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- 🤿 brickmaster
“Juice per minute” → that’s the scale I grade episodes on and this week’s interview with Joel Lewenstein is one of the highest ever 📈
Joel is the Head of Product Design at Anthropic where he works on cutting edge AI products like Claude. So this conversation goes deep into:
How the team prototyped Claude Artifacts
New mental models for designing AI products
The way designers shape strategy at Anthropic
How to master the dark art of prompting as a designer
The future of language as the dominant interface for AI
Designing for infinite degrees of freedom vs. user journeys
How Joel designed his interview process at Airtable/Anthropic
a lot more…
🤝 WITH DESSN
So a few months ago I had a viral article about the “missing tool” for designers
Well… I finally found it!
It’s called Dessn and it allows you to ship design changes without coding 💪
Their extension overlays a Figma-like interface right on top of your live web app so you can easily make design changes.
And then AI writes the code and pushes it to your Github. That means you as a designer can now contribute directly to production.
It’s a BIG deal so definitely check it out 👇
🎓 KEY TAKEAWAYS
3 things that stood out to me from this episode
1️⃣ Packaging open-ended products into solutions
“users aren’t looking for a quarter inch drill…they’re looking for a quarter inch hole”
Joel likes to think of products like Airtable and Claude as a box of legos. How should you present them to someone deciding whether to buy legos?
Level 1 is dumping a box of legos in front of your users and saying “it can do anything I promise!”
Not great, obviously… but the temptation is to jump all the way to level 3 where you pre-assemble the Titanic.
Nobody wants the actual Titanic. They want a boat that is exactly the boat they want. So the trick is to find the right middle ground.
Level 2 is where you present a few shapes of a boat including some medium-fidelity pieces (ex: different stacks, hulls, sails, etc.). The key is to effectively guide your users without limiting their creativity.
2️⃣ Shaping strategy with systems thinking
For any given problem, you might be able to design 10 different solutions. But it’s the designer’s job to identify the seeds of a new concept, abstraction, or feature that you can build upon.
“If we do this… then here’s what it opens up in the future”
It’s not just about finding a solution to the problem. The best designers prioritize the solution that simultaneously creates a valuable lego piece. This is how designers shape product strategy at Anthropic.
3️⃣ Starting with solutions
The phrase “solution in search of a problem” is rarely used positively. It’s typically highlights a lack of user research or a disregard for real user problems.
But Joel disagrees 🤔
“The only thing that matters is that the problem and solution link up together… it doesn’t matter which direction you start at.”
This is one of the biggest ways AI is changing how teams like Anthropic operate. You can’t solely work backward from business KPIs and existing user problems. Because your entire product sits atop a bubble of technical innovation that you have to respond to.
If a feature is cool, that’s enough. You don’t have to know the ultimate future or even how it connects to user problems. It’s ok to figure that out later.
🤿 LIL’ UPDATE
How Dive Club is evolving
Hey it’s Ridd 👋 I want to share a quick update b/c there are two main problems I’m thinking about right now:
Problem #1: these emails are hella long
Starting next week I’ll be breaking this email up into two parts. The first email (Thursdays) will focus entirely on the key takeaways from that week’s episode. This will provide more room to go deeper into the things I’m learning.
The second email (Saturdays?) will be where I share all of the resources, articles, and design inspiration that I’m saving.
Problem #2: it’s hard to keep up with all the episodes
Not everyone can make time for every episode. I totally get it. I love Lenny’s podcast but they’re long and there’s a lot of them so I miss 90% of the content. My goal is to not let that happen here.
So I have an idea…
Starting next week I’m going to regularly release mini episodes that break down the key ideas from my interviews. They’ll most likely be in the ~8-12 minute range and feel much more “produced” than a raw interview.
My hope is that these mini episodes make it way easier for everyone in the community to stay plugged in ✌️
P.S. These ideas came directly out of feedback that you all have shared with me so THANK YOU. If reading this sparks any ideas (or you just want to say hey) never hesitate to reply. Always puts a smile on my face hearing from you 😄
P.S.S. I’m officially starting up again! My goal especially for 2025 will be to provide unprecedented access to life as a design founder. Plus the product is designed 100% for you. More details to come :)
P.S.S. Seriously… this week’s episode might be top 5 ever don’t miss it
Meet the Dive partners
I made a list of my favorite products and asked them to come on as sponsors of the newsletter/podcast. They said yes 🥹
The #1 way to support Dive Club is to check them out👇
Dessn → How I ship like a design engineer
Framer → How I build my websites
Genway → How I do research
Jitter → How I animate my designs
Play → How I design mobile apps
Raycast → How I do most things on my computer
Visual Electric → How I generate imagery
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