Advertise on podcast: Design Table Podcast

Has any of the following ever happened to you? Your product manager shows you ten screens they vibe coded over the weekend. Or, and this is probably even worse, your CEO wonders out loud why you need a product designer at all now. Situations like this is what makes designers quit. At the same time, others feel like they can suddenly build anything. Both sides have a point, which makes it hard to decide where you stand. In this episode of The Design Table Podcast, Tyler and Nick sit down with Danny Hope, founder of UX Brighton and one of the most experienced voices in UX today. They discuss what AI is doing to UX jobs in reality and what designers can do about it. No doom-and-gloom or super hype. Instead, they stick to what's happening based on conversations with designers on the job. Danny shares how he was made redundant from a developer-heavy company partly because "we've got Claude Design now", and how AI creates a new problem for designers: you're still accountable for the design even when other people ship those designs without you. Tyler explains his team's rule for AI prototypes: anyone can make one, but it goes through the same design review as anything else inside the company. They also get into ambition. Danny uses the 'skateboard versus car' analogy to rethink the MVP, Tyler explains why his team says MLP instead, and Danny makes the case for pass/fail criteria as a core skill for briefing both teams and AI tools. Tyler opens up about measuring design impact in fintech, where sales cycles run from six months to two years. Then it gets candid. Tyler argues design systems have made products overly consistent and killed some craft. Danny counters that commoditization is how the industry moves on to bigger problems, from WordPress to £5 logos to nicely indented CSS. In this episode you will learn: 🔸 Why some designers feel displaced by AI while others feel more capable than ever🔸 How Tyler's team lets anyone prototype without losing edge cases and flows🔸 Why AI-made designs create a responsibility problem for UX people🔸 What it means to be more ambitious with AI, using the skateboard vs car analogy🔸 How MLP (minimum lovable product) can fix, or be abused just like, the MVP🔸 Why pass/fail criteria are a key skill for briefing teams and AI tools🔸 How to measure design impact when sales cycles last up to two years🔸 The North Star metric approach Tyler uses so small wins ladder up🔸 Why human-to-human service could become a company's biggest advantage🔸 Why whiteboards and paper sketching are making a comeback for Danny🔸 How side projects can represent you better than a portfolio🔸 What design systems and commoditization have taken away from craft Chapters:00:00 Thanksgiving and our second guest01:40 How UX Brighton started in 200804:16 The two camps of vibe coding07:08 Laid off because of AI design tools10:32 Tyler's rule for everyone prototyping12:00 Who owns it when anyone ships designs13:23 Craft vs strategy: which do you love?16:59 Designing human-to-human service20:33 How to get more ambitious with AI26:19 MVP, MLP and the skateboard vs car31:07 Pass/fail criteria for designers and AI34:22 Measuring impact on 2-year sales cycles40:40 Why whiteboards and paper are back42:42 Have design systems killed craft?47:58 Why handmade work keeps its value52:29 UX Brighton dates and tickets UX Brighton conference, Friday November 6 at the Brighton Dome Concert Hall: https://uxbri.org Subscribe to The Design Table Podcast https://www.designtablepodcast.com/subscribe Resources to help you level up your design career: Get your portfolio and career strategy reviewed with a Design Table Audit https://www.designtablepodcast.com/products/design-table-audit Download the Product Design Blueprint https://www.designtablepodcast.com/products/product-design-blueprint Join our UX and product design community https://www.designtablepodcast.com/products/ux-and-product-design-community In need of support? Take a look at our resources https://www.designtablepodcast.com/learn More about Tyler and Nick Tyler: https://www.designtablepodcast.com/hosts/tyler-white Nick: https://www.designtablepodcast.com/hosts/nick-groeneveld #uxdesign #productdesign #aiindesign

Design school taught us you should explore before you settle on a solution. In reality, most designers sketch two or three options, pick one, and hope nobody asks about edge cases or anything outside of the 'happy flow'. Now that prototyping is so much more accessible, going wide has never been easier. With that in mind, why are so many designers still designing for that happy flow only? In this episode of The Design Table Podcast, Tyler and Nick talk about conceptual range and depth: going wide to find better design solutions before going deep one that one solution to bring it up to standard. They take down the "double diamond is dead" takes you read everywhere else and focus on the real day-to-day workflow of a modern product designer. Tyler walks through his full process, step by step. He asks Claude for ten variations of a concept in a single prototype with a toggle to switch between them, shares it live with engineering and product, and narrows down from there. Before making any prototype, he maps the flow and edge cases in FigJam. Then he uses a GitHub connector to check his ideas against the real app, and the Figma agent to turn screenshots into design system-ready files for handoff. Like always, Nick is more reserved. He shares what he learned from the Interface Craft course, why context switching while AI works is exhausting, and the risk of anchoring too hard on the design you already have. On one project, it took a developer with a completely fresh idea to break the team out of weeks of going in circles. In this episode you will learn: 🔸 What range and depth mean and why you need both to land on a good solution🔸 Why engineers now want designers to own edge cases and error states🔸 How Tyler prompts for ten design directions in one clickable prototype🔸 What to do while you wait for AI to build, without burning out on context switching🔸 How to push similar-looking variations further until they become truly different ideas🔸 Why Tyler never skips a journey or flow map in FigJam before prototyping🔸 How a GitHub connector lets you check ideas against the real product and scope what fits in two weeks🔸 How to get a full list of edge cases per screen before engineering has to ask🔸 How the Figma agent turns prototype screenshots into design system ready files for handoff🔸 Why new components still need real pixel pushing and craft🔸 The risk of only improving what already exists, and when to start from scratch🔸 How to apply all of this to last episode's hero section challenge Subscribe to The Design Table Podcast https://www.designtablepodcast.com/subscribe Resources to help you level up your design career: Get your portfolio and career strategy reviewed with a Design Table Audit https://www.designtablepodcast.com/products/design-table-audit Download the Product Design Blueprint https://www.designtablepodcast.com/products/product-design-blueprint Join our UX and product design community https://www.designtablepodcast.com/products/ux-and-product-design-community In need of support? Take a look at our resources https://www.designtablepodcast.com/learn More about Tyler and Nick Tyler: https://www.designtablepodcast.com/hosts/tyler-white Nick: https://www.designtablepodcast.com/hosts/nick-groeneveld #productdesign #uxdesign #aiprototyping

