Tommy Geoco
Product designer, founder and host of UX Tools, the design-tools newsletter, annual survey and podcast.
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What they believe
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A briefcase of context, carried from one tool to the next, will replace re-teaching intent in each tool.
I don't think there's the future where we're going from tool to tool and reinventing that over and over. All the hours spent just like screwing in our intent the correct way is going to become just a briefcase you carry from one tool to the other.
youtube.comSaid 19 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 21 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
A briefcase of context, carried from one tool to the next, will replace re-teaching intent in each tool.
I don't think there's the future where we're going from tool to tool and reinventing that over and over. All the hours spent just like screwing in our intent the correct way is going to become just a briefcase you carry from one tool to the other.
Tommy Geoco - The state of the design industry right now Said 19 May 2026
A general-purpose AI design tool might have a place eventually, but it is probably not the right answer right now.
I think the general purpose tool might have a place eventually. I don't think that's the right answer right now. Maybe I won't just like outright say it's not the right answer, but it's not interesting to me.
Tommy Geoco - The state of the design industry right now Said 19 May 2026
Judging one model worse than another from a one-shot, probabilistic output on a given day is not a good way to evaluate it.
when I hear people say GPT 5.5 is worse than Opus 4.7 and I'm like, what does that mean? You know, like what are you comparing? Are you just saying like you one shotted a thing and that probabilistic output that you got from one verse the other on that given day was better or worse? Cuz that's not a very good way to evaluate it.
Tommy Geoco - The state of the design industry right now Said 19 May 2026
Show 18 more
Canvases are always going to have a place in the AI design workflow.
if you think like sort of primitives, you have canvas, I canvases I think are always going to have a place in this workflow.
Tommy Geoco - The state of the design industry right now Said 19 May 2026
A design team needs an interface surface, a surface where the work lives, a canvas for more deterministic work, and an agent interface for coding for more probabilistic work.
So, so you need like an interface surface area. You need where the work lives surface area. You need a canvas for more deterministic work. And you need your agent or your like interface for coding for more probabilistic work.
Tommy Geoco - The state of the design industry right now Said 19 May 2026
Even forward-thinking agentic teams still use Figma a lot, so it is still in the game.
I still think Figma is in the game. A lot of even a lot of these like agentic teams that are like super forward-thinking, like they're using Figma a lot still.
Tommy Geoco - The state of the design industry right now Said 19 May 2026
Adopting AI requires rearranging how work is done, as Ford had to rearrange the whole factory rather than install new equipment on old workflows.
when we started installing like assembly lines and stuff, people came in early and just like tried to install new equipment on top of of old factory workflows and it didn't work, right? Until Ford came out and said, "No, we got to like rearrange the entire factory." A version of that has to happen right now.
Tommy Geoco - The state of the design industry right now Said 19 May 2026
The number one thing the best design teams do is make room for experimentation, even though it is expensive.
I think the number one is that the company is making room for the experimentation and it's expensive. It's expensive in token cost. It's expensive in cuz you go down rabbit holes that like are throwaway work a lot.
Tommy Geoco - The state of the design industry right now Said 19 May 2026
Leadership has to make time for designers to experiment with AI.
And that's why I put the onus on like the leadership to be like, "Hey, you have to make time.
Tommy Geoco - The state of the design industry right now Said 19 May 2026
It is still really early, and people can probably wait on much of the agentic tooling.
But I also will say this is still really early. It is accelerating pretty quickly, but if you hear us yapping about this and you're like this is really overwhelming, this makes me have a whole bunch of FOMO. You like you are fine to wait. I really think you can wait at the moment for some of this, especially all this agentic stuff
Tommy Geoco - The state of the design industry right now Said 19 May 2026
The skill worth investing in is building intent and moving between altitudes, from product thinking to the interaction moment to workflows.
it's just like being able to build intent and zoom in and out. Like the ability to move between altitudes, not just of like product thinking and then like the interaction moment, but also from workflows.
