Will Hsu

Product Designer @Rokt • UX Design @nyuniversity @IdmNyu • He/Him🧢👓👟🏀🥃🍊☕️🎵

[Lee Robinson @leerob]

"Engineering, product, and design are all merging into a 'builder' role"

Yeah... I'm not so sure. This feels like an oversimplification and podcast talking point. Reality is a lot more complex.

Even with 1000 "Member of Technical Staff" titles, someone still has to wake up and care 100x more about Product or Design than anyone else. It is their Main Thing™

That's not to say MTS titles are universally bad, but I think they're an example of this 'builder' talking point that's become bastardized.

AI and coding agents have made generating code easy and yet... you're in for a world of pain if non-engineers ship a bunch of slop and don't have great engineers to tame the complexity.

The SF hivemind has a tendency to overfit what works at startups for every company. And to be fair, sometimes this is true! Startups can be a leading indicator for how the industry is changing and often cause disruption.

However, it is going to be incredibly hard to disrupt the extremely human parts of corporate jobs. You really think there's going to be a PM who also does some engineering and design on the side at JPMorgan Chase?

This is true for the simple parts of most jobs, like people wanting to have ownership over something and do good work, move up a career ladder, support their family, get paid well, make an honest living...

And also the hard parts: internal politics, some critical business system that has a bus factor of 1 which has been running for 15 years and isn't documented anywhere because it's that guy's job security. The real world has a lot of this stuff.

It's easy to pontificate about all roles collapsing but it's actually really nice to have a specific person or team who is an expert in one thing that you can work with. I don't expect that to change. Further, I think AI disruption to knowledge work will take decades to play out because it is more fundamental to the human condition (e.g. sociological/organizational) than pure intelligence.

[Ridd 🤿 @ridd_design]

~12 min of Claude Code tips for designers

(straight from the design lead @meaghaneschoi)

here's her demo from Dive Club Live in NYC (it's about as practical as it gets)👇

[Tommy Geoco 🇺🇸 @designertom]

Some of my favorite design studios are powered by AI creative directors.

From Metalab to Iverson to @BrettFromDJ.

Designers who have figured out how to bend different tools to produce incredibly memorable experiences.

@jameygannon is one of the latest examples of talented AI creative directors, and she's leading the way by sharing how she does it.

She spent six months building a 5-principle framework she can rely on for learning new tools and shipping great work to clients.

I talked to her about it on State of Play, and we get deep into her framework and the process she's using today.

You'll want to check this one out:

[Ridd 🤿 @ridd_design]

a ton of people have asked for a behind-the-scenes of my workflow and it's finally happening...

on Friday I'll show how I own the frontend as a designer alongside @kylezantos

it's free to join and (hopefully) will be a good time so grab a spot here 👇https://t.co/vqoGWBBFzr

[SLAM @SLAMonline]

Good morning, New York. The Knicks are one win away from the Finals.

[Ridd 🤿 @ridd_design]

have received as much positive feedback about this episode as any I've ever shipped

good one to bookmark 🔖

hopefully it's a helpful reminder that we're all just figuring it out as best we can :)

[Big Knick Energy @BigKnickEnergy_]

i've waited my whole life for the knicks to be this good

[DANN© @DannPetty]

Your portfolio has one job.
Make someone who's never met you feel like they already know exactly what kind of designer you are.

These things will help:

1. Show the work. Immediately.
I cannot tell you how many beautiful portfolios I clicked off of because I couldn't find the work. Stunning animations, incredible typography, clever interactions nut no work anywhere to found quickly. I'm hiring a designer. Show me what you design! If I have to scroll more than a few seconds to find work, I'm gone. Those hiring have thousands of these to get through. They'll appreciate the time you save them by showing your work in a respectful time.

2. Don't hide work behind rollovers.
I know it looks cool. But I'm in a hurry. If your work is hidden, I'm not finding it.

