Near Future Podcast

Avsnitt

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  Ep #16: Jonny and Tom: Guest recap, Learning Loops, Leverage and a 3D Labyrinth 11.09.2026 53min

  Tom and Jonny catch up after the summer with a roundup of August’s four guests, from Monzo’s fake app to Poem/1’s self-learning fulfilment agent. They ask whether designers are giving away their leverage to agents, answer a listener who wants the show to branch out, and share what they built, including Labyrinth rebuilt in two hours.Key takeawaysBeing deliberate about what you give away is most of the job now. Every August guest drew the line somewhere different, and every one of them drew it. Jonny’s version: even when it is slower, and even when an AI would do it better, make sure the decisions being made are still yours to make.Make one decision with an agent and fifty get made for you. They arrive interlinked, so working out which ones landed and why costs more than piling on another prompt. You end up with work that is technically yours and nothing in your head connecting it.A learning loop is an agent that remembers its own mistakes. Matt Webb’s Poem/1 fulfilment agent handled queries from 700 units by turning each new exception into a standing rule. Jonny’s caveat is that the abstract version convinces nobody, which is why “everyone should have agents” lands so flat.Agents accumulate cruft, so prune them. Jonny moved his main agent from NanoClaw version one to version two this week and deleted about half the notes it had written to itself over six months. What survived reads as concise instructions instead of six months of contradictions.When everyone can make the impressive thing, impressive moves. GPT-6 Astra put one-shot 3D and cloned games within reach of anyone with a prompt. Jonny’s yardstick for where the value went: his dad, a vicar, could now get further on a demo video than Jonny could have managed five years ago.Understand the grain of the medium you are designing against. Randy Hunt’s framing was the old-school graphic designer collaborating with the printer to get intent onto the page. Having an agent write your code is a different skill from understanding what that code does to your design.AI writing feels thin because the thinking happened somewhere else. Matt Webb can feed a model everything he has ever published and still fail to stand behind what comes back. It may convince everyone else, and it is still not something you can point at and call yours.Build the silly project yourself or you will never learn the tool. Demos online tell you nothing about where the limits sit. Tom is close to downloading Blender for exactly this reason, and Jonny built a full 3D Labyrinth in two hours partly to find out what two hours now buys.The impressionists are the closest analogue to this moment. Photography arrived, exact landscapes stopped being the point, and painters who already had mastery chose what to break. Whoever does best next will understand the technology underneath well enough to bend it.Skills get better when you rewrite their output by hand. Tom burned a month of Claude Fable 5.1 credits in half an hour, then rewrote both research skills’ results manually and fed those back as the template. A 10,000-word essay he would never read became a 400-word list of links.The craft question matters more than the job title. Tim, a listener, asked whether the show could branch out beyond senior design folks. Yes, with a lens: creative technologists, engineers, product people and founders are all fair game, as long as the question stays how AI is shifting the role and craft of design.Chapters0:04 — Intro: back to school, and a cosy September episode0:59 — Rounding up August’s four guests1:38 — James Storer: Monzo’s fake app and its biggest token spender3:29 — Randy Hunt: Notion, SVA, and two full-time roles4:36 — The printing press, and the grain of the medium6:30 — Patrick Lewis: four times a founding designer7:57 — T-Rex arms, and shaping a role around what you enjoy8:51 — Matt Webb and an inventor’s practice9:49 — Poem/1’s self-learning fulfilment loop11:31 — The Gmail triage loop Tom hasn’t built yet12:43 — OpenClaw, and agents that rewrite their