For years, the small things needed a champion: the details, the charm, the parts that make a product just feel right instead of merely functional. He was happy to be that champion. Now he just builds them in from the start, because the cost of doing them keeps dropping and a working screen speaks for itself. That's what agentic coding changed for him: less pitching the idea, more showing the thing.
For over a decade he's led product design, pushing for delight, mentoring designers, and chasing the why behind what people do. He's not thrilled about the third person here, but he'll play along. He really does love a good soup, though.
Web designer… UX designer… Product designer… Titles have changed a lot since I started my career. What we’re seeing now is just a continuation, but I do think this jump is a bit further than before.
I’m going to put quotes around the word engineer because I’m not one. I’m just using the latest tools at my disposal to keep expanding my skillset. In fact, we’re all tackling more these days. AI-assisted design tools are getting better and better and can help the non-designers out there build more too. I’ve also worked closely with engineers throughout my career, so I’ve seen what they do up close and know that the ones using AI are cooking up even crazier workflows and harnesses than I am.
If you are still unsure that I am a human person that designs things, have a look through some of the actual things I designed before the age of AI.
