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  "description": "Has design disappeared? Will you simply be the “human-in-the-loop” designer reviewing AI’s work? Nope, I’ve got good news.",
  "path": "/spoiler-alert-design-wins/",
  "publishedAt": "2026-04-20T16:14:47.000Z",
  "site": "https://www.designy.com",
  "tags": [
    "Apple Podcasts",
    "Spotify",
    "YouTube",
    "RSS.com for more...",
    "Become a guest on The Daily Sprint...",
    "academy.designy.com",
    "academy.designey.com",
    "become a guest on The Daily Sprint podcast"
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  "textContent": "<a href=\"https://rss.com/podcasts/the-daily-sprint/2748512/\">Spoiler Alert: Design Wins | RSS.com</a>\n\n_Subscribe on your favorite platform_\nApple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube | RSS.com for more...\n\nBecome a guest on The Daily Sprint...\n\n* * *\n\n## Transcript\n\n\nWelcome to The Daily Sprint where each day is your opportunity to design exceptionally well.\n\nToday we're talking about how you should be thinking about all the AI design tools flooding the product design space has designed, disappeared.\n\nI've got good news on this front, but I don't want to spoil it for you, so keep listening as we get into it.\n\nAnd state of the end, for ways you can go even deeper.\n\nI'm Darrell Estabrook 30 years into UX Product Design.\n\nYes, times they are a changing, but the key to design hasn't changed since I started or for thousands of years before me.\n\nSo hang on tight.\n\nWell welcome.\n\nI'm glad you're here.\n\nIt's episode 14.\n\nThat's my favorite number times two.\n\nIf the Daily Sprint podcast helps you, please leave a five-star review on Apple Podcasts.\n\nIt really helps get this show in front of new designers who probably have the same questions you do.\n\nSo have you heard of this thing called AI?\n\nWell, AI has descended on design like a raptor, that missed breakfast, lunch, and dinner, forgot to pack a snack, and is looking to stock up for the winter.\n\nWell, you can't go an hour without a new announcement or tool coming out.\n\nIt isn't even better than the last one.\n\nThere's so many of them.\n\nThey're, All claiming to magically deliver screen designs.\n\nAnd in fact, they do have tested out a number of them.\n\nAnd you might be tempted to believe your future will be in pushing buttons and being that human in the loop, just reviewing what AI's work has done.\n\nSomeone asked me last week where I thought design was going to be in 5 years.\n\nSo you know how you do the five-year plan for your professional development.\n\nAnd 5 years in the rate things are changing.\n\nI think we should just shorten it to 5 months and maybe we'll be able to figure out what's going to happen.\n\nSo I, there's no way to know in 5 years where we're going to be.\n\nIs it going to continue?\n\nIt's going to get more advanced.\n\nIs it going to blow up?\n\nWho knows?\n\nBut we do know that things are moving very fast.\n\nAnd if part of that indication is on LinkedIn, there are so many posts.\n\nMaybe it's just my algorithm.\n\nI don't know, what about yours?\n\nYou're seeing things like just successes and how I've used it and how it's totally revolutionizing my process.\n\nAnd it really makes me wonder because over the past 30 years that we've been growing into product design, I've been a part of teams that have been fantastic in integrating design, into the software process, just making great strides into getting down to the details that we'll talk about in a little bit.\n\nAnd I wonder if so many people have just been in the wrong design process for so many years.\n\nAnd now AI is just coming in front of them and they can prompt and add skills and get these results that they would, it would take weeks to do when, yes, it takes time, but it doesn't have to take that time and all the things we're missing out when we just simply rely on what we're seeing.\n\nSo so many use cases, there are a number of things that AI can do.\n\nAnd speed is just one of them, right?\n\nIt's we're really seeing that.\n\nObviously, everyone likes the speed, but the thinking through design decisions, I think, is even the, that's the greater value, if we can do that and not just benefit from the speed.\n\nSo I've noticed a few things in my own work in experimenting with many of these tools that AI is going to be very good at design ops or kind of that anything that can be automated.\n\nIf you're doing something that's repetitive, it probably should be automated.