When it comes to brand design, Mike and Cara from [Smith & Diction](https://smith-diction.com/) are pretty much top of the game (you might recognize them as the ones who did the brand identity for Perplexity). During our interview, it didn't take me long to realize that these two have more hacks and mental models for creativity than just about anyone I’ve met. So here are my favorite creative tactics 👇

How do designers from today’s top teams collaborate with engineers? After many interviews I'm starting to notice a trend…  The highest functioning product teams throw away a *lot* of code and it’s a good model for what the new “handoff” process will look like. So this video highlights how it works at teams like Figma, Vercel, Perplexity, Airbnb, and more.

Systems thinking is often mentioned as the #1 trait teams are looking for in designers. But what does it look like to be great at it? This episode answers that question by highlighting stories from Notion, Anthropic, and more 👇

When I say high stakes design project, what comes to mind?   How about Ryan Scott redesigning the Airbnb checkout flow right before a  $3.5 billion IPO? Now THAT is a big time project… So this episode is all about tactics you can use to make big ideas happen at your company (even as an IC).

I’ve interviewed a *lot* of staff designers to figure out what it takes to have real influence at companies like Shopify, Github, Airbnb, etc. One thing is clear… if you want to make strategic impact as a designer then you have to get to a place of altitude that allows you to see the bigger picture. This episode is designed to help you do just that.

What are the best teams looking for in design candidates? That’s become one of my favorite questions to ask so this episode shines a light on some of those traits and what you can do to stand out.

I’m designing a new product and a few months ago I would’ve confidently said it’s *not* an AI product. But I was wrong. This new technology creates endless opportunities… we just have to be able to see what AI makes possible. And that’s what this episode is all about.

Being able to think like an engineer helps you collaborate with developers more effectively, design UIs that make sense, and empowers you to build your ideas with AI tools like v0, Claude, etc. So this video is going to break down a few traits of designers who I believe are already doing this at a high level.

Craft is so much more than a shimmering landing page or micro animation… It’s sweating all of the tiny details and having a thorough understanding of the edge cases in your product. But there’s one detail most designers miss… 👀 So this episode highlights one of my favorite ideas ever shared on the show from Raphael Schaad (founder of Cron and now the Head of Calendar at Notion). It’s a fantastic example of what it looks like to obsess over the craft of your product.

Designers have become servants of “the process” so this episode features stories of people who are breaking the mold in the way they explore and prototype ideas.

Many of my favorite episodes are when we get to hear from the earliest designers at companies like Linear, Perplexity, Ramp, Facebook, etc. So this episode pulls out the key insights so you can learn what it takes to thrive as a startup designer.

Imagine you’re asked to lead the design of a new project. It’s complex, open-ended, and full of interconnected problems… How do you attack that ambiguity and get momentum quickly? This episode is an attempt to answer that question by unpacking tactics used by the best designers.