own memory13:36 — Lobotomising an agent onto NanoClaw version two16:59 — Where every guest drew their own line17:22 — Are we losing our leverage to agents?18:30 — GPT-6 Astra, and what happens when everyone can do it22:20 — Make one decision, get fifty24:10 — Is design an art or a science?26:47 — Inventors, not technologists28:44 — Why you have to build the silly project yourself30:20 — The impressionists, photography, and our toddler phase31:50 — Listener feedback: branch out beyond senior design folks?33:45 — Grading the podcast, and 36 YouTube subscribers36:29 — Design at the core, but a wider cast39:40 — Labyrinth, one-shotted in two hours42:45 — Burning a month of Claude Fable credits on skills45:40 — Consolidating everything into one Dia browser47:39 — Design leadership circles49:12 — Hatch Berlin, Brighton, and save the date for 22 October53:16 — Wrap upMentioned in the episodeThe August episodes we round upEp #12: James Storer (Monzo) — share.transistor.fm/s/ab6c1806Ep #13: Randy Hunt (Notion & SVA) — share.transistor.fm/s/29c8593bEp #14: Patrick Lewis (Klay) — share.transistor.fm/s/8d030297Ep #15: Matt Webb (Inanimate) — share.transistor.fm/s/c39062f5PeopleJames Storer, Senior Product Design Lead at Monzo — linkedin.com/in/james-storer-5b543625Randy Hunt, Head of Design at Notion and chair of MFA Design at SVA — randyjhunt.comPatrick Lewis, founding designer at Klay — patricknlewis.comMatt Webb, writing at Interconnected — interconnected.orgChristine Røde, product designer at The Browser Company — linkedin.com/in/christinerodeLenny Rachitsky, host of Lenny’s Podcast — lennysnewsletter.com/podcastTim, the listener who wrote in with the feedbackCompanies and past rolesMonzo — monzo.comNotion — notion.comSVA MFA Design — design.sva.eduKlay — klay.visionInanimate, Matt Webb’s current company — inanimate.techThe Browser Company — thebrowser.companyTools, models and products discussedGPT-6 Astra — openai.com/index/gpt-6-astraClaude Fable 5.1 — anthropic.com/claude/fableOpenClaw — openclaw.aiNanoClaw — nanoclaw.devGrok Bot — x.aiCursor — cursor.comDia, the browser by The Browser Company — diabrowser.comBlender — blender.orgPoem/1, Matt Webb’s poetry clock — poem.townLabyrinth, the Ravensburger board game — ravensburger.co.ukJonny’s own projectsLabyrinth online, built in two hours — labyrinth.jonny.ooda.runOoda, secure collaborative hosting for teams — ooda.rundesigntools.fyi, run by an agent that maintains itself — designtools.fyiEventsMostly Working, the London design mornings Tom runs — lu.ma/mostly-workingHatch, Berlin, 16–18 September, where Jonny is speaking on the 18th — hatchconference.comdesign + AI, Brighton, 24–25 September, where Tom and Jonny run a workshop — designplusaisummit.comAbout the pod
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  Ep #15: Matt Webb (Inanimate): Building an Inventor's Practice, Poem/1's Retro Charm, and Agentic Fulfilment 04.09.2026 1h 12min

  Tom and Jonny sit down with inventor Matt Webb, the man behind Berg, Little Printer and the poetry clock Poem/1. They dig into how he built a practice around human-computer interaction, small groups and the physical world, unpack the retro charm of his ageing AI clock, and go behind the scenes of the Claude-powered agents running Poem/1's Kickstarter fulfilment.Key takeawaysShape your role around your practice. Matt focuses on human-computer interaction, small groups and the physical world, rather than chasing a job title.AI is a rubber duck, not a co-writer. Its value is helping you think aloud without replacing your voice.Universal Basic Agency. AI can help non-experts cross the single technical hurdle blocking an idea.Agents can turn exceptions into policy. Poem/1's fulfilment agent proposes reusable rules for a shared SOP, so problems are solved once.Reports can reveal more than dashboards. Daily narratives surface patterns you did not know to track.Make deliberate time to learn new tools. Matt blocks at least a day a week because the gains compound.Building on a model means borrowed time. Poem/1 relies on a retiring model whose strange tone newer models cannot reproduce.Poem/1 is an invisible social network. All 700 clocks show the same poem at the