UX Leadership By Design Inside Pendo's AI-Powered Design Culture
In this episode of UX Leadership by Design, host Mark Baldino is joined by three members of Pendo’s design team—Senior Product Design Manager Holly Reynolds, Senior Product Designer John Incampo, and Product Design Intern Ryan Markley—to explore how AI is reshaping real-world design work from the ground up.
They discuss how leadership at Pendo has created a culture of experimentation and empowerment, how AI tools like Bolt, Cursor, and Claude are integrated across the product and design process, and what it takes to balance speed with quality. Whether you're a new designer, an experienced leader, or somewhere in between, this episode is full of honest takes, practical tips, and forward-thinking insights into what AI actually looks like in a modern design team.
Key Takeaways:
1. Culture of Empowerment: Pendo’s leadership doesn’t just allow AI exploration—they encourage it, creating space for experimentation, risk-taking (without risking users), and team-driven innovation.
2. Hands-On AI Tools & Integration: From interns to senior designers, team members are actively using tools like Cursor, Claude, Bolt, and Figma’s AI features to accelerate research, prototyping, documentation, and collaboration.
3. Collaborative Learning Environment: Weekly product + AI sessions and open Slack channels create a culture of shared discovery where everyone contributes wins, tools, and ideas.
4. Practical Guardrails: While AI is everywhere, the team reinforces foundational UX process—reminding each other not to skip steps, misread data, or forget critical thinking in the rush to ship.
5. Real Wins in the Workflow: AI is unlocking richer prototyping, better animation handoff, faster research synthesis, and scalable documentation through tools like custom GPTs.
6. Design Ops Meets AI: The team is rethinking design systems and documentation with AI—exploring ways to automate OOUX structures, update components, and turn dead docs into dynamic tools.
7. Advice for AI Newcomers: Whether you’re overwhelmed, underexposed, or unsure where to start, the team shares practical tips for getting started, experimenting safely, and staying ahead of the curve.
Chapters
00:00 – Welcome + Meet the Pendo Design Trio
01:00 – Career Paths and AI Exposure
05:30 – How Pendo’s Leadership Encourages AI Exploration
08:00 – Internal AI Forums, Slack Channels, and Culture of Sharing
10:50 – Guardrails, Trust, and Responsible Use
13:00 – Balancing Speed with UX Process
15:30 – Cost, Tool Chaos, and What’s Next
17:20 – When AI Skips the Process (and How to Handle It)
20:00 – AI in Design Education: A Student’s POV
25:10 – Real Wins: Richer Prototypes and Faster Handoffs
27:50 – Using AI for Hiring, Microcopy, and Design Systems
33:00 – Turning Design System Docs into Chatbots
36:00 – Advice for Hesitant Designers and AI Newbies
42:30 – Wrap-up + Final Thoughts
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