Nick

@SierraPlatform

[Noah Shinn @noahrshinn]

Instinct + Shopify

35% of our users use Instinct for personal shopping. Today, we’re partnering with @Shopify to bring product discovery, checkout and order updates into one conversation.

Shopping is a creative and personal experience. Your Instinct knows your sizes, the brands you like, and what you’ve bought, kept or returned. When you ask for something, Instinct understands the details that matter, from who a gift is for to when you need it to arrive.

Instinct can now search Shopify’s merchant network for products, and find live information on prices, sizes and availability. When you’re ready to buy, Instinct sets up your order with the store so you can check out with Shop Pay using your saved payment and shipping details.

Whether you’re searching for a thoughtful gift, researching big-ticket items, or restocking household essentials, the new experience helps you:
- Discover and compare products across brands, with up-to-date pricing and availability
- Check out with Shop Pay using your saved details
- Receive price-drop and back-in-stock notifications for your favorite items
- Stay on top of delivery updates and return-window reminders
- Access automatic discounts and promo codes tied to your Shop account

[Nick @nickhiotis]

@RobertJBye 😂

[jenny wen @jennywen]

before, we had constraints: the cost of building something forced us to naturally prioritize and select what was actually important to us.

now, it's a matter of restraint. just because we can doesn't mean we should.

[Nick @nickhiotis]

@wwayneee @nikunj @davidhoang 😂

[Nick @nickhiotis]

@wwayneee @nikunj yes.. yes he is

[Wayne Fan @wwayneee]

Sierra Design Team: Sep 2026 edition

[Ben Blumenrose @benblumenrose]

Our first AI in Design 2026 case study is live, featuring @sierraplatform!

Sierra’s design team is only handful of people (though growing quickly) supporting an engineering org of 100+! They’ve had to be extremely thoughtful about how they work with an eng org of that size...

At first with AI, it was easy to fix every design nit themselves. Now they focus on creating the systems and components for the whole org while having a clear POV on where to sweat the details by hand (e.g. spending two hours getting a 16-pixel icon right... watch to see why)

“If we can touch production code and the systems more easily with stuff like Claude or Cursor, what is a designer’s role in trying to empower at scale? Instead of doing one little pixel at a time, we should build the infrastructure that engineers use to create new features.”

We talked to @wwayneee and @nickhiotis about:
- The advantages of a small design team
- Compressing "cook, prototype, be wrong, go back" cycle into a few hours
- The "51st engineer" trap: why fixing every design nit yourself doesn't scale
- Bringing back the joy of designing by doing some things by hand

[Nick @nickhiotis]

@wwayneee @avamadethat 👋😂

[Ben Blumenrose @benblumenrose]

The 2026 State of AI in Design Report answers the question of “what is happening” with AI + Design.

Soon we’ll begin releasing case studies from top teams that will better answer the question of “given this info, how do we now do our work??”

Get ready...

[Nick @nickhiotis]

@RobertJBye @figma Can I use this slide deck as my portfolio

[Nick @nickhiotis]

@RobertJBye @DevinLewtan hahaha

[Nick @nickhiotis]

@RobertJBye Tag me you coward!

[Nick @nickhiotis]

@RobertJBye ...

[Nick @nickhiotis]

@emiliakathleen Omg haha

[Nick @nickhiotis]

@manosaie @RobertJBye @davidhoang 😂

[Nick @nickhiotis]

@emiliakathleen @teganmierle I'd be down! 👋

[Nick @nickhiotis]

@RobertJBye @figma 🙇🏻‍♂️

[Nick @nickhiotis]

@RobertJBye @neversitdull 😂😭

[Nick @nickhiotis]

@nlevin @BrendanOde Lol so good