Andy Madrick
Product designer who led the design of Notion's meeting notes as of May 2026, previously at Tome and Mercury.
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What they believe
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LLMs are not very good at the last mile of design, and that last mile needs to remain designers' superpower.
These LLMs are not very good at the last mile of design. And that's still like our superpower and needs to be our superpower.
youtube.comSaid 26 May 2026This on korrents
The bold line is korrents’ wording; the quote is theirs. These one: what they wrote before what they said aloud, one per source, newest first.
Beliefs
Korrents What they believe 20 beliefs — each backed by an exact quote.
Each is a — compiled by korrents.com, not by them: the one-line wordings are korrents', the quotes are theirs.
Recent
LLMs are not very good at the last mile of design, and that last mile needs to remain designers' superpower.
These LLMs are not very good at the last mile of design. And that's still like our superpower and needs to be our superpower.
Andy Madrick - Why AI changed design handoff forever Said 26 May 2026
Designers have no excuse anymore to not be responsible for the changes they want to see.
If it's not going to get done, then someone else someone has to do it, right? And I think we have no excuse anymore to not be responsible for those changes that we want to see.
Andy Madrick - Why AI changed design handoff forever Said 26 May 2026
The artifact users actually see is what to obsess over, and Figma and mocks are just reference tools at the end of the day.
you just have to be cool with you know, looking at the thing that users are going to actually see and obsessing over that artifact and making sure whatever form of like iteration on that takes, like make sure that is going to be 100% right? And then like Figma and these mocks, they're just reference tools at the end of the day.
Andy Madrick - Why AI changed design handoff forever Said 26 May 2026
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Figma is still really helpful for a smaller thing like a modal or visual polish.
But if it's a smaller thing, like a modal or polish, visual polish, something like that, I find Figma to still be really helpful.
Andy Madrick - Why AI changed design handoff forever Said 26 May 2026
You have to work out how the people you collaborate with want to work with you, and there is no one-size-fits-all answer.
You really have to suss out what the people you're working with, like how they want to work with you. And there's no one-size-fits-all answer.
Andy Madrick - Why AI changed design handoff forever Said 26 May 2026
A designer's PRs should be very small and manageable if the designer is not comfortable reviewing or writing the code themselves.
your PRs as a designer and not a an engineer who's got all the training of an engineer, your PR should be very very small and manageable. If you're not comfortable reviewing the code yourself or writing the code yourself.
Andy Madrick - Why AI changed design handoff forever Said 26 May 2026
Work should be broken into manageable chunks, and a designer should not send an engineer a 500-line PR they did not even review themselves.
We have to break the work into like manageable chunks. Like five lines is not very realistic, but a hundred-line PR, that's my general advice of like don't five-code a bunch of stuff and send an engineer a 500-line PR that you didn't even review yourself.
Andy Madrick - Why AI changed design handoff forever Said 26 May 2026
Asking an agent to keep an engineer's functionality and apply a designer's styling can get much closer than intuition says it would.
Can you keep all the functionality of the engineer's version and give it all the styling that I have here. And I think that can get you so much closer than I think like our intuition says it would.
Andy Madrick - Why AI changed design handoff forever Said 26 May 2026
Front-end is, at the end of the day, CSS and JavaScript, and Claude (Opus in particular) and Composer are really great at it.
I mean at the end of the day it's CSS and JavaScript and Opus in particular and Claude in general really really great at front-end. Composer really great at front-end, right?
Andy Madrick - Why AI changed design handoff forever Said 26 May 2026
AI-generated UI can come out with a million gradients and tags, looking like a jelly bean factory.
And it'll create something with like a million gradients and like a million tags. And it looks like a jelly bean factory, right?
Andy Madrick - Why AI changed design handoff forever Said 26 May 2026
There is no shortcut to having taste or developing a high-craft, high-velocity practice; AI shortcuts the creating of a lot of things, but it comes back to learning the language of visual design.
There is no shortcut to having taste or developing like a high craft high velocity practice. I think that with AI, we have shortcuts to creating a lot of things. But at the end of the day, it comes back to discovering and learning the language of visual design.