Every designer wants sharper craft and better taste. But with the new tools generating close to all of your work, it's tempting to skip the design fundamentals entirely. I mean... who knows anything about gestalt or color theory anymore?! Also, social media is full of hot takes claiming UX is dead and the double diamond is over. None of this or the above helps you to enjoy your job as a Product Designer. Luckily, there's a better way. In this episode of The Design Table Podcast, Tyler and Nick continue their series on becoming a modern, in-demand product designer with part two: improving your hard skills. They skip the hype and focus on how you get better at the output, whether you like building everything by hand or running 20 directions in parallel. Tyler makes the case for learning the fundamentals the slow way first, so you can art direct the tools instead of just trusting whatever they come up with. He shares how he uses Figma's agent to apply a design system to his mockups, and why talking through a problem with ChatGPT for 30 minutes is part of his discovery. Nick is much more skeptical and explains why reviewing an AI-generated 80% version can be more exhausting than designing it yourself. They also agree on a very boring answer: repetition. Copy the designers you admire, make something every day, and build a playground of experiments that shows off your range. In this episode you will learn: 🔸 Why junior designers need to nail hard skills before leaning on AI tools🔸 What AI design tools still get wrong, from happy path flows to generic styling🔸 Why the journey map is the one step you shouldn't skip🔸 How a branch-and-merge workflow could make code the source of truth for design🔸 Why repetition and daily design challenges still beat every shortcut🔸 Why one to two year goals beat a five year plan🔸 How a playground page with 52 experiments helps you stand out, especially as a freelancer🔸 How Tyler uses Figma's agent to apply components, spacing, and variables from a design system🔸 Why the double diamond isn't dead, it's on steroids🔸 How talking a problem through with ChatGPT turns into personal discovery🔸 How Nick and Tyler's opposite working styles show up everywhere, down to a broken dishwasher🔸 This week's challenge: a portfolio hero section with no centered layout that works in English, Spanish, and German Subscribe to The Design Table Podcast https://www.designtablepodcast.com/subscribe Resources to help you level up your design career: Get your portfolio and career strategy reviewed with a Design Table Audit https://www.designtablepodcast.com/products/design-table-audit Download the Product Design Blueprint https://www.designtablepodcast.com/products/product-design-blueprint Join our UX and product design community https://www.designtablepodcast.com/products/ux-and-product-design-community In need of support? Take a look at our resources https://www.designtablepodcast.com/learn More about Tyler and Nick Tyler: https://www.designtablepodcast.com/hosts/tyler-white Nick: https://www.designtablepodcast.com/hosts/nick-groeneveld

Junior product designers know what it is like. To get a job you need experience; and to get experience, you need a job. How do you break free of this annoying circle? The internet is full of generic suggestions that do not really get you anywhere. Luckily, there's a better way. In this episode of The Design Table Podcast, Tyler and Nick tackle the experience-job circle mentioned above. They skip the tired advice of redesigning a famous website and focus on what gets you real clients, real work, and real proof. Tyler makes the case for doing free work the right way, from pitching local businesses a redesign in exchange for a testimonial to building a home services website before you even reach out. Nick explains why good outreach makes things easier for the other person, and shares the Loom and FigJam combo that gets him a reply almost every time. They also get honest about timelines. Bootcamps promise a new career in weeks. Nick puts it closer to two years and Tyler caps it at one year if you're willing to make sacrifices. In this episode you will learn: 🔸 Why free work in exchange for a testimonial beats another pet project🔸 How to pitch a local business without sounding desperate🔸 Why freelance-style experience translates to in-house roles🔸 What Dan Mall gets right about cold outreach, and why Don't Make Me Think applies to your pitch🔸 How answering an A or B question with option C landed Nick a client🔸 Why building the website before you pitch speeds up the sale and lets you charge more🔸 How offering to do the job until they find someone can make you the person they keep🔸 Why small, unscalable gestures like handmade cookies or a printed portfolio get you remembered🔸 The two-minute Loom that gets Nick a reply and an invite to talk almost every time🔸 Why vibe coded pet projects can hurt your portfolio, and when a playground page still works🔸 How long it really takes to land your first paying design job Subscribe to The Design Table Podcast https://www.designtablepodcast.com/subscribe Resources to help you level up your design career: Get your portfolio and career strategy reviewed with a Design Table Audit https://www.designtablepodcast.com/products/design-table-audit Download the Product Design Blueprint https://www.designtablepodcast.com/products/product-design-blueprint Join our UX and product design community https://www.designtablepodcast.com/products/ux-and-product-design-community In need of support? Take a look at our resources https://www.designtablepodcast.com/learn More about Tyler and Nick Tyler: https://www.designtablepodcast.com/hosts/tyler-white Nick: https://www.designtablepodcast.com/hosts/nick-groeneveld