same moment worldwide.Chapters0:04 — Intro and Matt's career throughline5:56 — Leaving leadership to build7:28 — AI and unblocking imagination13:02 — Keeping AI out of your voice17:35 — ChatGPT and tldraw as a rubber duck24:12 — The imagination bottleneck29:04 — Universal Basic Agency34:38 — The story behind Poem/144:44 — A retro AI product and invisible network52:08 — Agentic Kickstarter fulfilment1:02:54 — Reports versus dashboards1:06:40 — Quickfire questionsMentioned in the episodeMattMatt Webb's blog, Interconnected — interconnected.orgUnoffice Hours (his 30-minute call booking system) — interconnected.org/home/2020/09/24/unoffice_hoursActs Not Facts, his consulting practice — actsnotfacts.comCompanies and past rolesBerg — the design studio Matt co-founded with Jack Schulze and Matt JonesGoogle ResearchR/GA VenturesInanimate — Matt's current startup — inanimate.tech, newsletter at news.inanimate.techBetaworks — betaworks.comPeopleJack Schulze — Berg co-founderMatt Jones — Berg co-founderDaniel Fogg — Matt's co-founder at InanimateAlex Hulme — founder and creative director of Approach, the industrial design agency that helped bring Poem/1 to market — approach.studio, Poem/1 case study at approach.studio/work/poem1Tom Armitage — helped with Poem/1's firmware — tomarmitage.comTools and products discussedChatGPT — chatgpt.comClaude Code — claude.com/product/claude-codetldraw — tldraw.comBackerKit — backerkit.comFloship — floship.comM5Stick, made by M5Stack — m5stack.comFriend, the AI pendant — friend.comMatt's own projects, mentionedLittle Printer, made at Berg — berglondon.com/projects/bergcloudPoem/1, Matt's poetry clock — poem.townGalactic Compass, the app that points to the centre of the galaxy — apps.apple.com/gb/app/galactic-compassA 270kg book vending machine that tweeted when it sold a bookAbout the podPodcast feedback: [email protected] us at https://nearfuture.works
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  Ep #14: Patrick Lewis (Klay): Founding Designer x4, and the Art of Saying No 27.08.2026 45min

  Tom and Jonny sit down with Patrick Lewis, founding designer at Klay. They dig into why "good" and "right" aren't the same thing, how AI has flattened the design experience curve, the pun-named playground he built to prototype without baggage, and why saying no might be the most important design skill right now.Chapters0:04 — Meet Patrick Lewis, founding designer at Klay1:05 — Building Clay: an AI music app made by musicians, not sales bros2:27 — Content still has to resonate with humans, AI-generated or not6:27 — Consistency builds trust: designing believable AI video avatars10:16 — Figma bulls and bears: Jonny's rebuy vs. Patrick's near-total exit12:37 — Where Figma still earns its place: branding and early sketches13:42 — Founding designer for the fourth time: getting context fast with AI16:51 — Building a pun-named playground to prototype without baggage19:17 — Layoffs, flattened experience curves, and adopt-or-die27:09 — Knowing yourself, saying no, and the founding designer's tightrope36:44 — Capacity has grown, but so has the pressure to do it all39:23 — Quickfire: chairs over AGI, decision-making he won't outsource, and granolaPatrick Lewis — https://patrickjlewis.comTools and products discussedFigma — https://www.figma.comClaude — https://claude.aiChatGPT — https://chatgpt.comGitHub — https://github.comKit (newsletter platform) — https://kit.comGranola — https://www.granola.aiFind us at nearfuture.works
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  Ep #13: Randy Hunt (Notion & SVA): Speed as a Quality Strategy, Killing the Handoff, and Teaching Design in the AI Era 21.08.2026 52min

