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

Invest Like the Best with Patrick O'Shaughnessy

Colossus

Investing, Business, Technology

4.8 • 2.4K Ratings

🗓️ 21 January 2025

⏱️ 54 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

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. ----- 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. – This episode is brought to you by AlphaSense. AlphaSense has completely transformed the research process with cutting-edge AI technology and a vast collection of top-tier, reliable business content. Imagine completing your research five to ten times faster with search that delivers the most relevant results, helping you make high-conviction decisions with confidence. Invest Like the Best listeners can get a free trial now at Alpha-Sense.com/Invest and experience firsthand how AlphaSense and Tegus help you make smarter decisions faster. – 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. ----- 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

Transcript

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0:00.0	This year's presenting sponsor for Invest Like the Best is Ramp. Ramp has built a command and control system for company's finances.
0:07.4	You can issue cards, manage approvals, make vendor payments of all kinds, and even automate closing your books all in one place.
0:14.2	We did an incredibly deep dive on the company and its product as part of this new partnership, and what we heard and saw in customer surveys over and over
0:21.3	again was that Ramp is the best product by far. We've been users ourselves since I started my
0:26.5	business since long before I was able to spend so much time with the founders of Ramp and their
0:30.7	team. Over the holiday, I was with Ramps founders. Those that listen know that I believe that the best
0:35.8	companies are reflections of the people that
0:37.9	started them and run them. I've always loved the idea that Apple was really just Steve Jobs with 10,000
0:43.6	lives. Having gotten to know Ramps founders well, I can tell you that they are absolutely
0:47.9	maniacal about their mission to save people time. As far as I can tell, they do not stop working
0:53.0	or thinking about the product and how to make it
0:54.9	better. I'm sure they're proud of what they've built, but all I ever hear when I'm with them
0:58.9	is them talk about what they can do to improve and expand what Ramp does for its customers.
1:04.1	I used to joke that this podcast should be called This Is Who You Are Up Against. I often had
1:08.7	that same thought when I'm with Ramps founders,
1:11.0	Kareem, and Eric. I would not want to compete with these guys. I wish all the products I
1:16.1	used had a team as hell-bent on making the product better in every conceivable way.
1:20.4	I could list everything Ramp does here, but the list would be stale in a week. I highly recommend
1:24.3	you just start using it to run your business's finances today. This year, I'll share a bunch of things I'm learning from these founders and this company,
1:31.4	and I think it'll make you realize why we are so excited to have this partnership with them
1:35.1	and why we run our business on Ramp.
1:37.6	To get started, go to Ramp.com.
	...

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