Imagine you found a bug on your client's website. Back in the day, you'd have to get that issue on the agenda and agreed on before even starting to work on it. Today, Nick's website fix went live twelve seconds after he clicked 'sync', and the whole setup costs about twenty-five dollars a month. In this episode of The Design Table Podcast, Tyler and Nick kick off a ten-episode series on how to become a modern, in-demand product designer. They start with the foundation: setting up an environment that helps you get an idea off the ground and into a working prototype fast. It is a modern product designer's way of doing things now. Tyler explains how connecting analytics tools through MCPs gets you a project baseline the same day, and Nick shares why faster data still means you have to think about whether it's the right data. They also break down how designers can capture and act on ideas, from Nick's Granola and Zapier pipeline that scores every meeting red, orange, or green to Tyler's scheduled Claude recaps that catch what he missed in Slack and Jira. Nick closes out with the exact hosting, GitHub, and Claude setup he uses to push changes live. In this episode you will learn: 🔸 Why connecting analytics through MCPs cuts your baseline research from weeks to a single day🔸 Why faster access to data doesn't help if you're filtering it wrong🔸 What a funnel actually is and how it overlaps with a customer journey🔸 How to match your design to a buyer's mindset so you don't spook them or oversell🔸 How Nick vibe coded a baby tracker for his newborn twins, and why every designer needs a setup that turns an idea into a link in minutes🔸 How to capture ideas automatically with Granola, Zapier, and Slack🔸 How Tyler uses scheduled Claude runs for a daily catch-up, a weekly recap, and one-click vibe coding prompts for open design tasks🔸 The exact stack Nick runs: hosting, GitHub, VS Code, and Claude, plus why Claude Pro is enough to start🔸 Why you still need to learn the rules of design before you can break them Subscribe to The Design Table Podcast https://www.designtablepodcast.com/subscribe Resources to help you level up your design career: Get your portfolio and career strategy reviewed with a Design Table Audit https://www.designtablepodcast.com/products/design-table-audit Download the Product Design Blueprint https://www.designtablepodcast.com/products/product-design-blueprint Join our UX and product design community https://www.designtablepodcast.com/products/ux-and-product-design-community In need of support? Take a look at our resources https://www.designtablepodcast.com/learn More about Tyler and Nick Tyler: https://www.designtablepodcast.com/hosts/tyler-white Nick: https://www.designtablepodcast.com/hosts/nick-groeneveld

Nick's first freelance invoice was for six hundred euros, quoted with a straight face, even though he half expected the client to talk him down. In this episode of The Design Table Podcast, Tyler and Nick dedicate the full conversation to the business side of freelancing, the part that never makes it into a portfolio case study. Nick walks through how he landed his first clients without ever doing cold outreach, why he said yes to everything for two years before niching down, and the pricing structures he actually uses: fifty-fifty splits, milestone billing, and prepaid hour packages. They also get into the financial mechanics most new freelancers never think about, like paying yourself a fixed monthly salary regardless of what comes in, setting aside fifty percent for taxes, and building a six-to-eight-month buffer before you can call yourself safe. Nick closes out with the exact tech stack he runs his business on, and why he's kept it deliberately boring. In this episode you will learn: 🔸 How Nick landed his first freelance clients without ever doing cold outreach🔸 Why he said yes to everything for two years before niching down to SMBs and early-stage startups🔸 The pricing structures that actually work: fifty-fifty splits, milestones, and prepaid hour packages🔸 How to quote your first project when you have zero pricing reference point🔸 Why Nick pays himself a fixed monthly salary and sets aside fifty percent for taxes🔸 How big your buffer should really be before you can call yourself a safe freelancer🔸 The exact, deliberately boring tech stack Nick runs his freelance business on Subscribe to The Design Table Podcast https://www.designtablepodcast.com/subscribe Resources to help you level up your design career: Get your portfolio and career strategy reviewed with a Design Table Audit https://www.designtablepodcast.com/products/design-table-audit Download the Product Design Blueprint https://www.designtablepodcast.com/products/product-design-blueprint Join our UX and product design community https://www.designtablepodcast.com/products/ux-and-product-design-community In need of support? Take a look at our resources https://www.designtablepodcast.com/learn More about Tyler and Nick Tyler: https://www.designtablepodcast.com/hosts/tyler-white Nick: https://www.designtablepodcast.com/hosts/nick-groeneveld