  Tom and Jonny sit down with Randy Hunt, Head of Design at Notion and chair of MFA Design at SVA. They dig into why speed and quality were never a trade-off, unpack the weekend build that turned into a two-week code review, and go behind the scenes of how a graduate design programme is rewriting itself around AI.Chapters0:04 — Two institutions, one calendar: how Randy keeps both plates spinning3:00 — Agents that absorb the busy work so he can stay close to the craft5:29 — Dogfooding vs. knowing the competition: you have to do the work twice8:22 — One place for everything, or a walled garden? Jonny re-buys Notion11:10 — Battle-tested vs. multi-model: why living in one suite stops working13:22 — Good, fast, cheap: Randy refuses to pick two15:17 — Quality isn't the screen being right, it's how many people hit it wrong19:05 — The handoff is a telephone game: why passing the baton kills the work22:52 — Designers were shipping production code before the coding agents arrived25:42 — He built it in a weekend. The PR took two weeks to review29:35 — Writing code got cheap. Writing good code didn't30:46 — Emergent chat vs. written-down skills: making the system legible to everyone33:07 — Working in the open so you can see how your colleagues actually prompt35:42 — Build it yourself or wait for someone to sell it: micro tool making39:04 — The barbell curriculum: what endures vs. what has to stay malleable43:20 — Directing a photographer vs. directing a model: same skill, different studio44:57 — Where's the punk rock student who refuses to use AI?47:58 — He went home for the summer and built an ERP for his dad's warehouse49:33 — Quick fire: AGI takes over, so what do you actually do with the time?51:37 — Wrap up, and a promise to come back for the music conversationMentioned in the episodeRandyRandy J. Hunt — https://www.randyjhunt.comRandy on LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/in/randyjhunt/Product Design for the Web (New Riders, 2013) — https://www.randyjhunt.comSVA MFA Design, where Randy is chair — https://design.sva.eduRandy speaking at Hatch Conference, Berlin, September — https://www.hatchconference.com/speakers/randy-huntCompanies and past rolesNotion — https://www.notion.comNotion Agents, his current favourite app — https://www.notion.com/product/agentsEtsy — https://www.etsy.comArtsy — https://www.artsy.netGrab — https://www.grab.comDeliveroo — https://deliveroo.co.ukUber Eats — https://www.ubereats.comTools and products discussedClaude — https://claude.aiClaude Code — https://claude.com/product/claude-codeClaude Cowork — https://www.anthropic.com/product/claude-coworkMCP (Model Context Protocol) — https://modelcontextprotocol.ioChatGPT — https://chatgpt.comGoogle Gemini — https://gemini.google.comGoogle Workspace / Google Sheets — https://workspace.google.comSlack — https://slack.comFigma — https://www.figma.comWeavy, acquired by Figma and relaunched as Figma Weave — https://www.figma.com/blog/welcome-weavy-to-figma/Paper — https://paper.designPencil — https://pen.devEventsHatch Conference, Berlin, September — https://www.hatchconference.com
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  Ep #12: James Storer (Monzo): Fake Banks, Real Learning, and Being Monzo's Biggest Token Burner 14.08.2026 1h 9min

  Tom and Jonny sit down with James Storer, who leads design in Monzo's AI and personalisation collective and is the biggest token burner in the whole company. They dig into the fake Monzo his team built to prototype with, why he stepped off the leadership track to get back in the tools, and what he went to Config to ask Figma.CHAPTERS00:00 Introducing James Storer02:12 Why go back to doing the work after leading teams10:13 The founder's fight: ship it, or make it better14:47 Being a loud mouth turned out to be the skill18:35 AI lowers the floor, so who raises the ceiling25:30 Everyone an expert in everything, or still not enough hours28:01 Building hardware when you can't solder30:07 Should there be an app store with one user33:43 Is the value the software, or making it with your kid36:08 The UNO clone his six-year-old wanted to explode40:01 A 69-year-old vicar and the church website41:31 The messy middle: AI inside a regulated bank43:44 A fake Monzo with fake money49:36 Handoff should be a handshake54:16 "What will you do to make me open you every day?"60:39 Quickfire68:31 WrapPEOPLEJames Storer — Design Lead, AI & Personalisation, Monzo https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamesstorer/Avi Ashkenazi, Deel — previous Near Future guest, on raising the floor and the ceiling https://www.linkedin.com/in/aviashkenazi/Jake Knapp — author of Sprint — https://www.jakeknapp.comSimon from Morse — spoke alongside James at Mostly