DX Perspective: Code-First Design, The Frontier Firm, and Building The Future
Exploring humans as luxury goods in the AI era, the "Frontier Firm" powered by reasoning AI agents, and how code-first design tools are creating direct bridges between design artifacts + repositories.
Hi all!
Here’s your weekly dose of DX Perspective, a list of what I’m exploring and thinking about. Feel free to forward this along to friends.
kw picks
Architect, Founder, CEO: Robert Yuen of Monograph
Why “balance” is a myth—and why being too nice can hold designer founders back.
The future of the designer — From the Desk of van Schneider — Edition №263
The last couple weeks caused quite the chaos for the creative industry. OpenAI rolled out their new image model and without lying to myself, it's terrifyingly good.
Bottoms-up GTM: A framework for product-led growth
Everyone loves the Product-Led Growth (PLG) success stories of companies like Slack, Figma, Notion and Linear. The narrative is seductive: build an amazing product with a freemium model and watch it spread organically while your team focuses purely on product. Then it spreads on its own.
Code-First Design: Shifting the Paradigm - by Greg Petroff
Today, we're facing perhaps the most significant evolution yet: the rise of "code-first" design tools like Subframe and UXPin that create direct relationships between design artifacts and code repositories.
What I'm reading
2025: The Year the Frontier Firm Is Born
We are entering a new reality—one in which AI can reason and solve problems in remarkable ways. This intelligence on tap will rewrite the rules of business and transform knowledge work as we know it. Organizations today must navigate the challenge of preparing for an AI-enhanced future, where AI agents will gain increasing levels of capability over time that humans will need to harness as they redesign their business.
Here’s how top chief product officers are getting AI right
All told, product leaders are winning the AI era by working smarter, not harder. Here’s how.
SuperShifts: Transforming How We Live, Learn, and Work in the Age of Intelligence (Book)
Exorcise the Ghost of Mediocrity
Every great org starts the same way: a handful of people with conviction, urgency, and the energy of a shared mission. The best ones are driven by clarity of purpose, crisp principles, and a team that believes in building something that matters.
Rewired and running ahead: Digital and AI leaders are leaving the rest behind
The distance between digital and AI leaders and other industry players is big, and it’s getting bigger. Over the past three years, the spread in digital and AI maturity between leaders and laggards has increased by 60 percent.
Diagnose & overcome common barriers to scale
There comes a point when the growth of your product and therefore your business begins to slow, or simply isn’t going as fast as you need.
What I'm watching + listening to
How to create an OKR-based roadmap
In this video, I discuss how to develop an OKR-based roadmap that focuses on meaningful behavior change for our customers. I emphasize the importance of crafting customer-centric key results and the need for regular feedback to ensure we are on track. I also introduce a template for organizing our objectives and key results effectively.
Microsoft AI CEO, Mustafa Suleyman on Building the Future of AI by AI Applied
In this episode we sit down with Microsoft AI CEO, Mustafa Suleyman, as he shares the bold vision guiding the company’s next wave of artificial intelligence. You’ll hear how his experience founding Inflection AI influenced Microsoft’s product roadmap, from responsible model training to real-world deployment at global scale.
What the #%!@ is Vibe Coding? - Invisible Machines podcast by UX Magazine
Product design sage Tim Wood returns to the podcast for a conversation about the deepening integrations between experience design and AI, including a dissection of the trending term “vibe coding.” Currently a design lead at Meta, Tim has hands-on experience leading AI-first design and this episode explores what that means on a tactical level.
Emerging Tech
Perplexity: Redefining Search (HBR case study)
The case illustrates the tension between maintaining a trusted, unbiased product experience and pursuing monetization strategies such as advertising. It emphasizes the importance of aligning revenue models with core brand promises to sustain long-term user trust and growth.
Humans as 'luxury goods' in the age of AI
AI may not take away work. But it might take away your excuse for being generic. As AI takes over increasing chunks of knowledge work, what cannot be taken over becomes more valuable. These attributes become the defining feature of premium work.
At this point, the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning models in software has a long history. But the past three years really accelerated the evolution of "AI products". From behind the scenes models to chat to agents, here's how I've seen things evolve for the AI-first companies we've built during this period.
Behind the glasses: 3 design leaders share their vision for wearables at Meta
We’re building the future of human connection and the technology that makes it possible. To carry out this mission, designers are moving beyond 2D screens into experiences that incorporate AI (artificial intelligence) and AR (augmented reality).
The AI gap in executive leadership teams
AI is not a tech issue, but a leadership issue. Learn to lead with confidence through AI literacy.
Tools and Resources
UX design for agents - Microsoft Design
Microsoft principles and guidelines for building agentic experiences.
Maximizing Design Impact in Your Design Reviews
It’s not just about how good your design looks; it’s about how well it works. And this must be communicated in your design reviews with stakeholders.
Go beyond the link in bio. Tell a story | the gist of
The Anatomy of Design Strategy
“Strategy” can be a very nebulous and inaccessible term, meaning different things to different people in different contexts. From a design perspective, we know that strategy is an important part of how we communicate direction and intent, as a function, relative to our wider commercial goals.
My recent articles
Are You Actually Making Progress? How I Rewired My Weekly Reflection to Drive Real Impact
Strategic Design Leadership: Essential Questions for Design Executives
Fueling Innovation: How Design Leaders Drive Product Transformation
Moving Beyond Execution — The Evolution to Strategic Design Leadership
Decoding The Future: The Evolution Of Intelligent Interfaces
🔈 Design Leadership at Scale — Shape The Future of Business
DLS courses are built for design leaders ready to sharpen their strategy, expand their influence, and lead at the highest level. Whether you‘re mapping your next career move, strengthening design operations, or stepping into executive leadership, these programs give you the frameworks and insights to drive real impact.
DLS: Career Strategy (Sept 13–14)
Your career journey deserves intention and strategy. This weekend immersive is designed for design leaders who are ready to map out their path, elevate their impact, and align their leadership trajectory with long-term goals. Whether refining your current role or preparing for new opportunities, you’ll gain actionable frameworks to craft a career that stands out in a competitive market.
DLS: Executive (June 23–July 3)
This advanced course is tailored for senior design leaders—Senior Directors, VPs, SVPs, and CDOs — who are ready to lead at the intersection of design, business strategy, and emerging technology. Dive deep into aligning design with business objectives, fostering product culture transformation, and building scalable operations that support innovation and growth.
DLS: Operations
Scaling a design organization without compromising quality or culture is a challenge every design leader faces. This course equips senior and emerging design operations leaders with the tools to build robust infrastructure, optimize processes, and drive operational excellence. From talent development to systems that support rapid growth, this program is crafted for leaders ready to take their teams to the next level.
DLS: Director+
Built for experienced design leaders ready to step up to executive roles, Director+ focuses on leading in complex, matrixed organizations, scaling your influence, and making high-impact decisions. This course will empower you to lead with clarity and confidence, bridging design with broader business goals to drive value across the organization.
And please give me feedback. Which bullet above is your favorite? What do you want more or less of? Other suggestions? Please let me know.
Have a great weekend.
— Rachel