Nick's biggest newsletter open rate was fifty percent when his list was small. Now that it's grown, he's happy with thirty, and neither of them can fully explain why. In this quick-fire episode of The Design Table Podcast, Tyler and Nick answer a stack of rapid questions on product design and careers, each in under five minutes. They cover why email and newsletter design remains such an underrated skill, why designers keep leaving the field entirely to open restaurants and ninja warrior gyms, and how AI has shifted the job from pushing pixels to writing planning documents and doing discovery work. They also debate the statement "AI has made me faster but less proud of what I create," argue over whether job titles actually matter, and swap their favorite misconceptions people have about product design, before Tyler explains why he's stopped justifying his design decisions to stakeholders altogether. In this episode you will learn: 🔸 Why email design is underrated, and how newsletter design differs for personal brands versus enterprise brands🔸 What it means when your open rate drops as your list grows, and why click-through rate might matter more🔸 Why some designers are leaving tech entirely to open restaurants and gyms, and what carries over with them🔸 How AI has shifted design work from pushing pixels to planning and discovery🔸 Whether "AI made me faster but less proud of what I create" is a fair trade🔸 Why job titles matter more for a freelancer's SEO than for an in-house designer's ego🔸 Why Tyler doesn't explain his design decisions unless he's pushed on it, and why that works Subscribe to The Design Table Podcast https://www.designtablepodcast.com/subscribe Resources to help you level up your design career: Get your portfolio and career strategy reviewed with a Design Table Audit https://www.designtablepodcast.com/products/design-table-audit Download the Product Design Blueprint https://www.designtablepodcast.com/products/product-design-blueprint Join our UX and product design community https://www.designtablepodcast.com/products/ux-and-product-design-community In need of support? Take a look at our resources https://www.designtablepodcast.com/learn More about Tyler and Nick Tyler: https://www.designtablepodcast.com/hosts/tyler-white Nick: https://www.designtablepodcast.com/hosts/nick-groeneveld

Nick's first freelance client paid him fifty dollars an hour. He said 'yes' before he  knew what the market rate was, and it turned out to be exactly the right way to find out. In this episode of The Design Table Podcast, Tyler and Nick spend the whole episode on money, salaries, hourly rates, and how you should ask for more. Tyler walks through the salary research tool that showed him his entire possible career path and the forty thousand dollar salary he thought he would happily live on forever. Nick breaks down the raise that took him from 2500 EUR/month to 4000 EUR/month, and the freelance pricing strategy that pushed his average hourly rate from 50 USD up past 95 USD just by raising the number with every new client until the rejections started piling up. They also get into the LinkedIn open to work banner and why neither of them will turn it on, the case for and against salary transparency laws, and the three times revenue framework Tyler uses to justify asking for a raise with actual numbers instead of a feeling. In this episode you will learn:🔸 The salary research tool that mapped out an entire career path before Tyler ever got a job🔸 Why having a job already makes salary negotiation dramatically easier🔸 The real reason job hoppers usually out earn people who stay in one role🔸 Why neither host will turn on the LinkedIn open to work banner🔸 The three times revenue framework for justifying a raise with numbers, not feelings🔸 How Nick raised his freelance hourly rate from fifty dollars to ninety five using rejection rate as a signal 🔸 What actually happens once salary transparency becomes required by law Chapters:0:00 Deciding to make an entire episode about money1:18 What this episode will cover, salary and hourly rate negotiation1:40 Tylers early mindset, just wanting to make forty thousand a year doing art2:48 The salary tool that mapped out an entire career path4:04 Whether the tool actually matched reality4:44 The three times revenue framework for what an employee should be worth5:15 Why it depends factors make salary numbers online unreliable6:30 Why job hoppers usually out earn people who stay put7:24 Why having a job already makes negotiating easier8:00 The LinkedIn open to work banner and why neither host uses it9:26 Saying you have other interviews lined up, even when you do not 10:21 Nicks raise from a hundred euros a month to eight hundred11:43 Going from twenty five hundred to four thousand euros a month 12:58 Using Glassdoor to benchmark a salary band before applying 13:26 The new salary transparency law and whether it helps employees 14:46 Why recruiters get more cautious once salaries are public16:14 A friend who threatened to quit over a pay gap and won17:16 The three times revenue framework for asking for a raise18:33 The one caveat before you push for more money19:06 How Nick started freelancing at fifty dollars an hour20:27 Raising the rate with every new client until rejections start21:41 Using rejection rate as the signal that you found your ceiling22:08 Saying yes to everything at first, then learning to say no23:59 Final thoughts on treating money like part of the craft Subscribe to The Design Table Podcast https://www.designtablepodcast.com/subscribe Resources to help you level up your design career: Get your portfolio and career strategy reviewed with a Design Table Audit https://www.designtablepodcast.com/products/design-table-audit Download the Product Design Blueprint https://www.designtablepodcast.com/products/product-design-blueprint Join our UX and product design community https://www.designtablepodcast.com/products/ux-and-product-design-community In need of support? Take a look at our resources https://www.designtablepodcast.com/learn More about Tyler and Nick Tyler: https://www.designtablepodcast.com/hosts/tyler-white Nick: https://www.designtablepodcast.com/hosts/nick-groeneveld

