven that I still use all the time is asking does this feel directionally correct? And grouping concepts like this is a great way to get alignment on that top level direction before you get into the details of specific concepts. Now you can have the perfect framework and tell the most compelling story ever, but you're still missing something. So let's hear from Rich Arnold about his time moving from vine to Instagram.
- [03:47]
Rich Arnold
I think I had this habit of just sort of coming in with like a menu solutions and being like, what do you think? Yeah, you want to pick one. And at Instagram in general at Facebook, like they're very good at not letting you take that decision off of your plate and put it onto them. So if you come in and you don't have an opinion on what's right, they'll just tell you to come back. When you think you know what the right thing to do is, then you have to come back and present why this is the right thing to do.
- [04:11]
Host
Real quick message and then we can jump back into it. All right, picture this. You're in design crit getting a bunch of feedback from everyone on the call and you're taking notes as fast as you can because that's what's going to fuel that next round of iteration. Sound familiar? Well, thankfully those days are over. All you have to do is run granola in the background the next time you're talking with people on your team. That way you can relax a bit, be present in the conversation. Granola feels like a notepad, so you can still jot ideas down so you don't have to be 100% reliant on AI or those creepy meeting bots. You can kind of think of it like Apple Notes, but it transcribes crit for you. You can even have a template to pull out specific action items or capture all of the questions you were asked. And I'm never start a meeting without granola again. And I strongly believe that designers everywhere should be using it. They're offering three months free for you and anyone on your team. All you have to do is go to Dive Club Granola to get the special offer. I've taught thousands of designers Figma, so I've made as many prototyping noodles as just about anyone. But now that I'm building my ideas in Lovable, it is really hard to go back to the old world. Nothing compares to sending developers a real functional preview link. And it's so easy with Lovable. Like, really, really easy. You can add screenshots, describe anything you want to build, and it happens like magic. I'm having as much fun building my ideas in Lovable as any other point in my career. And they just launched Lovable 2.0. So you can start building today. Just head to Dive Club Lovable. That's L O V A B L E. Okay, now onto the episode. The importance of having an opinion when presenting your ideas has come up a lot on this show. Here's Christophe from Plaid, sharing the design leader's perspective.
- [05:59]
Christophe
When you present any design work, it needs to be clear what is the help you need? Like, what feedback are you looking for? But two, what's your own opinion? Like, what do you think is the best solution and why? And what are some of the challenges you're still facing with it? Some of the doubts you still have so people can tell you, like, well, actually I think you're overthinking this. Or no, actually, I think right to be doubting this. Here's another passage.
- [06:23]
Host
Now, why does having an opinion matter so much? Honestly, it's not really about being right. It's about forcing a reaction from stakeholders. It's why I keep referencing Michael Wandl Meyer's clip about the ridiculously early hypothesis at Metalab.
- [06:38]
Michael Wandl Meyer
Something that I started like, about three or four years ago, and it's really caught on, was doing a thing called a ridiculously early hypothesis. And what this meant was to try to come back after a week of kickoff with a really strong, structured, narrative driven point of view as to what we should be doing next and to present that to get a reaction to the client so that we don't give like some four week span of like product definition without having really put an idea forward.
- [07:05]
Host
Oftentimes the best way to move a project forward isn't figuring out what the right direction is, it's being quick to share the wrong direction because it forces other people to explain why they think something is incorrect. And that process of articulating those thoughts unlocks what you need as the designer to take the next step. Ashman Gagari from Palantir describes this as iterating your way to truth.
- [07:28]
Ashman Gagari
It's better to make 10 things without knowing how it works versus making one thing after spending one week reading 10 books and 15 documents and internalizing. Like, we don't want academic PhDs, we want just like doing. And I think creating interfaces, no matter how shitty, is a much better way to get to the truth than to ideate and use words and like, you know, kind of talk to people. Like 10 meetings is not worth it. And if you are having 10 meetings, take a picture to each of them. Take 10 pictures, show all 10 of them. Let the work speak for itself. That starts to become faster over time. Where like, it used to take me like four designs to get to good, now it takes two. And it's the same idea of like, how, how can I like, short circuit the iteration process because like, I've been there before.
- [08:15]
Host
That's all for now, but definitely don't miss Friday's episode. We get to hear from Mig Reyes, the VP of Product Experience at Duolingo, all about the different things that make their culture so unique. So I will see you on Friday.