\n\nIt could be automated.\n\nIt definitely could be calculated.\n\nThings like design system generation or even design system management.\n\nI think there's a lot that could be done with how those things are created, deployed, even.\n\nBut it doesn't negate the thinking on the front side of that process.\n\nThat's critical.\n\nAnd when it comes to AI, I don't see it being a good thinking partner, at least not yet.\n\nIt's really good at generating options, but it doesn't have the wisdom about its design decisions.\n\nSo I've had it explained to me why this design is good and it's accurate.\n\nIt talks about hierarchy, visual hierarchy and a lot of other, um, just attributes of, um, what we would normally talk in design reviews, like the technical aspect of it.\n\nAnd absolutely.\n\nBut there's this art to it.\n\nAnd that's that's a real thing because remember, we're people, we're made both rational and emotional.\n\nSo we need to reflect both of those in our designs.\n\nI don't see it being a cohesive systems thinker either at this point.\n\nThere's so many things that go into overlapping requirements and things that worked really well in one workflow.\n\nYou don't need to have multiple screen branches.\n\nThere's a lot of ways to reuse features.\n\nAnd so there's a complexity that's needed in order to hold all that in in real-time thinking as you make new design decisions.\n\nAnd it's always going to agree that whatever you do is awesome.\n\nMaybe it'll push back.\n\nI've seen a little pushback.\n\nBut if you've ever been in a stakeholder review meeting, there's real pushback.\n\nAnd sometimes a pushback is not entirely understood. Sometimes the designers, we don't understand what that is.\n\nWe definitely don't know how to communicate that back or maybe work through that process with a stakeholder.\n\nThat's what I'm going to focus on, and that's what I'm going to show you in a bit here.\n\nSo the appeal of all of these tools.\n\nFor business, it's speed.\n\nI mean, if you can cut down a week's worth of work into a few minutes, there's dollar signs all around that of savings.\n\nAnd for designers, making designs functional.\n\nIt's a huge appeal.\n\nAnd I think there's value in that too.\n\nRight now, we're talking prototyping.\n\nThere's a lot of, again, LinkedIn posts on publishing and shipping, code, and really pushing the limits on that.\n\nBut making things work to really see how something might behave is a really neat tool.\n\nBut there's still a lot that's rough.\n\nA lot of that can have a downside to it.\n\nAnd it really, some of that, you know, downside, AI becomes the authority.\n\nWithout the credentials, it's like when we say AI did it, we're giving it the acknowledgment that it just did it well, very well, perfectly well, maybe even, so much so that we trusted implicitly.\n\nAnd yet, if you know the domain, it's not always accurate.\n\nAnd what else is it leaving off the table that it hasn't explored or hasn't offered up?\n\nThere's so much that you lose in that speed.\n\nAnd then designers can fall into this trap of just being the recommendation takers.\n\nOr at least some segment of designers where it's just, well, AI did it.\n\nAI said it.\n\nIt must be good.\n\nBut there's, that's part of where is this all going?\n\nSo it seems like design will simply disappear into a generating process.\n\nThat's, is that where it's going?\n\nIt seems like there's no need for designers if product owners and engineers can create these screens themselves.\n\nIt's like, well, if we can just, we can do it.\n\nIf designers can ship code, then engineers can create designs.\n\nWell, yeah, to a point.\n\nAnd this human in the loop, which is very interesting in this early stage of AI, because it's kind of said as a way to put some calm into this fervor, like, oh, it's okay.\n\nYou don't have to trust it.\n\nThere's a person that you can trust.\n\nBut in the end, there's a point which, if it's always going to be a recommendation that we're going to go with, at what point do you just flip it over and say, ah, we don't need the human in the loop anymore?\n\nAnd that's for designers, just reviewing AI's work.\n\nThat's kind of a pump the brakes on it.\n\nNo, I don't think this is the future of design.\n\nDesigners bring thinking, nuance and creativity to the table, right?\n\nIt's the emotion and the ration.\n\nThe business stakeholders and engineers will always be able to demonstrate their ideas through prototypes.