Working https://www.linkedin.com/in/simon-amor/COMPANIESMonzo — https://monzo.comDeliveroo — https://deliveroo.co.ukFreetrade — https://freetrade.ioHabito — https://www.habito.comKlarna — https://www.klarna.comTwist — James's design agencyJitty — the house-buying startup James co-foundedTOOLS AND PRODUCTS MENTIONEDCursor — https://cursor.comClaude Code — https://claude.com/product/claude-codeChatGPT — https://chatgpt.comFigma — https://figma.comFigma Make, Figma Weave, code layers — announced at ConfigFigJam — https://figma.com/figjamLovable — https://lovable.devStitch — https://stitch.withgoogle.comNotebookLM — https://notebooklm.google.comNotion — https://notion.comLinear — https://linear.appAbstract — version control for Sketch filesSketch — https://sketch.comThree.js — https://threejs.orgReact Native — https://reactnative.devNano Banana — Google's image model, via GeminiHex — open-source dictation appWispr Flow — https://wisprflow.aiWabi — personal app builder for iPhoneMeatLayer — agents paying humans for real-world tasks — https://meatlayer.aiM5Stack — small dev boards — https://m5stack.comLumi / ROLI — light-up keyboards, now open sourced — https://roli.comBigQuery — https://cloud.google.com/bigqueryALSO REFERENCEDConfig 2026 — Figma's conference — https://config.figma.comMostly Working — Tom's design and AI meetup in London https://luma.com/mostly-workingSprint, by Jake Knapp, John Zeratsky and Braden KowitzUNO — the card game James and his son cloned as "Duo"NEAR FUTUREPodcast — https://nearfuture.works/podcastGet in touch — [email protected]
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  Ep #11: No Shortcuts. Backyard Designers, AI Slop, and the Leadership Squeeze 07.08.2026 1h

  Tom and Jonny are back for a duo episode after a month of guest interviews — Jonny has just about got the internet back after a house move and a camping trip. They reflect on what the recent guest run has taught them, dig into Backyard Designers Club and the hooha it sparked, and talk through why design and engineering leadership is such a hard place to be right now. Plus: Tom built a 3D chess game for his 5-year-old using Opus 5 and Three.js, and Jonny's Ooda gets a quiet YC moment.Chapters0:04 — Intro: Jonny's back (and has internet again)3:44 — Reflections on a month of guest episodes8:20 — The common thread: leaders who build17:00 — AI raises the floor, not the ceiling — but the ceiling hasn't moved21:35 — The AI slop problem: Hacker News, Substack's detector & LinkedIn's report button22:08 — Ellipsis and the proof-of-work problem for human writing26:10 — Ini's wireless-in-the-browser project: the opposite of slop21:32 — Backyard Designers Club: craft, sound design and game-like delight29:13 — How fast an original idea can be cloned31:21 — The hoo-ha: exclusion, community claims, and what a community actually is38:53 — Who's on Backyard Designers — and what it says about design's visible/invisible divide41:35 — Engineering leadership burnout: Gergely Orosz's three reasons leaders are quitting44:35 — Is design leadership 12 months behind engineering on the same trajectory?51:57 — Tom's AI experiments: agent skill pack + a 3D underwater chess game1:00:01 — Jonny's Ooda project gets a YC validation moment1:00:42 — What's coming up: Build workshop, Wednesday event with Christine Røde (The Browser Company), Brighton in SeptemberUseful LinksBackyard Designers Club — https://backyarddesigners.clubBroke Ass Designers — the commentary/reaction version - https://brokeass-designers.fly.dev/Ellipsus — proof-of-work writing tool https://ellipsus.com/Gergely Orosz (The Pragmatic Engineer) — engineering leadership trends post https://www.linkedin.com/posts/gergelyorosz_interesting-recent-trend-im-observing-share-7487619068187852800-ceQ2/Ooda — Jonny's internal tool hosting project — https://ooda.runPodcast feedback: [email protected] Future Build Workshop (Aug 13th): https://nearfuture.works/buildFind us at https://nearfuture.works
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  Ep #10: Ini Abiodun (AirOps): Designing at AI Startup Speed, Personal Workflows, and Palmwine Wireless 30.07.2026 59min

