John Bai
Designer at SpaceXAI in New York working on Grok Bot, and the first New York design hire at Cursor.
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What they believe
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Figma is still the appropriate place to build visual conviction around an idea before committing to prototyping it.
I think Figma is still the appropriate place to generate and build some visual conviction around an idea before you start committing to actually prototyping it.
youtube.comSaid 25 Aug 2026This on korrents
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Beliefs
Korrents What they believe 20 beliefs — each backed by an exact quote.
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Recent
Figma is still the appropriate place to build visual conviction around an idea before committing to prototyping it.
I think Figma is still the appropriate place to generate and build some visual conviction around an idea before you start committing to actually prototyping it.
John Bai - The Grok Bot design journey Said 25 Aug 2026
Before starting in Cursor there is still a need to visualise an idea, to know how to communicate the concept back to Cursor.
So, I wouldn't say I start with cursor immediately. I think there still is the need for me to visualize it so that I know how in turn to communicate the concept back to cursor.
John Bai - The Grok Bot design journey Said 25 Aug 2026
Figma is still a very useful sketching tool, and now that agents can operate it, the annoying steps can be handed to a bot.
I think it's still a very useful sketching tool. And I think especially now with agents being able to operate it, a lot of the annoying steps, like not even mentioning renaming layers, but laying out every variant of, you know, some of the stuff that you have to do a lot of typing for, I don't have to do that anymore because I just give the link to my bot and it'll do it according to how I describe it.
John Bai - The Grok Bot design journey Said 25 Aug 2026
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Designing today means testing a concept, fleshing it out if it has legs, and scrapping it altogether if it doesn't rather than wasting time.
I think that's kind of the way that we design these days which is you test out a concept and if it feels like it has legs you should flesh it out further but you know if it doesn't then maybe scrap it all together and and don't waste your time
John Bai - The Grok Bot design journey Said 25 Aug 2026
Despite the push to move away from chat interfaces, chat is still the right way to interact with a fleet of agents carrying out tasks defined ahead of time.
There's a lot of discourse online these days about like we need to move away from the the chat interface and you know even if I complain about the three column approach to it. I think as I was using it it became clear this is still the right way for us to interact with a fleet of what are essentially agents carrying out tasks that are defined to them ahead of time.
John Bai - The Grok Bot design journey Said 25 Aug 2026
Part of the game with prototyping quickly is that you learn lessons early and use them to inform the next step.
Part of the the game with prototyping quickly is that you learn these lessons early and you use that to inform the next step.
John Bai - The Grok Bot design journey Said 25 Aug 2026
When the audience is engineers who pay for something specific, the exploratory phase is the chance to try throwaway concepts, expecting to throw them away, and have fun with it.
when your target audience is engineers that expect something, they pay for something very specific. The exploratory phase becomes the opportunity for a designer to try out some of these more throwaway concepts. And I think you need to go into it expecting to fully throw them away, but to try it and to have fun with it.
John Bai - The Grok Bot design journey Said 25 Aug 2026
People will go through onboarding steps if it is engaging and makes the value of what they are onboarding onto abundantly clear upfront.
That is one of the things that I kind of believe in my core which is people will go through onboarding steps if it's engaging and it makes the value of what you're onboarding onto abundantly clear upfront
John Bai - The Grok Bot design journey Said 25 Aug 2026
Good onboarding is not about adding a skip button, because with AI tools people jump into the product and are totally confused.
which is why I tell people all the time like it's not about you know adding a skip button. It's not about letting you just click through click through and jump into the product because these days with AI tools you jump into the product and you're totally confused.
John Bai - The Grok Bot design journey Said 25 Aug 2026
It is much more important for people to learn what a product can do and how to use it before the first starting screen hits them with action paralysis.
It is much more important for you to learn exactly what this is capable of and how to use it before you're introduced to that first starting screen and you get hit with, you know, action paralysis.
