Design MBA

🧠 WHAT WILL YOU LEARN IN THIS INTERVIEW? 1. Challenges of designing for AI 2. How to get a job as an AI Designer 📢 WHY IS HENRY MODISETT A ROCKSTAR? Henry Modisett is the Head of Design at Perplexity AI. Previously he worked as a designer at Quora and Google. ⏱️ TIMESTAMPS (00:00) Interview trailer (01:39 )Why designers should not use Dribble for design inspiration? (5:08) What designers can learn from wine stewards? (6:14) Former Google employee reveals design process at Google (11:25) Why should designers learn to code? (16:41) Why handoff to engineering is faster when a designer knows how to code (18:54) Why Henry Modisett joined Perplexity AI as the founding designer? (21:47) What it's like to design for a billion users? 24:01 How to get a job as an AI designer? (28:38) How to deal with job rejections as a designer? (36:40) Reality of working in San Francisco as a Designer 🤝 CONNECT WITH HENRY MODISETT Twitter -https://twitter.com/henrymodis LinkedIn- https://www.linkedin.com/in/henrymodisett/ 🤙 CONNECT WITH JAYNEIL DALAL LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jayneil Twitter - https://twitter.com/jayneildalal 📺 INTERVIEW VIDEO: https://youtu.be/4BH454Kw-90

🧠 WHAT WILL YOU LEARN IN THIS INTERVIEW? 1. How the iconic Facebook like button was designed? 2. How a designer invested early in startups like Figma, Framer and Diagram? 📢 WHY IS SOLEIO CUERVO A ROCKSTAR? Soleio Cuervo is a software designer turned investor. He led early design efforts at Facebook, Messenger, then Dropbox. Now he invests in extraordinary software startups and helps them win through great design. He is a proud backer of Figma, Framer, Vercel, Vanta, Perplexity, Synthesia, Read.cv, Pulley, Replit, Universe, Liveblocks, tldraw, Plain, and dozens more startups worldwide! ⏱️ TIMESTAMPS (00:00) Interview trailer (00:50) Who is Soleio Cuervo? (software designer turned investor) (1:23) How does a VC deal with FOMO? (3:09) VC shares their framework for deciding who to meet (6:25) How does a VC deal with an overwhelming amount of inbound requests? (9:15) Importance of being diplomatic when saying 'No' (10:37) Soleio Cuervo explains how he designed the iconic Facebook like button (17:08) Investing in Dropbox (19:23) Structuring your week based on initiatives (20:19) How Jayneil gatecrashed a VIP event in San Francisco (21:17) How Drew Houston closes candidates at Dropbox? (22:19) Why raise your own VC fund compared to joining Benchmark, Sequoia, or Andreessen Horowitz? (24:57) Investing your money into startups or raise a big VC fund? (28:46) Investing pre Series A in Figma (36:27) Why build relationship with a startup team over rushing to write a check? (37:38) Seeing the multiplayer demo for the first time from Evan Wallace at Figma (39:26) Investing in Framer's seed round (41:56) Why did Framer survive through the hard times and multiple pivots? (43:05) Investing Diagram's seed round (acquired by Figma) (45:49) Soleio gives Jayneil career advice (50:36) Why is Jayneil so excited about the research tool Ballpark? 🤝 CONNECT WITH SOLEIO CUERVO Twitter - https://twitter.com/soleio Website - https://read.cv/soleio 🤙 CONNECT WITH JAYNEIL DALAL LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jayneil Twitter - https://twitter.com/jayneildalal 📺 INTERVIEW VIDEO: https://youtu.be/hZ3Z2frAWvM

🧠 WHAT WILL YOU LEARN IN THIS INTERVIEW? 1. How to transition from a Design Manager to IC Designer 2. Why Design Managers make great IC designers 📢 WHY IS MAHEEN SOHAIL A ROCKSTAR? Maheen Sohail is a Staff Product Design Lead at Meta focused on building Generative AI experiences. As a former Design manager, Maheen has experience managing large design teams building emerging technology products AR/VR/AI). Outside of work, you will find Maheen either surfing or running various storytelling experiments and workshops. 🤝 CONNECT WITH MAHEEN SOHAIL LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/maheensohail/ Twitter - https://twitter.com/maheen_sohail 🤙 CONNECT WITH JAYNEIL DALAL LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jayneil Twitter - https://twitter.com/jayneildalal 📺 INTERVIEW VIDEO: https://youtu.be/LXPKGTGvFrY?si=6pVqr9zENQkYso2Y

