Invest Like the Best with Patrick O'Shaughnessy

Dylan Field - Designing The Future - [Invest Like the Best, EP.407]

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Jan 21, 2025

Dylan Field, co-founder and CEO of Figma, shares his vision of design's future while navigating the evolving landscape of AI. He passionately discusses the underappreciated aspects of AI reasoning and emphasizes that great design still requires human creativity. Joining him is Katie Ellenberg from Geneva Capital Management, who shares insights on implementing innovative investment management platforms. Together, they explore the intersection of technology and design, highlighting the importance of long-term thinking and ethical considerations in entrepreneurship.

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INSIGHT

Optimism in Tech

There's a lot of optimism in tech about tackling hard things, possibly due to AI progress.
People are thinking more long-term and are bolder in their endeavors.

ADVICE

Launch Sooner

Get your product to market as soon as possible, even if it's a smaller version of your initial vision.
Find the smallest, inspiring increment of your idea and launch it.

INSIGHT

AI's Impact on Design

AI tools are further closing the gap between imagination and realized output, similar to Figma's initial vision.
This presents both opportunities and risks for design platforms.

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My guest today is Dylan Field. Dylan is the co-founder and CEO of Figma and last joined me on Invest Like the Best in 2020. A lot has changed since then and we explore the evolving landscape of design and how Figma has been navigating AI while staying true to its founding vision of eliminating the gap between imagination and reality. Despite Figma's incredible success in becoming the default design platform, Dylan remains deeply motivated by helping users achieve their goals. He shares fascinating insights about the underhyped aspects of AI reasoning capabilities, the future of design literacy, and why he believes truly great design will always require human craft and creativity. Please enjoy my discussion with Dylan Field.

For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here.

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This episode is brought to you by Ramp. Ramp’s mission is to help companies manage their spend in a way that reduces expenses and frees up time for teams to work on more valuable projects. Ramp is the fastest-growing FinTech company in history, and it’s backed by more of my favorite past guests (at least 16 of them!) than probably any other company I’m aware of. Go to Ramp.com/invest to sign up for free and get a $250 welcome bonus.

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This episode is brought to you by Ridgeline. Ridgeline has built a complete, real-time, modern operating system for investment managers. It handles trading, portfolio management, compliance, customer reporting, and much more through an all-in-one real-time cloud platform. I think this platform will become the standard for investment managers, and if you run an investing firm, I highly recommend you find time to speak with them. Head to ridgelineapps.com to learn more about the platform.

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Invest Like the Best is a property of Colossus, LLC. For more episodes of Invest Like the Best, visit joincolossus.com/episodes.

Follow us on Twitter: @patrick_oshag | @JoinColossus

Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant (https://thepodcastconsultant.com).

Show Notes:

(00:00:00) Learn about Ramp, AlphaSense, and Ridgeline

(00:07:11) Current State of Technology and Optimism

(00:09:21) Entrepreneurial Mindset and Long-term Thinking

(00:10:23) Challenges of Building in Stealth Mode

(00:12:44) AI and the Future of Design

(00:14:07) Navigating AI Opportunities and Risks

(00:17:05) Design Principles and User Experience

(00:29:55) Future of Interfaces and Interaction

(00:31:45) Dark Patterns and Ethical Concerns

(00:33:42) Personal Motivations and Company Vision

(00:40:04) Balancing Responsibilities as a CEO

(00:41:54) The Future of Design and AI Integration

(00:44:48) Speculating on AI's Impact on Design

(00:46:26) Encouragement to Experiment and Innovate