John Bai - The Grok Bot design journey Said 25 Aug 2026
The story a product tells up front is immensely important; you only get one, maybe two, first impressions with a user.
it became clear to me that like the story that you tell up front is immensely important and you also kind of only get one maybe two first impressions for a user.
John Bai - The Grok Bot design journey Said 25 Aug 2026
A product that looks like Cursor will feel like Cursor and attract the same users, and the rest of the market will stay away because of that perception.
being like cursor will make this product feel like cursor and will attract the same audience, the same types of users. The rest of the pie will not be coming to this because it looks like cursor and they're they're already going to be kind of um affected by that perception.
John Bai - The Grok Bot design journey Said 25 Aug 2026
A strong culture of unshipping helps remove complexity and focus on a product's strengths.
within cursor, we have a strong culture of unshipping. And I I'm really glad we do because that helped us remove a lot of the complexity and focus on the strengths of the Grockbot app itself.
John Bai - The Grok Bot design journey Said 25 Aug 2026
At Cursor every idea is backed by a working prototype that can be shown in a crit and shared as a link for everyone to try.
I think every idea is backed by a prototype, a working prototype that not only you can present to, you know, on the big screen during a crit, but you can share the link and everyone else can interact with it and decide for themselves whether it feels right to use.
John Bai - The Grok Bot design journey Said 25 Aug 2026
There are probably no two designers on Cursor's design team with the same process and the same use of tools.
because I tell people this all the time. There's probably no two designers on the cursor design team that has the same process and has the same application of tools in their process.
John Bai - The Grok Bot design journey Said 25 Aug 2026
You just can't be precious about your concepts anymore.
And I think that's why seeing bits and pieces of it shine in the final deliverable matters so much. Like you said, right, the the initial hexagonal guy with two eyes, uh, that's not an art direction. That was something that was a seed that was planted that made his way into the final, you know, brand idea. And it feels good to be a part of that. I think you just can't be precious about your concepts anymore.
John Bai - The Grok Bot design journey Said 25 Aug 2026
The fundamentals matter way more than how quickly someone works, how many tools they use, or how they optimise for the models.
I think at this point, the fundamentals matter way more than a lot of other factors. I think people tend to gravitate towards how quickly somebody works or how many different tools they have in their arsenal, how many skills they utilize or their optimization strategy for the models
John Bai - The Grok Bot design journey Said 25 Aug 2026
You can build anything now, but not everything is worth building; what matters is whether ideas take a shape somebody else would want to use.
we're in a we're in a time where you can build anything, but not everything is worth building. It's much less about, you know, how many ideas you have, how clever your ideas are, but do they take the shape that somebody else would want to use
John Bai - The Grok Bot design journey Said 25 Aug 2026
Cursor still believes very strongly in user research and data-informed decisions, and uses a wide range of quantitative and qualitative data to inform the roadmap.
we still believe very strongly in user research and datainformed decisions. The combination of those two factors and having such a wide uh range of both quantitative and qualitative data at our disposal
John Bai - The Grok Bot design journey Said 25 Aug 2026
When there are thoughtful users you can really tell, and they are the ones with a deeper appreciation or deeper criticism of what in the product experience is working or not.
when there are thoughtful users you can really tell um they're the ones that have a deeper appreciation for or a deeper criticism about what in the product experience is working or is not.
John Bai - The Grok Bot design journey Said 25 Aug 2026
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Where they publish
Site johnb.ai Portfolio.
A portfolio titled “John Bai Portfolio”, “Designer of some of your favorite products. Based in NYC”, with case studies from Brex and Plaid and a list of earlier employers (Carta, Dropbox, Lyft, Cursor).
Link verified 4 Oct 2026.
x.com @johnbai Design process and concepts, posted as he works.
Bio reads “Designing @bot and more at @SpaceXAI in NYC.” Where he shares explorations, including concepts that did not make the final Grok Bot.
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 episode on the design journey of Grok Bot, early mascot and notch concepts, onboarding explorations, and how design works at Cursor.
Link verified 4 Oct 2026.
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