🧠 WHAT WILL YOU LEARN IN THIS INTERVIEW? 1. Why the future of product design is 3D and not 2D 2. How to find startup ideas while working at FAANG/MAMA 📢 WHY IS JULIAN PARK A ROCKSTAR? Julian Park is the co-founder and CEO at Bezi, a collaborative spatial design tool. Built on the web, Bezel enables design teams to easily turn concepts into 3D designs and interactive prototypes. Prior to Bezi, he was an engineering leader at Oculus heading key projects across VR multitasking and UI frameworks. 🔥 ARE YOU LOOKING FOR A FIGMA LIKE SOFTWARE BUT FOR 3D? Check out Bezi - https://www.bezi.com/ 🤝 CONNECT WITH JULIAN PARK LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/julianjpark/ Twitter - https://twitter.com/julianparc 🤙 CONNECT WITH JAYNEIL DALAL LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jayneil Twitter - https://twitter.com/jayneildalal 📺 INTERVIEW VIDEO: https://youtu.be/F8G3jgQjXzg

📢 WHY IS DANIEL SCRIVNER A ROCKSTAR? Daniel is the Head of Design at Class Dojo and General Partner at VC firm Ligature. 🔥 ARE YOU A FOUNDER LOOKING TO PARTNER WITH A DESIGN-FOCUSED VC FIRM? Check out Ligature - https://www.ligature.vc/ INTERVIEW VIDEO: https://youtu.be/8q4PEh8uSK8 ARE YOU LOOKING FOR A KICKASS RESEARCH WORKSPACE FOR YOUR TEAM? Check out Personify - https://personifyhq.com/ 🤝 CONNECT WITH DANIEL SCRIVNER LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielscrivner/ Twitter - https://twitter.com/danielscrivner Website - https://www.danielscrivner.com/ CONNECT WITH ME https://www.linkedin.com/in/jayneil https://twitter.com/jayneildalal

Om is a designer by profession and entrepreneur by aspiration. Today, he's the Director of Product design at DISQO by day and CEO, co-founder of Personify by night. INTERVIEW VIDEO: https://youtu.be/asEjJAov3nU ARE YOU LOOKING FOR A KICKASS RESEARCH WORKSPACE FOR YOUR TEAM? Check out Personify - https://personifyhq.com/ CONNECT WITH OM SUTHAR https://www.linkedin.com/in/omsuthar/https://twitter.com/astr0mnauthttps://om.super.site/CONNECT WITH ME https://www.linkedin.com/in/jayneil https://twitter.com/jayneildalal

Kyle Turman is the the Director of Product Design at Retool and previously led design teams at Slack, Dropbox, and Etsy. He is a world wide web mad scientist who designs software work a bit better for people and tries to help people work a bit better together. INTERVIEW VIDEO: https://youtu.be/CPnSHrk9e6U CONNECT WITH KYLE TURMAN https://www.linkedin.com/in/kyleturman/https://twitter.com/kyleturmanhttps://turman.co/CONNECT WITH ME https://www.linkedin.com/in/jayneil https://twitter.com/jayneildalal

Ben Huggins is a Product Designer at Retool. He’s spent his career applying fresh thinking to stale problems and he’s gotten the chance to do this with concepts like software development at Retool, HR at Humu, TV at YouTube and thermostats at Nest. He also serves on the board for the graduate UX program at Bentley University and spends free time exploring the mountains of California with his partner and 1-year old son. INTERVIEW VIDEO: https://youtu.be/grUjIw-DyMw CONNECT WITH BEN HUGGINS https://www.linkedin.com/in/benhuggins/https://twitter.com/bhugginshttps://www.hugg.in/CONNECT WITH ME https://www.linkedin.com/in/jayneil https://twitter.com/jayneildalal

Colton Schweitzer and Ludovic Delmas are the cofounders of Kickass UX which helps creatives build a kickass UX skillset and supercharge their careers. Previously, Colton worked before in the enterprise design space while Ludovic was a senior designer at Smartsheet. INTERVIEW VIDEO: https://youtu.be/KI8kcRcqAu8 ARE YOU LOOKING TO GROW YOUR UX SKILLS FASTER? Check out Kickass UX Newsletter - https://www.kickassux.com/ux-newsletter CONNECT WITH COLTON SCHWEITZER https://www.linkedin.com/in/coltonschweitzer/https://twitter.com/colton_schweitzCONNECT WITH LUDOVIC DELMAS https://www.linkedin.com/in/ludovicdelmas/https://twitter.com/LudovicDelmasCONNECT WITH ME https://www.linkedin.com/in/jayneil https://twitter.com/jayneildalal