\n\nBut who will press them to ask why?\n\nRight?\n\nWe're living in a world where could is no longer a constraint.\n\nAnd those who can specify should, will be the ones that reign.\n\nSo you should become a designer who knows should from shouldn't.\n\nBut how can you, right?\n\nWell, I've been living in a design process I discovered for more than a decade now.\n\nAnd it's the core, there's at least 3 things that are core, there's so many parts about it, but what is the purpose we're focusing on?\n\nAnd every design decision I make has to be explainable.\n\nAnd how do I deliver on that purpose with people who don't know design or design process, right?\n\nIt's explaining those design decisions.\n\nSo let's kind of walk through these, you know, at a high level.\n\nSo what is the purpose we're focusing on?\n\nPurpose is the intended outcome.\n\nIt's huge.\n\nThe purpose is always talked about.\n\nWe kind of understand it.\n\nWe call it the why, but do we revisit it often?\n\nI mean, every design decision.\n\nAre we referring back to it?\n\nSo how many times have I sat in meetings where purpose was not really there, kind of in a vague sort of way?\n\nMy 1st project involved, it was a product, but it involved in creating a logo as well.\n\nAnd I just remember sitting with the stakeholder and the, I was young.\n\nSo I presented some ideas, maybe, probably not in the best format or best way, but.. More importantly.\n\nI didn't know how to handle the conversation.\n\nAnd so it ended up turning into a stakeholder saying, well, what if this goes there?\n\nAnd then I would have to go put that thing there.\n\nWhat if it's a bit yellower or bluer, and then I would have to adjust the colors, and you're really just pushing pixels at that point, I become the puppet of the tool, which, ironically, sounds like AI, when you have to prompt it. Like, what happens if this?\n\nWhat happens if that?\n\nEven in large clients where we had everyone in the room, including some executives, like director leaders and everyone's talking about nudging items, like, well, what if this happens?\n\nWhat if that move that there?\n\nIt doesn't look right.\n\nIt doesn't seem right.\n\nThat is not designed.\n\nAnd it's really not even purpose because we're pushing elements around.\n\nIf there's no purpose, then there is no design.\n\nThat's fundamental, which should make us really think about the importance of purpose and are we capturing it.\n\nAre we holding on to it?\n\nDo we know what it even means?\n\nSo yes, that is a thing that we can get really skilled at, and it will explode in our ability.\n\nAI will never give you purpose.\n\nIt can give you suggestions, it can give you all sorts of ideas, maybe, maybe not, but you have to ensure that the reason that you're doing your intended outcome is actually defined and where you're heading, where you want to go.\n\nThe 2nd one I mentioned before was every design decision I make has to be explainable.\n\nSo if you can't explain why you put an element on the screen.\n\nHow can you expect stakeholders to accept it?\n\nEngineers to understand it or users to even use it.\n\nSo I would, again, the younger days, I would create 3 designs because I thought you just had to.\n\nI saw other people doing it.\n\nI saw other designers and it was like, oh, the 3 designs.\n\nOne, two, and three, A, B, and C.\n\nAnd it's great.\n\nWow, this is just really different than this one and this one's really different from that one.\n\nAnd I didn't really explain it, couldn't really explain it.\n\nAnd it's just what we did.\n\nIt got a bit difficult.\n\nAnd so over the course of years.\n\nI reversed it.\n\nI just said, well, I'm just going to deliver one design then.\n\nThat'll make it easier.\n\nWe won't have these messy conversations.\n\nAnd I would just do one.\n\nAnd then we get into, well, how do we massage this element around and just move things around the screen so we can we can get to where we want to go.\n\nThat wasn't working either.\n\nThen I did two.\n\nIt was kind of like an A and a B. That seemed to be better than the other approaches.\n\nBut it really wasn't, none of those really worked.\n\nAnd that stems back to purpose.\n\nWhen I started to understand that purpose was the key, that unlocked unlimited creativity.\n\nIt started to really flow, because there's so many ways that you could visualize an intended outcome, just many, many, many different ways.\n\nAnd now you start to tease those out and weed them instead of focusing on whether the logo is big enough or not or whether it's on the left or the right.