Why Designers Should Go Directly to Code

As the head of design at Cursor, Ryo is at the cutting edge of designers who ship code instead of mocks. He showed me how he built a retro OS with AI and did a live demo of adding a new feature using Cursor’s new agent mode. We also covered how to avoid AI design slop and how the Cursor team reached $29B valuation without full-time PMs.

Ryo and I talked about:

(00:00) Why designers should go directly to code

(02:06) Building a retro calculator app in one shot with plan mode

(08:04) How Ryo manages multiple AI agents at once in Cursor

(15:18) How Cursor builds without PMs and who does the PM work instead

(16:43) How to avoid creating purple AI design slop (it’s not prompting)

(20:01) Inside RyOS: A beautiful retro operating system built with AI

(30:22) How to turn vague ideas into detailed specs with Cursor

(37:47) The fastest way for PMs and designers to learn Cursor

Thanks to our sponsors:

Reforge: AI prototyping tool for product builders - https://reforge.com/peter

Linear: The best platform for AI agents - https://linear.app/partners/behind-the-craft

Get the takeaways: https://creatoreconomy.so/p/design-to-code-with-cursor-head-of-design-ryo-luWhere to find Rio:

X: https://x.com/ryolu_

Website: https://ryo.lu/

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