Andy Madrick - Why AI changed design handoff forever Said 26 May 2026
With limitless UI out there, a designer's job is to take it and make a restrained version where form follows function and decoration for decoration's sake is avoided.
We as designers, our job now with limitless UI out there, is how do we take it and make a restrained version of this where form follows function and we're avoiding decoration for decoration's sake.
Andy Madrick - Why AI changed design handoff forever Said 26 May 2026
Copying a UI is still a worthwhile exercise, less for a pixel-perfect static frame than for its logic, such as how a sidebar behaves.
I still tell people that's a worthwhile exercise. It's less so about, you know, doing a static frame pixel for pixel, but like the linear sidebar logic is really interesting because if you minimize the window past a certain point, it'll automatically hide itself.
Andy Madrick - Why AI changed design handoff forever Said 26 May 2026
The best way to stand out in a portfolio is to show your best work and let it speak for itself, because no one wants decoration for decoration's sake.
the best way to stand out is to show your best work. And to show your best work, like let it speak for itself. The decoration for decoration's sake, no one wants that, right?
Andy Madrick - Why AI changed design handoff forever Said 26 May 2026
A good default is to look at a thing with no decoration, the same size typeface and no animations, then ask where a flourish of delight would help the user rather than detract from what they are trying to do.
the default is like, what does this thing look like with no decoration? With the same size typeface, with no animations. Take that and say, okay, where can I add a little flourish of delight here? And how does that help the user instead of detract away from what they're trying to do with this thing?
Andy Madrick - Why AI changed design handoff forever Said 26 May 2026
The really great designers just do less.
I think it's like the the midwit chart of like the really great designers just do less, right?
Andy Madrick - Why AI changed design handoff forever Said 26 May 2026
Critical feedback is intimidating and vulnerable, but it is the best possible thing a creative in any field can do to level up their work.
critical feedbacks intimidating, scary, putting ourselves out there is vulnerable. Like, but at the end of the day, it is the best possible thing that you can do as a creative in any field, really, to level up your work.
Andy Madrick - Why AI changed design handoff forever Said 26 May 2026
Designers benefit most from working as a jazz band: sharing work, letting people take it a certain way, and developing the thick skin to take the best idea and run with it, wherever it comes from.
as designers, one of the things that we can do that's going to benefit us the most is working as a jazz band, right? Sharing our work with people, let people take it a certain way, and developing that thick skin so that we can just take the best idea and run with it, no matter where it comes from.
Andy Madrick - Why AI changed design handoff forever Said 26 May 2026
Coding tools are very good at executing motion design, but you have to be very descriptive about what you want, otherwise you will be fighting them for hours.
I think with a lot of this motion design stuff, coding tools are so good at executing it, but you have to be very, very descriptive about what you want, otherwise you're going to be fighting these things for like hours.
Andy Madrick - Why AI changed design handoff forever Said 26 May 2026
An app used every day should be built by a thoughtful team of engineers rather than one-shotted with Claude.
I don't think I'd want anyone to build the app I use every day just one shotting it with Claude, right? I would want a very thoughtful team of engineers to like do what they do and go to town on it.
Andy Madrick - Why AI changed design handoff forever Said 26 May 2026
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Where they publish
Site madrick.design Personal portfolio site.
A one-page portfolio titled “Product Designer in San Francisco | Notion, Mercury, Tome”, with links to his X and LinkedIn.
Link verified 4 Oct 2026.
x.com @andymadrick His X account.
Not read here beyond its bio (x.com shows a login wall to a logged-out reader); listed because both his own site and the Dive Club description point to it.
Link verified 4 Oct 2026.
Interviews As a guest Long-form interviews on other people’s channels, chosen and not exhaustive.
His own voice by his own participation: interviews he chose to sit for. Dive Club’s hour on prototyping in code, owning the last mile of frontend polish at Notion, and how to push past what AI gives you out of the box.
Link verified 4 Oct 2026.
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