Ron Goldin

2x Founder and Head of Design • Early Uber Eats, Google, Shopify • Building 0-1 products with AI

[Ron Goldin @rongoldin]

Had a great time moderating a panel with a range of small studios who punch above their weight in terms of clients and impact. My panelists were rockstars.

@thenickpattison , who does full brands in as little as two weeks, most famously having branded @Lovable among others in 10 business days
@theShaneLevine who embeds directly into AI-native teams, disrupting the whole model of "hiring outside help" and building alongside the team
@jameygannon, who not only uses AI to deliver unique, creative work but hands off AI skills and tools to help clients help themselves moving forward
@Danielgbright who's made six figures providing not just product design and branding but ads and growth, a must-needed offering in a time when anyone can make an app quickly

AI has changed design fundamentally and the new school of designers are evolving the idea of a "design studio" along with it. Fascinating to see how's its all happening in real time.

Thanks @contra (a platform for agencies), I wish this was around when I was running my own design agency!

[Contra @contra]

Last week we brought together studio founders, designers, and independents at the Contra office to talk about the future of creative studios.

Huge thank you to our panelists @Danielgbright, @theShaneLevine, @jameygannon, and @thenickpattison, and our moderator @RonGoldin for sharing their insights.

And to everyone who joined us, thanks for making it such a great night! More to come 🚀

[Aaron Levie @levie]

It’s almost incomprehensible how wide the distance is between someone who’s working at the frontier with AI and basically everyone else right now.

The crazy thing is these lines are not converging, but only growing farther apart. If the curve of AI progress had leveled off, it would certainly have given most people and companies time to catch up or implement their workflows in a standardized way. The technology would have neutralized competitive advantage because everyone would be using it the same way.

But what’s happened is the opposite. The curve of AI progress is basically going vertical right now, which means if you had codified your processes 3-6 months ago you’re likely already behind again. Now imagine most companies that kicked into gear a year ago and thought that they were done. Even further behind now.

I’ve never seen a technology in my life and career that improves at this rate, which consequently means you need to upgrade your expectations at a similar rate. Our brains weren’t wired for this, and our organizational change management processes certainly weren’t either.

With any form of recursive self improvement, things just get wilder. It’s a time when you will need to be constantly reevaluating the things that didn’t work just a couple months ago to see if they now can be solved. AI native companies certainly have a strong advantage due to this right now, so now it comes down to can the bigger companies keep up. Wild times.

[Ron Goldin @rongoldin]

Looking forward to speaking with some of the leading creative voices of NYC’s bleeding-edge product design studios at Domino Park next week in Brooklyn. RSVP below and see you there!

@Danielgbright @theShaneLevine @jameygannon @thenickpattison @contra

[Jonathan Bensimon @JonathanB0715]

Bringing together NYC's studio founders, designers, and independents to talk building creative businesses, workflows, tools, and AI.

With @Danielgbright , @theShaneLevine , @jameygannon , and @thenickpattison . Moderated by @rongoldin .

RSVP below!

https://t.co/NwIMdqtdRt

[Ron Goldin @rongoldin]

“While existing companies are still holding meetings to debate how to shoehorn AI into their current workflows, the new generation of barbarians is ripping up traditional business processes by the roots, using ways that completely transcend industry boundaries.”

@pmarca

[AYi @AYi_AInotes]

网景创始人 、硅谷顶级投资人Marc Andreessen 在访谈里坦言，他看到了科技史上最可怕的一道认知鸿沟，

传统巨头以为 AI 只是个降本增效的插件，而新一代 AI 原生团队，正在用完全非人的组织效率掀翻整个商业版图。

当年写出网景浏览器、见证了整个互联网三十年兴衰的 Marc Andreessen，坐在 Ben Horowitz 面前直接发出了感慨，
如果 1994 年我们做 Netscape 的时候就有今天这种 AI 工具，那简直不可想象。

现在绝大多数传统巨头和现有企业，依然在用改良软件的旧思维去看待大模型。

在他们的组织逻辑里，AI 只是一个高级功能，用来给现有业务做个插件、在钉钉里加个智能助手、或者把客服团队砍掉 20% 省点成本。

他们以为自己在拥抱变革，其实只是在给老旧的蒸汽机打补丁。

但真正恐怖的事情，正在那些刚成立的 AI 原生团队里发生。

那些创始人对 AI 能力的理解，跟大厂完全不在同一个平行宇宙。

他们每周都在看着底层技术飞速进化，而且他们压根不会把自己定义成一家软件公司、硬件公司、甚至是一家 AI 公司。

以前创办一家公司，你的组织架构是按人类的协同瓶颈搭出来的：
招产品经理写文档、招工程师写代码、招法务改合同、招运营做投放。
因为人类的脑力带宽有限，所以必须靠庞大的部门和管理层级来支撑业务。

