Field Notes · Catalog

Field Notes

Tactics from the best design teams and individuals working today, with notes on how the work got made.

80 entries in the catalog

BEN CALLAHAN

LDLR DESIGN FIELD NOTES

The conversation system teams skip

Callahan splits product quality in two: the design system sets the floor, and how product teams use it sets the ceiling.

JUL 5, 2026

What is product craft in the age of AI and design systems?

The worst product teams can make awful experiences with the best design systems.

Why it matters

— Craft is the skill to deliver higher quality over time; quality is the thing you'd measure

— A system raises the floor, but restraint and knowing when to deviate set the ceiling

— Four scenarios: only high craft on both sides produces a high ceiling

— He reverses himself, since enable-over-police left system teams out of the quality conversation

— The loop: co-define quality, craft toward it, evaluate, bake the wins into the floor

Read on their blog →

UX COLLECTIVE

LDLR DESIGN FIELD NOTES

Provenance becomes the signal

Paschal traces the rise of creative provenance, as trust wears thin and people start wanting to know who actually made the thing.

BY ALLIE PASCHAL / JUL 6, 2026

Wait, who made this?

People want to know the source of who generated what.

Why it matters

— The question 'was that made by AI?' barely existed a few years ago

— We judged creative work on quality and outcome, rarely on process or behind-the-scenes

— As generated output improves, the human and machine line gets harder to detect

— Trust wears away, and people start wanting to know the source of who generated what

Read on UX Collective →

Craft & detail Storytelling & narrative

TECH.EU

LDLR DESIGN FIELD NOTES

A word processor that defends the draft

Jon Steinback's Marker leaves stealth with a $13M seed and a thesis: AI should write with you, never for you.

BY JOHN REYNOLDS

AI writing startup co-founded by DeepMind creative lead raises $13M seed investment

"I believe they will choose something that values the craft" (Jon Steinback, Marker CEO)

Why it matters

— Co-founded by ex DeepMind creative lead Jon Steinback and Ryan Bowman

— $13M seed led by Index Ventures, with LocalGlobe and heavyweight angels

— Angels include Steve Newman, whose Writely became Google Docs

— Built for ideation, drafting, revision, and collaboration, not automated output

— Early testers are writing blogs, memos, novels, and wedding speeches

Read on Tech.eu →

Craft & detail Prototyping & exploration

FIGMA

LDLR DESIGN FIELD NOTES

Seven questions design leaders are asking now

Figma distills two days with 1,300 senior leaders into the questions that matter: expertise, team shape, trust, and the quality bar.

BY EMMA WEBSTER

7 questions we had going into Config Leadership Collective

"Expertise is no longer having the answer, because there will always be more questions." (Sneha Narahalli, Sephora)

Why it matters

— Expertise is shifting from execution toward judgment, taste, and discernment

— Airbnb's Teo Connor rebuilt her org into startup-style pods with editing eyes

— Google's Sheta Chatterjee: fundamentals haven't changed, users and craft still lead

— Agent trust gets built gradually, with approval steps that relax over time

— Cisco's Jeetu Patel on quality: taste can't be handed to an agent

Read on Figma →

Critique & decision-making Hiring & team

FIGMA

LDLR DESIGN FIELD NOTES

Steady is a leadership strategy

Jen Dunnam on leading through acceleration: less panic, harder interview probes for dissent, and naming which speed actually matters.

BY EMMA WEBSTER

How to keep design teams steady through constant change

"The mistake is thinking speed is one thing." (Jen Dunnam, Hinge)

Why it matters

— Her job is steadying teams, not manufacturing urgency they already have

— Interviews probe for dissent: where did you push back, and why

— A team nodding along signals disengagement, confusion, or fear

— Crit is where leaders model questioning their own decisions

— Fast, cheap, good: the real work is naming which two

Read on Figma →

Hiring & team Critique & decision-making

LINEAR

LDLR DESIGN FIELD NOTES

Review Is Judgment Now, Not Parsing

A Linear engineer on how agent-heavy review freed him from parsing lines to judging whether the work earns its place.

BY MACIEK PEKALA / JUN 10, 2026

Reviewing code in the agent era

this shift toward judgment is the one I actually see in my own work.

Why it matters

— PRs merged jumped 50% in a quarter, and rubber-stamping started to tempt him.

— Agents now cover correctness, so his reclaimed time goes to system fit.

— He asks whether the change solves the right problem, not just whether it works.