Gordon Ching is the founder of Design Executive Council (DEC) building the network dedicated to advancing the design executive profession in Silicon Valley and beyond. Through the DEC, Gordon is partnering with chief design officers and design executives of the world’s most successful public companies and venture-backed startups to advance the relationship between design and business. Gordon was previously at Affirm, Fast, Synchrony, Apple and AIESEC International. INTERVIEW VIDEO: https://youtu.be/Hm10bL4VTTk CONNECT WITH GORDON CHING https://www.linkedin.com/in/gordonching/https://twitter.com/gordoncchinghttps://gordonching.substack.com/CONNECT WITH ME https://www.linkedin.com/in/jayneil https://twitter.com/jayneildalal

Jared Erondu is a design & product leader, investor, and advisor. He's currently the GM of Performance and VP of Design at Lattice. Before Lattice, Jared led design at Teespring and was an early designer at both Obvious Corp and Omada Health. He's also founded two companies and consulted for others like Y Combinator, MIT Media Lab, Google, Front, and Greylock Partners. In his spare time, he likes to spin up projects that help further knowledge sharing in the design community, most notably Playbook and High Resolution. INTERVIEW VIDEO: https://youtu.be/MfrwNIJ19-I CONNECT WITH JARED ERONDU https://www.linkedin.com/in/erondu/https://twitter.com/eronduCONNECT WITH ME https://www.linkedin.com/in/jayneil https://twitter.com/jayneildalal

Joshua Philippe is the Head of Design at Strike, a service that leverages Bitcoin’s open payment network to offer users the first global peer-to-peer payments app and a novel bitcoin-native neobanking experience. He has spent a decade working with clients like Apple, Dolby, Chevrolet, Intel, Lincoln Jaguar Land Rover, Stanford Health, Steinway & Sons, Tiffany & Co., and Verizon to develop experiences that span both the digital and physical. INTERVIEW VIDEO: https://youtu.be/Xxd5NJ37-Lk CONNECT WITH JOSHUA PHILIPPE https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshuaphilippe/https://twitter.com/shua_lippeCONNECT WITH ME https://www.linkedin.com/in/jayneil https://twitter.com/jayneildalal

Mindaugas Petrutis builds relationships, connects the dots between humans, systems, problems and simplifies complex ideas. Often mistaken for a designer. He is currently the CEO at Coho which is The Direct To Experience ™️ Learning Network for professional growth. INTERVIEW VIDEO: https://youtu.be/wgIaGMa-Dw8 ARE YOU LOOKING FOR A HIGHLY CURATED DESIGN FELLOWSHIP TO ENERGIZE YOUR CAREER? Check out Coho Design Fellowship - https://www.joincoho.com/category/design CONNECT WITH MINDAUGAS PETRUTIS https://twitter.com/MindaugasLThttps://www.mindaugasp.com/CONNECT WITH ME https://www.linkedin.com/in/jayneil https://twitter.com/jayneildalal

Jeff Veen is design partner and head of platform at True Ventures. He brings his design and product experience, management skills of large-scale programs, and common sense knowledge of being a founder to the mission and initiatives of True’s Founder Platform. Jeff was the vice president of design at Adobe after the company acquired Typekit, the startup he co-founded and ran as CEO. Jeff was one of the founding partners of the user experience consulting group Adaptive Path. While there, he led Measure Map, which was acquired by Google. INTERVIEW VIDEO: https://youtu.be/CeRkpEOrhWU CONNECT WITH JEFF VEEN https://twitter.com/veenhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffreyveen/https://www.relay.fm/presentableCONNECT WITH ME https://www.linkedin.com/in/jayneil https://twitter.com/jayneildalal