而真正的 AI 原生物种，是用机器智能作为最底层的骨架。

两个人加上一整套自动化 Agent，可以直接把从市场洞察、软件工程、全栈设计到商业销售的链路全部跑通。

他们不是在效率上快了 30%，他们是在组织形态上彻底跨越了一个物种。

大厂的盲区，从来不是买不起算力，而是他们无法理解组织本身才是最大的负债。

当现有企业还在开会讨论如何把 AI 塞进现有的业务流程时，新一代的野蛮人正在用完全超越行业界限的方式，把传统的业务流程连根拔起。

未来拉开人与人、公司与公司之间差距的，根本不是你用了哪个模型，而是你到底是在用新工具维持旧世界的体面，还是用新世界的底层逻辑，重新定义了自己能做的事情。

[Ron Goldin @rongoldin]

@marlouiise @notion @designrivet Do you do these in NYC? Great concept!

[Ron Goldin @rongoldin]

“The ultimate moat, or the final competitive edge worth paying for, in my opinion, is an opinion.
A perspective that only you can see, because the uniqueness of your life experience created it.”

I’ve been building an idea museum for years and never had a name for it.

Nice one, @thedankoe.

[DAN KOE @thedankoe]

https://t.co/OXHQ3woHtW

[Ron Goldin @rongoldin]

I’m so envious of anyone who just discovered @nathanfielder and now has his whole life’s work ahead of them to watch. Soak in the insanity.

[Ron Goldin @rongoldin]

The diversity of people who boast the title “Product Designer” is more divergent today than it ever has been, and it’s only widening. In one week of interviews, you might talk to a designer coming from agencies building identity systems for consumer launches. In another conversation, a designer ships React components, maintains the design system's token pipeline, and leaves a handful of agents running overnight to generate test variants.

Going into 2027, “product designer” mostly tells you someone works on software (usually) and spends time thinking about how a product works, how it looks, and who it’s for.

Titles, company logos, and even specific initiatives don’t tell the story of what a designer is great at and how they might fit the needs of a business.

So I’ve been thinking about a small, shared vocabulary that a candidate can use to say who they are, that a hiring manager can use to say who they need, and that both can use to talk about where a designer grows next.

Read on:
https://t.co/fkVmFklDud

[Ron Goldin @rongoldin]

Cut everything except the “find my keys” part.

[Austen Allred @Austen]

This might be the first time I’ve ever watched an Apple ad that made me actively not want to buy the product

[Ron Goldin @rongoldin]

@benjitaylor Some version of taste for sure. But tailoring a product to a specific user and brand and creating something differentiating is not something AI just does on its own today.

[Ron Goldin @rongoldin]

I shared some behind the scenes on what it took to redesign my design leadership portfolio in my latest Substack. Rest assured, designers (and non-designers): making something bespoke and tasteful still takes a lot of work, even with AI.

I pushed about 120 PRs all-in.

The hype video took about 22 iterations to dial in fully.

The remarkable thing is doing this all in a week and change without an engineer or opening Figma once (though I still love a canvas).

Learn how I design with jigs, speak to AI like Rick Rubin would, leverage mobile as its own unique playground, and try to make a portfolio that's personal and playful while still feeling professional.

The article:
https://t.co/5HOq35WwsX

The portfolio:
https://t.co/8n1CcYr9b9

[Ron Goldin @rongoldin]

@ACollinHadley Flattered, thank you!

[Ron Goldin @rongoldin]

@Joshua_WD @Joshua_WD Thank you! Working with Opus 5.5 is a delight too - glad it came out when it did.

[Ron Goldin @rongoldin]

Craft in some ways is a mastery of words as much as it is images now.

This is an actual prompt I just typed: When the click and drag first happens, can you send a gentle wave of subtle vibration across the grid starting from the center of the click? It should defuse as it travels so by the time it reaches the edges its gone, think of dropping water into a still lake.

[Ron Goldin @rongoldin]

@davidhoang @falcone_design @DoubleDiamondHQ @Atlassian So awesome to hang with you and what an incredible event!

[Ron Goldin @rongoldin]

Something wild happened to me with Claude today. I'm working on a sizzle reel in Opus 5.5. I give Claude the script and ask it to cut me some videos from a website. It told me it would be better if I did it myself because I would do a better job getting exactly the right shots. It then explained how it could help by trimming it to the best bits and that I don't need to be too careful about my cuts.

Why this is so remarkable to me:

It's the first time I felt like a true collaboration between human and machine, where the machine is humble enough to recognize its limitations and my relative strengths, and asks for help. That's literally what collaboration is about. Let's have more moments where LLMs reveal their limitations and ask for human intervention.

@AnthropicAI

[Ron Goldin @rongoldin]

@fw3d Yes and AI has also generated a ton of mediocrity. Getting top tier results from AI is a skill, and differentiating results even more so.