\n\nYou're really starting to be able to tie that together.\n\nAnd then I could explain it.\n\nAs soon as I had the purpose defined, then there wasn't anything on the screen that either wasn't there on purpose or that I couldn't explain.\n\nAnd when it can explain it, then we can have intelligent conversations with stakeholders.\n\nAI doesn't have this holistic concept of design decisions.\n\nAgain, like I said, I asked it to explain some of its designs and it did it technically, but the question is, even if you had a full report, which you then would have to read, more reading, more non-designing, a human in the loop, do you agree with it?\n\nLike, do you know how to agree with this assessment?\n\nBecause if you don't know the purpose and you don't know design, then you're just accepting what the output is.\n\nSo that's not that's not good.\n\nYou have to be able to discern a strong design decision from a weak design decision.\n\nOtherwise, you're just pressing yes on the AI.\n\nSo the 3rd one, how do I deliver on that purpose with people who don't know design?\n\nAnd, you know, everyone has a sense of what works, right?\n\nThere's kind of this, I'll know it when I see it, which is also kind of dangerous, but stakeholders are looking for outcomes.\n\nAnd there are 3 levels of stakeholder, at least in this subset that we're talking about business stakeholders, engineers, and users.\n\nLike they're, each of those 3 are distinctly different.\n\nThey have a uniqueness about them that you could really, you know, leverage any one of those and say, hey, they are looking for a certain kind of outcome for this particular feature.\n\nAnd they have, because of that, they have a different kind of value that they're looking for.\n\nSo if not just that model, like if you don't understand like those those people, it's the actual people in the roles.\n\nIf you don't understand them personally, You won't be able to deliver the value they're seeking.\n\nBecause every configuration of team and organization is different.\n\nThey're going to have a different motivation, slightly different, different enough. That you can't just push a button and out pops value that's relevant.\n\nSo, if you don't understand them, AI won't understand them.\n\nYou'll be spending days and weeks reskilling the AI to the people you're supposed to be relating to. Instead of understanding them and translating that into design decisions.\n\nSo delivering on the purpose includes accounting for these 3 levels of value simultaneously.\n\nWhen you make a design decision, at 1st you might make it for one of those stakeholders, but then you have to consider the other two.\n\nAnd that's going to change your approach.\n\nYou're going to nuance it a little different. Holding all of that together across product features.\n\nIt's a huge mind that you have to hold it together.\n\nYour context window in your head is leagues better than AIs, especially when I was trying the other day with it, and it said, oh, I've, it just shut down the conversation because I ran out of contact and then I had to regenerate it.\n\nIt was a whole thing.\n\nAnd it was like, okay, so this is difficult.\n\nNot helpful.\n\nJust getting started.\n\nI think I was like 30 minutes into it too.\n\nSo that's a day.\n\nYeah, you want to be able to walk these stakeholders through every design decision you make and have constructive and creative conversations.\n\nAnd you can do that.\n\nThat is possible.\n\nSo AI is great for automating repetition, but not for feeling the value of a design decision.\n\nThat's not just intuition, like squishy feely.\n\nIt's it's a sense of, you know, what what is going to work?\n\nWhat has it working?\n\nYou as a designer are more than a human in a loop.\n\nYou will always be, if you really value design, if you cherish design, then you're going to want to be more than a human in the loop.\n\nAnd you don't need to give away your skills to AI.\n\nLike, well, I mean, you could write a skill, that's that's a thing.\n\nBut like to trust the AI's decision, is to give away a skill.\n\nIt's a thing that you can do that you're not doing for the trade-off of speed, right?\n\nAnd you need to see beyond the tool and connect with the people you're building software with and building software for.\n\nThose relationships, that is key.\n\nIt is the core of what we're doing.\n\nSo think about this.\n\nDesign is about problem solving.