Chris Jones

Full-time dad, app developer, and designer @hightouchdata

[Chris Jones @_cheesytots]

Shipped some fun updates to tapadoodle ✨

👾 games & activities
💾 save & remix artwork
🎨 color picker
🌎 new website

https://t.co/0EFuBZVUIX

[Chris Jones @_cheesytots]

@benblumenrose Early wireframe exploration and analysis

[Chris Jones @_cheesytots]

my feelings exactly

[Benji Taylor @benjitaylor]

We need to stop talking about product design in absolutes… there are no rules. Everything is made up. Do what makes sense and feels right.

[Tuomas Artman @artman]

Today is a hard day. I shared this note with the @linear team today: We’ve made the difficult decision to increase our workforce. This is not a cost-cutting exercise or a reflection of anyone’s performance. We’re simply reimagining every role for the agentic AI era. We’re hiring. We’re sorry about that.

[Chris Jones @_cheesytots]

@yahyavision Keep going

[Chris Jones @_cheesytots]

@johnghutton @zachpogrob lol, hilarious

[Kris Puckett @krispuckett]

1. Why is everyone freaking obsessed with the death AI will bring? It's so stupidly...boring. Creativity is born from life, and not death.

2. As designers find their confidence to ship, I'd say bring it on the doom and gloom. Watch us thrive in this new world.

[Chris Jones @_cheesytots]

I’m busier than ever as a designer

[Gokul Rajaram @gokulr]

DESIGN: THE FIRST AI CASUALTY

I'm increasingly sure that 2026 signals the end of product design as a full-fledged stand-alone function within companies. If so, it will be the first role / function to be eliminated by AI on a go-forward basis.

Instead of hiring FT designers, startups are hiring / will hire design consultants to create a design system that the founder likes (this takes a few weeks max). Once the design system is finalized, PM/Eng feed it into their AI tool of choice to generate prototypes. The design system is refreshed annually by the same consultant.

Larger companies will likely not backfill design roles and will do some targeted attrition to reduce the design department to 20% the size it is today.

If you're a designer, I think you have two choices:
1. Become an entrepreneur: Start a design agency and become the go-to resource for design systems for startups and even larger companies. This can be a good recurring revenue business.
2. Become a builder: Add PM/Eng responsibilities to become a product builder.

Would suggest you embrace this proactively vs waiting for the other shoe to drop.

I'm really sorry about this - some of my best friends and the people I admire most and have learnt the most from are designers - but it seems inevitable.

[Chris Jones @_cheesytots]

@gerstenzang Definitely not great for retail investors. I finally moved on

[Chris Jones @_cheesytots]

@joshpuckett I can add more value at the final stages of building than ever before. Partnering with eng, shipping layers of refinement that previously would be scoped out. It’s really fun.

[Chris Jones @_cheesytots]

@hemeon @Lovable I’d screenshot/link the prototype and rebuild in Claude.

[Chris Jones @_cheesytots]

@JasonBassler1 Fisted sister

[Chris Jones @_cheesytots]

@imkylelambert Yes

[Chris Jones @_cheesytots]

@signulll parenting?

[Chris Jones @_cheesytots]

@GamewithDave Myst

[Chris Jones @_cheesytots]

Buys flip phone for 12 year old.

Just calls and text he thinks.

Unbox.

Phone has YouTube, and Facebook 💀

Can’t uninstall.

WTF.

Asks Claude for help. “My phone sucks, need to jailbreak.”

1 hour later, custom python script done.

Phone fixed.

Kid happy.

Incredible.

[Lenny Pruss @lennypruss]

From a team of 4 and ~$40K ARR to now ~400 and $100M ARR, it's been remarkable to watch @tejasmanohar @kashgupta_ & @joshwget build @HightouchData. The definition of grit, creativity and maniacal execution. Congrats on the milestone team!
https://t.co/mydol2NDYj

[Gokul Rajaram @gokulr]

Congrats @HightouchData team for the successful entry into the AI marketing space. Excellent example of how to build a compound startup starting with a single product. 🚀

[Chris Jones @_cheesytots]

@PaulNeverovsky hats off to the perplexity design team

[Chris Jones @_cheesytots]

@darylginn Works for a few, but not normies like me

[Chris Jones @_cheesytots]

@ndrewpignanelli highest form of flattery