— Review becomes the rare moment teammates look at each other's work directly.

— Quality shifts from correct to useful: does this earn its place?

Read on Linear →

Critique & decision-making Cross-functional & process

FIGMA

LDLR DESIGN FIELD NOTES

Taste Is Care, Not a Gift

Figma's chief design officer reframes taste as care, not gift, and names three things she screens for when hiring.

BY LOREDANA CRISAN / JUN 8, 2026

You never stop cultivating taste

Great designers have language for things most people only feel.

Why it matters

— Taste is care: for the user, the craft, and the result.

— It grows from love of the craft plus care for people.

— She hires for discernment: can they name what's not working, and why?

— Empathy and creative energy round out the three signals she looks for.

— Even Dyson ran 5,127 prototypes; the first output is never final.

Read on Figma →

Craft & detail Hiring & team

DESIGN SYSTEMS COLLECTIVE

LDLR DESIGN FIELD NOTES

Encode Intent, Not Just Components

When agents author your design system, intent must live in tokens and metadata, not only in a practitioner's head.

JUN 29, 2026

The System Knows What You Built. Does It Know What You Meant?

AI has lowered the floor on execution. The ceiling on judgment is still yours.

Why it matters

— The question moved from can AI use your system to can it write it.

— Agents connected to metadata make decisions about what to reach for.

— Discoverability isn't documentation coverage; it's intent legibility where decisions get made.

— Tokens should carry purpose, not just values; metadata should explain what's for.

— Unresolved ambiguity gets filled by the agent's best guess, everywhere, unnoticed.

Read on Substack →

Systems & primitives Critique & decision-making

FIGMA

LDLR DESIGN FIELD NOTES

Designing agents people can trust

Sheta Chatterjee walks through the design calls behind Gemini Enterprise: a shared AI inbox, team project spaces, and keeping people in control.

BY SHETA CHATTERJEE / APR 29, 2026

How to design agentic tools for work

the user's focus should always be on their goal, not on managing AI

Why it matters

— One brand language up top, real differentiation down at the feature level.

— The guiding rule: keep focus on the goal, not on managing AI.

— An AI Inbox shows what each agent is doing and needs.

— Chat threads become shared project spaces, so the AI joins the team.

— Transparency and an obvious way to intervene, since the stakes are real.

Read on Figma →

Systems & primitives Cross-functional & process Craft & detail

IT'S NICE THAT

LDLR DESIGN FIELD NOTES

Designers should write about design

Elizabeth Goodspeed argues writing is another way to work through the same questions your design already circles, and well worth the effort.

BY ELIZABETH GOODSPEED / APR 2, 2026

Elizabeth Goodspeed on why design writing needs designers writing

their writing and their work circle the same inquiries, even as the format changes

Why it matters

— Writing and design tend to come from the same place.

— The idea of a "beat": questions you keep returning to.

— Designers catch distinctions outsiders miss, which makes the prose more precise.

— Writing forces you to name what taste usually leaves implicit.

Read on It's Nice That →

Storytelling & narrative Craft & detail

JAMIESON ROTHWELL

LDLR DESIGN FIELD NOTES

Shipping binaries, not just mockups

After three decades built around the handoff, Jamieson Rothwell now ships working software and treats those build choices as design decisions.

MAY 11, 2026

Product Design in 2026: Am I still a designer?

Shipping is the new designing.

Why it matters

— The old ritual, design then hand off blueprints, is over for him.

— LLMs and coding agents turn static design into active construction.

— Local-first as a design choice: his tool Warren guards data ownership.

— A small cross-platform system, Sitka, keeps React, HTML, and Swift aligned.

— Barrier to entry collapsed; the barrier to greatness is still taste.

Read on Medium →

Prototyping & exploration Systems & primitives Craft & detail

THE FOUNTAIN INSTITUTE

LDLR DESIGN FIELD NOTES

How senior design hiring changed

Jeff Humble gathers a hiring playbook where every tip is from this year, aimed at senior designers rethinking their career strategy.

BY JEFF HUMBLE

7 Ways Hiring is Evolving for Senior Designers

Shipped, traceable work beats case studies.

Why it matters

— Get comfortable with live problem-solving, not just polished case studies.

— Shipped, traceable work now carries more weight than a portfolio narrative.

— Advice pulled from various experts, all of it dated to this year.

— A good moment to experiment with how you position yourself.

Read on The Fountain Institute →

Hiring & team Craft & detail