Carl Rivera - Shopify’s big bet on design and craft as the differentiator
What does the perfect e-commerce platform look like in an AI era?That’s the question Shopify’s Chief Design Officer Carl Rivera has set out to answer so this week’s episode is all about Shopify’s big bet on design and craft as the ultimate differentiator.We go deep into:- What happens when AI makes everyone a 7/10 designer- What most design teams get wrong when casting vision- How design can lead the creation of truly native AI experiences- Why every designer at Shopify is learning to ship to production- Carl’s thesis for why designers are severely undervalued in the market- Why Shopify acquired Molly Studio and what it means for how the org works- + a lot morehttps://www.molly.studio/ - design studio acquired by Shopify
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Catt Small - How staff designers build influence and lead as ICs
Only a select few have multiple episodes on Dive Club and today Catt Small joins the ranks.She has a gift for turning messy ideas into practical next steps so it’s no wonder her Staff Designer course is one of the top-rated on Maven.In this episode we go deep into all of the ways you can make an impact by building influence on your team and effectively casting vision for your product.Some highlights:The 2 ways to measure your influenceStrategies for getting distribution for your ideasHow to select the ideal format for casting a visionStorytelling tactics used by the best staff designersHow to strategically invest in workplace relationshipsWhat Catt learned while interviewing staff designers for her new book⭐ Get $100 off Catt’s course: Staff Designer: Influence & Lead as an Individual Contributor⭐ Get 15% off pre-orders for her new book: The Staff Designer
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Sara Vienna - Taste, Meaning, and How to Stand Out in an AI world
What does it take to make people feel something with design...?This week's guest is kind of an expert on the question. Sara Vienna (https://x.com/sravienna?lang=en) , the Chief Design Officer at Metalab, talks about the responsibility that designers have to shape this AI world that we're entering without losing the heartbeat of a brand.We don't hold back on the current state of the industry and what it feels like to be a designer today.Some highlights:- How to not get swept up in current design trends- How Metalab has adopted AI workflows internally- Strategies for leveraging AI to understand research data- What it takes to put meaning at the heart of a brand/product- How Metalab invests in the collective taste of the design org- Where Sara derives signals and how she filters out the noise- Being late on a trend is bad taste even more so than ugly design- + a lot more- Windsurf https://windsurf.com/) and [Suno](https://suno.com/home?wpsrc=Google%20AdWords&wpcid=22042553892&wpscid=173890219393&wpcrid=726251362516&wpkwid=kwd-2827037661&wpkwn=suno&wpkmatch=e&wpsnetn=g&gad_campaignid=22042553892&gbraid=0AAAAA9pWpduFan7icL90FczgyQploCsYi) rebrands- Jony Ive’s Stripe Sessions talk (https://stripe.com/sessions/2025/a-conversation-with-sir-jony-ive)- Erica Hall’s book “Just Enough Research” (https://www.mulebooks.com/just-enough-research)- Anthropic’s Machines of Loving Grace paper (https://www.darioamodei.com/essay/machines-of-loving-grace)- Blok for focus (https://blok.so/)
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Gabe Valdivia - How to Thrive as an Independent Designer
I think we're entering a world where the market for fractional design is about to explode…So this week's episode is with one of my favorite people in the industry, Gabe Valdivia.We're going to explore his independent journey → how he made the jump, how he's evolved the practice in year two, and all of the lessons he's learned along the way.Some highlights:Gabe’s three-phase client modelHow to sell a client on fractional designGabe’s rules of thumb for pricing himselfHow Gabe’s new apprenticeship program worksHow Gabe vibe-coded his personal Freelance OSHow he has redefined success from year 1 to year 2Gabe’s journey to figure out how to position himself as an independenta lot moreCharlie Sutton who he worked with on VR team at FacebookTeam Human book by Douglas Rushkoff
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Behind the scenes of the Inflight startup pitch💡
Too much of designing a startup happens behind closed doorsSo I want to work with the garage door open while building Inflight (https://www.inflight.co/) as much as possible.You already saw a bunch of the nitty gritty UI details (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D39Dv9MSlhs)…But when you’re going 0 to 1 on something, the storytelling piece is often the hardest part.So this episode is a sneak peek of a recent presentation we gave in SF (and some behind-the-scenes commentary to go along with it).
Where designers never stop learning 💪Dive Club is an interview series hosted by Ridd that is designed to unlock knowledge from today's most prolific designers. We go deep into craft, storytelling, tools, design engineering, startups, and much more.You can find all of the episodes, key takeaways, and bonus resources here 👉 Dive.club
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