In 2015, Nick drove to an interview in his moms car. Three minutes in, the hiring manager told him he would never make it as a designer. 10 Years later, he loses his product design job over Christmas. And that's just the start... In this episode of The Design Table Podcast, Tyler and Nick share the worst moments of their careers so far. Nick gets torn apart in his first ever interview, prints a batch of flyers that come back the wrong color (because nobody told him about RGB and CMYK), and takes on a small favor for a client that turns into a project so big it costs him two clients. In the meantime, Tyler gets thrown into a print job with zero training, discovers his own company was quietly interviewing outside UX agencies behind his back, and gets let go about a month later. Nick turns down a request to fly to Asia for work, gets let go over the Christmas break, and finds out because nobody bothered to tell him. They weren't bad at their job (is what they're telling each other). Sometimes it is just not the right fit, for either side, and the only way to find that out is to live through it. In this episode you will learn:🔸 Why RGB and CMYK color spaces catch almost every designer off guard the first time they print something🔸 The scope creep mistake that can cost a freelancer a client, or two🔸 How to notice the warning signs that a company is quietly replacing you🔸 Why a job can end without anyone telling you directly🔸 The real lesson buried in every one of these stories, that not being a fit is not the same as not being good Chapters:0:00 Setting up the horror stories episode0:39 Nicks first ever interview goes wrong in three minutes3:01 The shock of an early career rejection4:01 Tyler gets thrown into a print job with zero training5:52 Tyler admits he still cant do print design today6:46 Why the founders had no budget for a second designer7:00 The flyers that printed orange instead of pink9:28 The lesson that stuck for over ten years9:51 Tylers packaging design job with no test prints allowed11:20 Judging a print run from a blurry iPhone photo12:06 Why print has no undo button13:16 A small client favor that turns into a scope creep disaster15:09 Losing two clients over one miscommunication16:02 The lesson on asking more questions before agreeing to scope 17:01 Why the client relationship has to go both ways18:37 Tyler discovers his company is secretly interviewing outside UX agencies19:35 Finding out through a leaked calendar21:44 Confronting his manager about it directly22:55 Being let go about a month later23:21 Layoffs lining up with review and budget season24:39 Nicks story, turning down a work trip to Asia26:26 Coming back from Christmas break to total silence26:52 Finding out he was let go through a different manager entirely 28:18 The real takeaway, horror stories are what build great designers 29:29 Final takeaway, not being a fit goes both ways Subscribe to The Design Table Podcast https://www.designtablepodcast.com/subscribe Resources to help you level up your design career: Get your portfolio and career strategy reviewed with a Design Table Audit https://www.designtablepodcast.com/products/design-table-audit Download the Product Design Blueprint https://www.designtablepodcast.com/products/product-design-blueprint Join our UX and product design community https://www.designtablepodcast.com/products/ux-and-product-design-community In need of support? Take a look at our resources https://www.designtablepodcast.com/learn More about Tyler and Nick Tyler: https://www.designtablepodcast.com/hosts/tyler-white Nick: https://www.designtablepodcast.com/hosts/nick-groeneveld

