Dylan Field

Their words

we literally at some point had a team that would that was called blockers and they just went and one by one struck them down and each time we saw uh improvement in retention, improvement in activation the metrics for as we addressed each one you could literally see the change in the graph.

Their words

shortening the time to seeing and having that incredible moment and seeing, you know, the true value of the product, for example, in Figma design, can we get you to have a collaborative multiplayer moment?

Their words

you can either see AI as an opportunity for your company to grow and do more or you can look at it as like cost cutting efficiency but I think the growth part is way more exciting.

Their words

take prompting and as an engineer, there's a range of prompting abilities. uh the way you discretize and split up your task matters. And if you assume that uh a model can do more than it can do, then you're going to have a bad time.

Their words

the only thing that we know is that models will improve. Will it be incremental? Will it be exponential? I mean somewhere in between. Who knows? But uh what you have to believe is that you get better as models get better. Your organization gets better as models get better.

Their words

Have we seen productivity increases? Yeah, mild to moderate, but like that is not something that has made our new headcount we want for engineering go down.

Their words

it's easy to um go on vibes for too long. Uh some folks, you know, just kind of like trust the vibes and you know that'll get you somewhere, but it's not rigorous.

Their words

it's, I think, critical that ideas don't die on the vine because you've got, um, a visual expression that doesn't match what everyone else expects. Sometimes people will just filter them out because they don't look right.

Their words

PMs are no longer saying to the designer, hey, can you draw this thing out for me? That frees up designer time to go explore more deeply the stuff they need to go into and it allows anyone to kind of add to that first conversation of where should we go and look further and wider and broader at the option space.

Their words

at least my product reviews and uh product conversations, I feel like prototypes beat static mocks and static mocks beat lots of words.

Their words

And AI won't get you there alone. AI is uh still in the realm of kind of law of averages and uh better prompting can help of course

Their words

I think we're going to swing back to being way more expressive and draw as part of that story.

Their words

I think the best, you know, designers on the product side can turn it on and off. They can go, I have my own taste. I know what I like. And then, okay, you're going for this. And that might be different than what I like, but I can match it brand as well.

Their words

And there is something about judgment in there too. you know, uh, implied in taste is that some things are good and some things are bad. So, I think you have to be willing to lean into that yourself in terms of uh, being high judgment.

Their words

I think that for those who can create and then articulate a framework around what is taste for us that is really a important skill and uh then I think people can a lot of people can basically match a framework not many people can create the framework.

Their words

It's just this loop of okay, I'm having an experience of any sense. Maybe I'm looking at art, maybe I'm hearing music, maybe I'm literally eating food and tasting something, you know, but like do I like it? Do I not like it? Why?

Their words

we're looking for high judgment individuals, people that are going to roll up their sleeves and do a lot, whether they're IC's or managers, and people that are going to get the details and perfect their craft, because we know that's how we're going to win is by having the best craft, the best design.

Their words

I think in this world where software can be created more easily, design matters so much and designers matter so much. I think designers are going to be the leaders of the future and I think that more designers need to speak step into that leadership role

Their words

if you want to win in the game of software, you need to differentiate through design. Like that's again how you win or lose. Craft matters. And so we're no longer in this era of good enough is fine. It's like good enough is not enough.

Their words

a product that I love and I'm an investor in. So, full disclosure, you know, love it so much I invested uh, is retro. Really beautifully built product for a small group and friends, family, photo sharing. And just the way they've executed this is so well done. So if you're not using already, definitely check it out.