\n\nIt always has been, and it always will be.\n\nSo how skilled are you at identifying this intended outcome.\n\nThat's the other end of the problem, right?\n\nGot a problem, but what's the outcome?\n\nCan you identify it?\n\nEvery kind every time, in every case?\n\nDesign is also about helping people.\n\nIt's about solving a problem that people have and smoothing that out.\n\nHow skilled are you at identifying the value needs of business stakeholders, engineers, and users?\n\nCan you do it?\n\nDo you know how?\n\nAnd the last thing, design is about design decisions.\n\nSo how skilled are you at making every design decision deliver value, not just making a design decision?\n\nYes, this should be bigger, smaller, darker, lighter.\n\nLeft, right, right?\n\nIt's delivering value in that decision.\n\nI can tie this back.\n\nAnd how skilled are you at helping stakeholders refine their thinking through the process of design because they want outcomes, but they haven't seen it all yet.\n\nAnd what they think is the direction to go until we visualize it, experiment with it, try it out.\n\nWe won't know.\n\nAnd you have to help them navigate through it, not just show them a screen and expect them to pick one.\n\nSo all of this is like the scratching the surface, but there's so much more we can go into this.\n\nAnd I've done that for you.\n\nI've put this packaged together on designing academy called Design for Value.\n\nSo value, like we've talked about.\n\nIt's at the very fabric of product design, but do you know how to deliver it every day?\n\nWe talk the daily sprint.\n\nIt's a daily sprint.\n\nEvery day you're designing.\n\nAre you able to do that?\n\nSo this is a masterclass.\n\nBecause it's serious is not a casual topic, but it addresses 2 parts of design, right?\n\nHow to identify those 3 levels of value in your product, and how to bake value into your product's design while talking to non-designers.\n\nPretty much everyone else.\n\nYou can kind of think of this as a 101 course, if you're a new designer, or like a 590 course, if you're a senior designer.\n\nLike, I think every designer will get something out of this that they didn't know.\n\nAnd that's the value in looking at something holistically like this.\n\nSo through this course, video content, I'll walk you through the process that I use for making everyday design choices that result in outcomes that stakeholders are expecting.\n\nAnd that's why we're here.\n\nSo it's academy.designy.com\n\nAnd you click on the design for value masterclass.\n\nYou can read all about it.\n\nI've got a welcome video, you can view a sample of one of the lessons, and if you enroll, you can start immediately itself paste.\n\nSo you can take your time, you can watch what you need to watch and really think about it, come back.\n\nOne of the added bonuses of doing this is you can ask me questions at any point in the course.\n\nAnd that's not an AI aspect of it.\n\nIt's me.\n\nSo you'll leave a comment, leave a comment.\n\nThere's a discussion area and I'll respond.\n\nI think it's so important that we connect. As people, but that I can fill in the gaps because as much as I'd love to put it all out there and you understand it perfectly.\n\nThere's going to be some gaps.\n\nSo that's what I'm here for.\n\nSo academy.designey.com and click on that design for value masterclass and enroll.\n\nI love to see you there.\n\nAnd some other ways that you can just help support the daily sprint subscribe to this podcast.\n\nAnd if you do, please leave a five-star review, right, we want other designers to know that they can come and listen.\n\nAnd if you could share this, this would be great.\n\nOther designers, people you know, would really benefit from you, even this podcast.\n\nSo do that.\n\nAnd if you have a design story to tell, like I told you a few stories of my earlier days.\n\nAnd what you've learned over the years as a product designer, I would love for you to apply to be a guest on the daily sprint.\n\nSo you can go to designing.com at the bottom of the screen on any screen.\n\nI've got a button to become a guest on The Daily Sprint podcast\n\nJust read that, fill it out, and if we're a fit, then I'll look forward to joining you here.\n\nAnd just sign up for the free newsletter at designy.com, that's design with a “Y” .com.\n\nSo thanks for listening to the Daily Sprint.\n\nRemember, today is a great day to design with a why.\n\nSee you next time.",
  "title": "Spoiler Alert: Design Wins",
  "updatedAt": "2026-04-20T16:14:47.745Z"
}