You can master every product design AI tool that exists and still get overruled in the meeting that matters most. That's because tools matter way less than what you read online. There are way more important things to learn if you want to make it as a modern-day product designer. In this episode of The Design Table Podcast, Tyler and Nick lay out the four skills they think actually separate strong product designers from everyone else. It's inspired partly by Josh Puckett's Interface Craft course, and partly by more than a decade of getting these wrong themselves. Conceptual range. Conceptual depth. Tool mastery. And selling your ideas to people who did not ask for them. They dig into why going wide before going narrow is the step most designers skip, how competitive research outside your own niche unlocks better ideas, and why Nick refuses to send client work the same day he finishes it. They also get into knowing when to kill a direction instead of pushing it further, a $300K AI experiment that should have been an $11K hire, and why does this solve the problem beats what do you think every time you present. Then they each rank the four skills, and they land on different answers. In this episode you'll learn:🔸 The four skills Tyler and Nick think will still matter in ten years🔸 How to go wide before you go narrow, and why most designers skip it 🔸 The competitive research trick for finding inspiration outside your industry🔸 Why sleeping on your work is a real strategy, not procrastination🔸 How to know when to reset a direction instead of pushing it further 🔸 The real ROI test for deciding when AI is actually worth the spend🔸 Why does this solve the problem beats what do you think in every review🔸 How to avoid getting turned into a design by committee circus act🔸 Which of the four skills Tyler and Nick each rank as most important, and why they disagree Chapters:0:00 Naming the four skills every strong product designer needs1:10 Skill 1, conceptual range, why going wide comes first2:51 The trap of jumping straight to the obvious solution4:51 Using competitive research to break out of the happy path6:10 Going wide across industries, not just design patterns7:36 The monthly brainstorm exercise that surfaces better ideas9:35 Why Nick never sends client work the same day he finishes it11:23 Skill 2, conceptual depth, narrowing 20 ideas into one14:45 Loom recordings as a feedback safety net16:25 The mobile use case Nick almost designed his way around16:57 Knowing when to reset a direction instead of pushing through 18:00 The baby analogy, staying detached until it ships19:35 Are your deadlines actually real?22:46 The $300K AI experiment that should have been an $11K hire 26:30 Skill 3, tool mastery, why principles matter more than the tool 29:35 Skill 4, selling your ideas to stakeholders30:26 The worst question you can ask in a feedback meeting33:49 Avoiding design by committee34:11 Which skill Tyler and Nick each rank as most important Subscribe to The Design Table Podcast https://www.designtablepodcast.com/subscribe Resources to help you level up your design career: Get your portfolio and career strategy reviewed with a Design Table Audit https://www.designtablepodcast.com/products/design-table-audit Download the Product Design Blueprint https://www.designtablepodcast.com/products/product-design-blueprint Join our UX and product design community https://www.designtablepodcast.com/products/ux-and-product-design-community In need of support? Take a look at our resources https://www.designtablepodcast.com/learn More about Tyler and Nick Tyler: https://www.designtablepodcast.com/hosts/tyler-white Nick: https://www.designtablepodcast.com/hosts/nick-groeneveld

Someone on your team just built a landing page with Claude and skipped you entirely. It used to be a product designer's nightmare, but now... it is called 'Tuesday'. In this episode of The Design Table Podcast, Tyler and Nick get into the question lots of product designers are asking right now. Is AI actually coming for your job? Or is that all social media nonsense? They map out why the risk of losing your job has nothing to do with AI itself. Instead, it comes down to company size and UX maturity, and where you land on that grid decides whether you're a strategic partner or the first person cut when a non-designer thinks they can just 'do the UX in Claude.' They break down why junior designers need political skills that senior designers take for granted, why showing messy work early gets you better feedback than a polished reveal, and why an unmonitored session recording can prove design's value faster than a giant slide deck. Then they answer a listener's question from a medtech intern who was told to use AI to improve his workflow. They unpack what that feedback is really saying, and what it isn't. In this episode you'll learn:🔸 Why should I even go into design is the wrong question to be asking right now🔸 The two part test for reading how seriously your company actually takes design🔸 How junior and senior designers should handle pushback differently🔸 Why showing your messy, unfinished work gets better feedback than the polished version🔸 How session recordings can prove design's value faster than any deck🔸 What use more AI to improve your workflow really means when a manager says it🔸 Why design is still the moat, and why the craft can't be outsourced Chapters:0:00 Is design still a safe career? Setting up the real question2:16 The two lines that determine how seriously your company takes design3:49 Junior vs senior designers, handling pushback and politics6:45 Why showing messy work early gets you better feedback9:20 The dangerous game of skipping design due diligence14:18 Why world changing features usually belong in a dropdown16:21 Why companies that ignore designer judgment are setting themselves up to fail18:37 Session recordings, the fastest way to prove design work matters 19:57 A bank's accessibility wake up call, caught on video23:12 Listener question, use more AI, a medtech intern's performance review26:06 Why shadowing a senior designer beats guessing on your own 29:40 Doing manual design work on purpose to build real craft 34:17 Closing thoughts, design is still the moat Subscribe to The Design Table Podcast https://www.designtablepodcast.com/subscribe Resources to help you level up your design career: Get your portfolio and career strategy reviewed with a Design Table Audit https://www.designtablepodcast.com/products/design-table-audit Download the Product Design Blueprint https://www.designtablepodcast.com/products/product-design-blueprint Join our UX and product design community https://www.designtablepodcast.com/products/ux-and-product-design-community In need of support? Take a look at our resources https://www.designtablepodcast.com/learn More about Tyler and Nick Tyler: https://www.designtablepodcast.com/hosts/tyler-white Nick: https://www.designtablepodcast.com/hosts/nick-groeneveld