Tommy Geoco - The state of the design industry right now Said 19 May 2026
As tools expand the capacity for work, compensation should increase for the people taking on that added responsibility.
But you can do more. It's like you have more time, you have more ability. Like you stack more things inside of that open space, compensation should increase.
Tommy Geoco - The state of the design industry right now Said 19 May 2026
The blank canvas problem is a good Hello World project for getting into AI tooling.
tune out the noise for a second and think of something that you have as like a problem. And and like a problem every designer has is the blank canvas problem. It's the Hello World project, I think, to get you into this stuff.
Tommy Geoco - The state of the design industry right now Said 19 May 2026
Comparing workflows is useful now, because the field will eventually converge around better practices, though none are known yet.
compare compare workflows, compare shapes. Because we will eventually converge around some better practices around this stuff, but we don't know what that is yet.
Tommy Geoco - The state of the design industry right now Said 19 May 2026
A designer who is not a designated leader can get leaned on by building an internal tool for a cross-functional need, such as one design needed by marketing.
the absolute best way to find yourself being leaned on that way is to do something that Brandon Engineer did at Vercel. Find a cross-functional use case where design is needed by marketing for a task that like you don't have time for, you don't want to spend time on and build an internal tool.
Tommy Geoco - The state of the design industry right now Said 19 May 2026
Internal tools spread the way any product does: they are useful, someone tries one, and it starts to spread.
it happens just like anything else happens with a product. It's useful, someone tries it, and then it starts to spread
Tommy Geoco - The state of the design industry right now Said 19 May 2026
Moving toward AI is worthwhile, but at about 60 miles an hour rather than 100, paying attention to what is seen along the way.
I do still think don't go 100 miles an hour. You probably go like 60 miles an hour. Like let's go the speed limit and let's pay attention to like what we're seeing as we get there.
Tommy Geoco - The state of the design industry right now Said 19 May 2026
The biggest thing a designer can do to add value now is help cross-functional people do more design work easily, and this is unlikely to cannibalize the designer.
the biggest thing you can do is to go in and to try and help cross-functional people do more design work easily. Like parts of the process. Enable your marketing team to create that blog image without needing you, right? Like create a design function that is enabling cross-functional partners. I truly don't think you're going to cannibalize yourself.
Tommy Geoco - The state of the design industry right now Said 19 May 2026
AI fluency will eventually become an ambient thing, though it is important language right now.
And I think like AI fluency is going to eventually just become like an ambient thing. I don't think we're going to like highlight that language forever. But I think right now it is important language cuz a lot of companies are like yeah, we want this designer who can come in and think.
Tommy Geoco - The state of the design industry right now Said 19 May 2026
A good way to assess AI fluency in a designer is to ask them to show their workflow and take them through an idea they created.
show me your workflow. Show me how you design something, you know, take me through an idea that you've created and and that is something that I want to know. I want to watch and pick apart and ask why and see which tools are involved in that.
Tommy Geoco - The state of the design industry right now Said 19 May 2026
The future belongs to builders; the future is bright, but it has to be built.
I really think the future belongs to builders. There's like something I said the other day which was like I think the future is bright, but it has to be built.
Tommy Geoco - The state of the design industry right now Said 19 May 2026
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Where they publish
Site UX Tools His design-tools newsletter, survey and episodes.
Data-backed design tool comparisons, workflow deep dives and the annual design tools and prototyping surveys, plus interview episodes he hosts.
Link verified 4 Oct 2026.
x.com @designertom Design tools and AI workflows, posted as he explores them.
His account; the profile bio reads “building” with a link to his own project. Dive Club's episode description links it as his.
Link verified 4 Oct 2026.
YouTube Tommy Geoco His own channel on design, tools and designers.
Videos on design tools and the designers behind them; the channel title is his name.
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: Dive Club's hour on the state of the design industry, AI workflows, internal tools and design hiring.
Link verified 4 Oct 2026.
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