3. Three projects is not a portfolio. It's a teaser.
If you only have 3-4 projects showing, I immediately wonder what have you been doing? Where are the side projects? The experiments? The fun stuff you made at 2am just because you wanted to? Show more work! Not everything has to be a polished case study (most shouldn't tbh because no one is reading it). Throw in the logo you made for fun. The brand concept nobody hired you for. The UI exploration you did on a weekend. That's the stuff that tells me who you really are as a designer.

4. Stop repeating your name.
I clicked on your link. I know your name. The first thing I need to see is your work, not your name three times.

5. Don't make me figure out how to use your site.
If your portfolio requires instructions, it's too complicated. I don't have time. Neither does the person hiring you. Do you read instructions? Probably not either.

6. The about me section matters more than you think.
The portfolios that stopped me all had one thing in common. I felt like I knew the person. Their pets. Their hobbies. Their personality. Design is a team sport. I'm not just hiring your work. I'm hiring YOU. If it came down to two equally talented designers where one surfed and the other displayed no outside hobbies, I'm going with the person I can connect more with, the surfer since we'll have things to talk about besides work. Use this to your advantage. It's the secret tip most most.

*The portfolios that make my final list all do this:
Work visible immediately. Clear about what they do. Personality came through. Something unique that made me stop and explore.

*The ones that don't make it:
Beautiful design. No work. Or work hidden so much I gave up finding it.

Important note: With all that said, the #1 thing that gets people hired: relationships.
I'm not gonna lie. The people I already know online get looked at first. Every time. That's not fair, but it's real.

Make relationships.
Be a kind person.
Get the work.

[Ben Blumenrose @benblumenrose]

Our 2026 Design in AI Report is now live!

This report is the culmination of thousands of people hours and many late nights to create what we believe is the most comprehensive, well-researched report capturing and synthesizing the state of Design + AI today.

While we used AI in many areas, a report like this still required deep thinking, grit, and humans coming together to do what they do best.

The final report spans nearly 20k words covering the survey results of over 900 people paired with dozens of qualitative interviews.

Over the coming months we will also release 7 beautiful case studies showing how top design teams are working on the ground featuring designers at @AnthropicAI, @framer, @linear, @NotionHQ, @Shopify, @SierraPlatform, and @stripe.

This work is a true labor of love to help guide a design community we hold so dear.

Link in the comments and please let us know what you think. Your feedback helps us shape how we will evolve this work over the coming years...

[Jakub Krehel @jakubkrehel]

Introducing Interfaces

A design engineering magazine about building great interfaces.

A new issue is released every month covering topics across animation, typography, layout, color and everything else that makes an interface feel great.

https://t.co/5i4Ab4kW3e

[Ridd 🤿 @ridd_design]

one of the better reads I've had this week

[Ridd 🤿 @ridd_design]

for the first time ever I'm recording a live @joindiveclub episode in NYC!

there will be demos from 3 INCREDIBLE guests all about the future of design workflows (announcing soon 🤫)

if you're an AI-pilled builder in NYC you don't want to miss this one:
https://t.co/iKgir2T8uo

[Shane Levine @theShaneLevine]

https://t.co/8ReQudo6lJ

[Karri Saarinen @karrisaarinen]

https://t.co/1dtJ6LJ8KY

[Ben Stiller @BenStiller]

LETS GO KNICKS

[Karri Saarinen @karrisaarinen]

https://t.co/srw9NQMkH2

[DANN© @DannPetty]

Design never was about the tools.

[Dylan Field @zoink]

An excellent essay on design (and thinking) from Karri. Must read.

[Will Hsu @willhsu7]

🫢🤪

[Will Hsu @willhsu7]

oh woah 😳

[Claude @claudeai]

Introducing Claude Design by Anthropic Labs: make prototypes, slides, and one-pagers by talking to Claude.

Powered by Claude Opus 4.7, our most capable vision model. Available in research preview on the Pro, Max, Team, and Enterprise plans, rolling out throughout the day.