Zero to one product design work. That's the main skill companies are hiring designers for right now. You'd expect Figma knowledge or being 'native' with the latest AI tools to be the main thing, but that's not the case. In this episode of The Design Table Podcast, Tyler and Nick react point-by-point to a breakdown of what companies currently want from product designers according to Tom Scott, recruiter and owner at Verified. The list includes communication skills for designers, ownership, design systems, AI-native skills, and why both the take-home task and the old-school work trial are creeping back into the product design hiring process. They also discuss why the "builder" mindset is better than pure execution as teams get leaner, why design systems are becoming a full-time discipline of their own, and why an app store flooded with AI-generated products is making branding and UI craft more and more important. Finally, Tyler and Nick cover the AI-native skill gap between senior and junior designers, why fractional and freelance design work is booming, and close on the reminder that your career is a vehicle for your life, not the whole thing. Tom Scott on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/tomscottt/Tom Scott's newsletter - https://verifiedinsider.substack.com/p/design-hiring-observations In this episode you'll learn:🔸 Why communication matters more than craft when presenting your work🔸 The "builder" mindset companies are hiring for over pure execution🔸 Why design systems are becoming a full-time discipline again🔸 How the flood of AI-generated apps is making branding the real differentiator🔸 Why take-home tasks and work trials are both making a comeback🔸 The AI-native skill gap between senior and junior designers🔸 Why fractional and freelance design work is booming🔸 The closing reminder: your career is a vehicle, not your identity Chapters:0:00 - What companies are actually looking for right now2:24 - The "builder" mindset beating pure execution4:54 - Design systems becoming a full-time discipline9:17 - How vibe coding is reshaping the design process12:43 - What junior portfolios need now vs. shipped work15:47 - Why branding is the differentiator in an AI-flooded app store20:54 - Interview processes changing: tasks and work trials return24:11 - The AI-native skill gap between senior and junior designers26:12 - The rise of fractional and freelance design work30:52 - Closing reminder: your career is a vehicle, not your identity Subscribe to The Design Table Podcasthttps://www.designtablepodcast.com/subscribe Resources to help you level up your design career:Get your portfolio and career strategy reviewed with a Design Table Audithttps://www.designtablepodcast.com/products/design-table-audit Download the Product Design Blueprinthttps://www.designtablepodcast.com/products/product-design-blueprint Join our UX and product design communityhttps://www.designtablepodcast.com/products/ux-and-product-design-community In need of support? Take a look at our resourceshttps://www.designtablepodcast.com/learn More about Tyler and NickTyler: https://www.designtablepodcast.com/hosts/tyler-whiteNick: https://www.designtablepodcast.com/hosts/nick-groeneveld

Two seconds. That's how long you have before a hiring manager bounces off your portfolio. Most product design hero sections that time. In this episode of The Design Table Podcast, Tyler and Nick roast real, anonymized hero sections pulled straight from product design portfolios. Examples include the generic portfolio, one that looks like a resume-dump, and the rare ones that work. They break down why "I deliver thoughtful designs, seamless solutions, and creative experiences built for impact" tells a recruiter nothing, why your name doesn't need to be the headline, and how to turn a degree, a hobby, or even a personal reason into the differentiator that makes someone stop scrolling. They also get into productized service messaging, why "curious about X" reads weaker than "expert in X," and the two-line hero Tyler thinks is more than perfect. In this episode you'll learn:🔸 Why generic hero copy makes you disappear into the pile🔸 The "dream job" exercise that instantly sharpens a vague hero section🔸 How to turn your background, education, or a personal story into a real differentiator🔸 Why "curious about X" is weaker than "I'm an expert in X"🔸 How to signal scarcity without lying about your availability🔸 The two-line hero Tyler said needed zero notes🔸 Why a specific niche beats a generic "design partner" tagline Chapters:0:00 - Roasting a generic hero section opener2:00 - Why "thoughtful, seamless, creative" says nothing3:39 - The dream-job exercise for sharpening your positioning5:45 - Nick's pivot into music tech through a personal hook9:31 - Communicating scarcity without overselling12:20 - Why unlimited-design subscriptions can feel like a factory14:11 - The hero section that read like an entire resume15:18 - Turning a Master's in AI into a differentiator21:54 - "Curious about X" vs. "I'm an expert in X"25:19 - Cutting AI-sounding buzzwords like "facilitating transparent communication"27:42 - The two-line hero that nailed it29:43 - Roasting a personal brand hero section33:36 - "Design partner for non-technical SMEs" — niching done right35:52 - Why the hero section is still your most important real estate Subscribe to The Design Table Podcasthttps://www.designtablepodcast.com/subscribe Resources to help you level up your design career:Get your portfolio and career strategy reviewed with a Design Table Audithttps://www.designtablepodcast.com/products/design-table-audit Download the Product Design Blueprinthttps://www.designtablepodcast.com/products/product-design-blueprint Join our UX and product design communityhttps://www.designtablepodcast.com/products/ux-and-product-design-community In need of support? Take a look at our resourceshttps://www.designtablepodcast.com/learn More about Tyler and NickTyler: https://www.designtablepodcast.com/hosts/tyler-whiteNick: https://www.designtablepodcast.com/hosts/nick-groeneveld

