Murphy Trueman joins me to dig into something most design system teams already know but haven't wanted to say out loud: your design system isn't ready for AI. Ambiguous tokens, undocumented rules, and a lack of parity that only works because experienced humans know how to use the system... we've been getting away with it for years. AI just made the bill come due. We discuss what it actually means to treat your design system like a semantic API, how to think about governance, and why the fixes...

Maya draws on her experience as a design systems PM at both REI and lululemon to explore what makes ecommerce design systems distinct. From the component library decisions to supporting editorial flexibility and brand storytelling, this episode digs into the real differences between ecommerce systems and other product contexts — and what's driving non-tech companies to invest in designs systems now. Resources & Links Maya Hampton on LinkedInMaya's writing on MediumDriving design system ad...

There’s so much happening in the world of design systems: so much noise, so many new tools, and so much pressure. Where to start? Building on what I wrote on the Zeroheight blog, in this minisode I’m offering tactical suggestions for cutting through the noise. I cover the three areas you should be focusing on in your design system right now—MCPs, skills, and agents.md; how to get started designing with code; and defining design guidelines and semantic components—plus a detour into governance ...

Y’all know I am fully bought in on design-with-code tools, so I loved this episode with Robin Cannon, VP of Product at Knapsack and former IBM Carbon and J.P. Morgan Salt design system exec, on why he thinks the infinite canvas is obsolete, and what we might replace it with. Robin chats with us about a future where software design happens in the same medium as production code, making the “infinite canvas” abstraction obsolete. But what does “designing with code” really look like today… ...

Noelle joins me again for some 2026 predictions trend encapsulations, and we try to unpack the absolute madness of the first two months of 2026. 1️⃣ Designing with code is in, making pictures of UIs is out. 2️⃣ The new critical deliverables for systems teams are design guidelines, agent rules, tokens, and semantic APIs. 3️⃣ We're gonna see a real focus on brand expression, but also on one-offs. 4️⃣ Design system teams, you do organizational behavior change. ...

My very first minisode of the entire podcast was some 2025 predictions, and a lot has changed. (Honestly, what was I thinking trying to make predictions in the era of AI? fml) Noelle Lansford joined me for Season Two's official first episode to recap my 2025 predictions with me and look back on the trends and themes we saw in design-systems-land last year. Stay tuned for part two where we dive in to our 2026 predictions! 📲 Send me a text! Support the show

I'm back from Zeroheight's Converge conference in Bristol, UK, with my recap and thoughts. In this minisode, find out my three major themes from the event: reducing complexity, shifting towards code to design, and the narratives "framing our future". Resources & Links: Zeroheight's Converge3 practical ways LLMs can support design systems teams today, on the Zeroheight blogFrom Promises to Practice: the Future of Design Systems, my talk at Converge (video coming soon)John Voss's ta...

Surprise minisode! In this quick episode, hear a few ways AI tools are useful for design systems now, my new favorite design-eng handoff tool, and three can't-miss industry events this fall. 📲 Send me a text! Support the show

Chat, this is the last episode of season one! Thank you for listening and supporting the show! There's no better way to wrap up, IMO, than an optimistic and curious exploration of what it means to be a creative human in an increasingly technological world. So to wrap up season one, Natalya Shelburne joins me to explore how design leaders can cultivate creativity in an era of rapid technological and organizational change. Drawing from her degree and research in creativity, Natalya shares insig...

Y’all, I’ll be honest. Some days, I’m scared and nervous and uncomfortable with AI’s emergence, and implications, too. But I am also curiously optimistic, and more importantly — I don’t want to use any platform I have to spread even more fear and discontent and drama. So today you’re getting a dose of two things that I love: infrastructure and optimism. Drawing from his experience leading design systems at three very large orgs, Sam Anderson from Intuit shares how framing design systems as in...