Lily Konings is a Product Design Manager at Instagram with previous roles at Messenger, AngelList, and IBM Watson. She is also an avid startup advisor, helping founders build 0→1 products and scale their design team. Lily is passionate about helping people advance their career, most notably by writing her advice column newsletter called Welcome Designer and founding Lift Her Wealth, a not-for-profit conference teaching financial literacy to more than 4000 women. Currently, Lily lives in Oakland, CA with her partner and some plant babies. INTERVIEW VIDEO: https://youtu.be/6TYK2Qk6sqw ARE YOU LOOKING FOR A KILLER NEWSLETTER FOCUSED ON BUILDING A CAREER IN DESIGN? Check out Lily Konings' newsletter - https://lilykonings.substack.com/ CONNECT WITH LILY KONINGS https://twitter.com/lilykoningshttps://www.linkedin.com/in/lilykonings/CONNECT WITH ME https://www.linkedin.com/in/jayneil https://twitter.com/jayneildalal

Adam Fry-Pierce is a career long community builder and design operator. He is currently the Chief of Staff at Google where he manages strategic programs for Google's UX leadership. Previously he was leading DesignOps at DocuSign, and involved in Design Education programs at InVision. Adam has a non-linear career and has had multiple businesses over the years: a conference company, a designops agency, a media company, and even a restaurant. He's also an active partner in one of the largest designops communities (if not the largest) in the world: The DesignOps Assembly. INTERVIEW VIDEO: https://youtu.be/Gj7zbrM0NFE ARE YOU LOOKING TO JOIN A DEDICATED DESIGN OPS COMMUNITY? Check out DesignOps Assembly - https://designopsassembly.com/ CONNECT WITH ADAM FRY PIERCE https://twitter.com/AdamFryPiercehttps://www.linkedin.com/in/adamfp/CONNECT WITH ME https://www.linkedin.com/in/jayneil https://twitter.com/jayneildalal

Ran Segall is the founder and CEO of Flux Academy. INTERVIEW VIDEO: https://youtu.be/1APN2MHdxnY ARE YOU LOOKING TO LEARN THE ART & BUSINESS OF WEB DESIGN? Check out Flux Academy - https://www.flux-academy.com/ CONNECT WITH RAN SEGALL https://twitter.com/ransegallhttps://www.instagram.com/ransegall/https://www.linkedin.com/in/ran-segall-0b582a33/CONNECT WITH ME https://www.linkedin.com/in/jayneil https://twitter.com/jayneildalal

Murat Mutlu is the cofounder & CEO of the design platform Marvel and research platform Ballpark. INTERVIEW VIDEO: https://youtu.be/iXv4tqlL6vc ARE YOU LOOKING TO JOIN A ROCKETSHIP STARTUP IN THE DESIGN SPACE? Check out Careers at Marvel - https://marvelapp.com/about-us#openpositions CONNECT WITH MURAT MUTLU https://twitter.com/mutlu82https://www.linkedin.com/in/muratmutlu/CONNECT WITH ME https://www.linkedin.com/in/jayneil https://twitter.com/jayneildalal

Pieter Omvlee & Emanuel Sa are cofounders of Sketch. By trade Pieter is a developer while Emanuel is a designer. INTERVIEW VIDEO: https://youtu.be/7SFix4Sakt8 ARE YOU LOOKING TO JOIN A ROCKETSHIP STARTUP IN THE DESIGN SPACE? Check out Careers at Sketch - https://www.sketch.com/careers/ CONNECT WITH PIETER & EMANUEL https://twitter.com/pieteromvleehttps://twitter.com/emanuelsaCONNECT WITH ME https://www.linkedin.com/in/jayneil https://twitter.com/jayneildalal

Tanner Christensen is a curious, multi-disciplinary design leader who is dedicated to helping designers and businesses find the best in each other. He's the founder at Shape.co and previously worked as Head or Design at Gem dot com. Before Gem, Tanner designed software for autonomous vehicles at Lyft, led design of the Atlassian mobile platform, and designed for 2.85 billion people at Facebook. He's a published author, prolific writer, indie app developer, angel investor, podcaster, and more. INTERVIEW VIDEO: https://youtu.be/1HPwcA0O4IY ARE YOU LOOKING TO LEVEL UP YOUR INTERVIEWING SKILLS AS A DESIGNER? Check out Shape - https://shape.co/ CONNECT WITH TANNER CHRISTENSEN https://twitter.com/tannerchttps://www.linkedin.com/in/tannerchristensen/https://tannerchristensen.com/CONNECT WITH ME https://www.linkedin.com/in/jayneil https://twitter.com/jayneildalal