Four hours of unpaid work. Seven rounds of interviews. And then a generic rejection email that reads like it was written by a robot. If you're hunting product design jobs right now, none of the above is news to you. In this episode of The Design Table Podcast, Tyler and Nick have their opinions on the modern design hiring process; take-home challenges, endless interview rounds, and the red and green flags you should keep in mind to figure out if a company is worth your time. They get into why take-home tests rarely test what companies think they're testing, why a whiteboarding challenge is the better alternative, and why paying candidates for their time is the bare minimum. Nick shares his own experience walking away from an unpaid "trial day." Tyler mentions the exact questions he asks recruiters to flush out red flags before he wastes his time on a dead-end process. They also get tactical. How to actually win a take-home challenge if you have to do one. Why a Loom walkthrough can be the difference-maker over a stack of Figma files. And what interviewers are testing when they ask you to present your work. In this episode you'll learn:🔸 Why take-home design challenges rarely test the right thing🔸 The one alternative Tyler would actually agree to🔸 Red flags that should be an instant no🔸 Green flags that mean a company is worth your time🔸 How to actually win a take-home challenge, step by step🔸 Why a Loom walkthrough can outperform your entire portfolio🔸 What interviewers are really testing when they watch you present Chapters:0:00 - Is the take-home design challenge broken?1:29 - Horror stories: stolen work and wasted hours2:01 - Why Tyler refuses to do take-home tests5:37 - The better alternative: a whiteboarding challenge7:39 - Interview rounds are spiraling out of control9:52 - Just pay people for their time12:23 - Take-home test vs. portfolio review: what's actually different?18:06 - The rejection email that annoys us most21:56 - Red and green flags every candidate should watch for25:18 - Green flag: pay transparency and salary bands28:13 - Red flag: AI-generated, outdated job descriptions31:14 - How to actually win a take-home challenge33:32 - The Loom walkthrough that ranks S-tier34:21 - What interviewers are really testing for35:34 - The "if we could dream" trick that makes you stand out37:05 - A disclaimer: we can afford to say no. You might not be able to.39:02 - It's a two-way street. Look for green flags too. Subscribe to The Design Table Podcasthttps://www.designtablepodcast.com/subscribe Resources to help you level up your design career:Get your portfolio and career strategy reviewed with a Design Table Audithttps://www.designtablepodcast.com/products/design-table-audit Download the Product Design Blueprinthttps://www.designtablepodcast.com/products/product-design-blueprint Join our UX and product design communityhttps://www.designtablepodcast.com/products/ux-and-product-design-community In need of support? Take a look at our resourceshttps://www.designtablepodcast.com/learn More about Tyler and NickTyler: https://www.designtablepodcast.com/hosts/tyler-whiteNick: https://www.designtablepodcast.com/hosts/nick-groeneveld

One of our listeners wrote us while being stuck between two things: loving the product design craft and needing a job badly. He likes doing the actual product design work by hand, because that's how he learns and how he gets better. That's how he finds solutions. Yet, every job posting wants you to be "AI native" with a ton of "AI experience." So what do you do? Fake it? Give in? Hold the line and risk staying unemployed? Or something in between? In this episode of The Design Table Podcast, Tyler and Nick answer a real question from a listener: a recent grad, currently out of work, torn between using AI because "everyone else is" and sticking to the hands-on process he actually loves. They dig into where AI helps, where it doesn't, and why using it doesn't have to mean losing your craft. They talk through the difference between using AI in a way that touches your pixels and AI that just clears the annoying stuff out of the way. You know, things like meeting notes, research, and transcripts. Tyler shares how he feeds meeting transcripts straight into Claude to turn messy feedback into a task list. Nick shares how a Figma plugin took a redraw job from hours to minutes, while every design decision stayed within his control. The conversation gets personal, too. Both tell stories on early day jobs they had to do just to get started and why the early, unglamorous grind is not something to skip. In this episode you'll learn:🔸 Where AI actually helps your job search, and where it doesn't🔸 How to use AI without losing your craft or your taste🔸 Why chasing every LinkedIn hot take wastes your time🔸 How to turn meeting transcripts into a real task list with AI🔸 Why the "grind" phase of your career isn't optional🔸 How to find your own path instead of copying someone else's Chapters:0:00 - A listener's dilemma: love the craft, need a job1:07 - AI is a tool, not a threat to your craft3:31 - LinkedIn isn't the job — stop treating it like gospel6:44 - Why a minimum level of AI use is non-negotiable now8:02 - Use AI for the boring stuff, not the pixels8:48 - How a Figma plugin turned hours into seconds14:05 - Feeding meeting transcripts into Claude for real output15:44 - Are you actually having fun as a designer?18:24 - Stop copying someone else's playbook20:04 - Learn to eat shit for a while (Pepsi factory & mail route stories)25:14 - The Darwin trick: fit in first, be yourself later28:37 - Bottom line: use it. It's fine. Subscribe to The Design Table Podcasthttps://www.designtablepodcast.com/subscribe Resources to help you level up your design career:Get your portfolio and career strategy reviewed with a Design Table Audithttps://www.designtablepodcast.com/products/design-table-audit Download the Product Design Blueprinthttps://www.designtablepodcast.com/products/product-design-blueprint Join our UX and product design communityhttps://www.designtablepodcast.com/products/ux-and-product-design-community In need of support? Take a look at our resourceshttps://www.designtablepodcast.com/learn More about Tyler and NickTyler: https://www.designtablepodcast.com/hosts/tyler-whiteNick: https://www.designtablepodcast.com/hosts/nick-groeneveld