  This week Jonny moves house, so Tom hosts solo. He’s joined by Ini Abiodun, lead product designer at AirOps, to discuss designing inside a fast-moving AI startup and the systems she’s built to move faster. Ini explains how her 90-day onboarding plan collapsed almost immediately due to pace, and how internal AI assistants like Fantino and Clara helped her learn the codebase, accelerate a listening tour, and ship early, including a widely adopted UX writing “skill” that encodes brand voice, product context, and content rules while diagnosing and rewriting copy. She shares how she spends significant time scaling design via cross-functional relationship-building, joining eval conversations to reduce user cognitive load, and enabling engineers through design reviews. Ini also describes her personal “Oracle” knowledge base in Obsidian/Claude for communication, stakeholder context, daily/weekly routines, and performance tracking. The episode closes with Palmwine Wireless, her interactive 1950s-style online radio broadcasting AI-generated Nigerian instrumentals across decades, plus quick-fire questions.(00:00) - Intro & Guest Welcome (00:52) - Joining AirOps: The 90-Day Plan (05:13) - Building the AI Content Design Skill (12:38) - Product Design vs. Design Operations (20:39) - Neurodivergence, Communication & Knowledge Systems (32:04) - Daily Reflection Practices (36:22) - Palmwine Wireless: Building a Nigerian Radio (43:41) - Sound Design Deep Dive (49:26) - Building the Music Library with Suno (52:45) - Quick-Fire Questions (59:00) - Outro & Thanks ## Mentioned in the episode- [Domingo Widen](https://www.linkedin.com/in/domingowiden/)- [Monologue by Every](https://www.monologue.to)- [Andrej Karpathy](https://x.com/karpathy)- [Wes Kao](https://www.weskao.com)- [Lenny’s Data](https://www.lennysdata.com/)## More about Ini- [Ini’s personal website](https://iniabiodun.com/) - [Palmwine Wireless](https://radio.iniabiodun.com/)- [Ini on LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/inioluwa-abiodun/)Find us at nearfuture.works
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  Ep #9: Hollie Lubbock & Josh Payton (Wise): How Wise Is Rebuilding the Designer's Workflow for the Age of AI 23.07.2026 47min

  Hollie Lubbock (Design Director) and Josh Payton (VP of Design) at Wise join Jonny and Tom on the Near Future Podcast to unpack how their design org has rewired itself around AI — from prototyping kits that let anyone "hold" an idea, to the hidden operational grind behind every flashy AI demo. They dig into why disciplines aren't collapsing (they're specializing further), why AI is "an averaging machine," and what it takes to stand out when everyone has the same tools. Plus: a rapid-fire round covering deleted tools, current inspirations, and what they'll do when AGI takes over.Chapters0:04 — Intro & guest welcome0:49 — What day-to-day design at Wise looks like right now with AI2:27 — The early prototyping kit that made AI feel "magical"4:45 — Solo missions vs. collaboration in AI-driven work6:07 — The "agent-operator" workflow trap7:16 — Why scale (8,000 employees) changes the risk calculus7:33 — How AI adoption varies across design disciplines8:58 — The unglamorous ops work behind AI prototypes (InfoSec, workflows)16:49 — Talent development: grads, internships, apprenticeships19:03 — The three traits that matter most: smart, ambitious, curious19:49 — Why design disciplines aren't collapsing20:41 — "AI raises the floor, not the ceiling" — differentiation matters more24:32 — Josh's 2x2 framework: when to let AI/PMs skip design entirely29:37 — AI as an "averaging machine" and the tells of AI-generated work32:13 — A WALL-E-inspired vision of the future33:15 — Betting on human-curated, handcrafted experiences34:36 — Josh's secret AI-built app project35:15 — Josh's actual design process, tool by tool37:27 — His AI agent fleet: Claude Code, Cowork, and more39:47 — Bounded validity and lessons from engineering-first principles42:24 — Quick-fire round begins43:16 — What they'll never hand over to AI: curation44:22 — The last tool they deleted (and why)45:25 — What's inspiring them right now46:58 — Wrap-up & where to find Hollie and JoshUseful LinksJosh Payton, VP of Design at Wisehttps://www.joshpayton.com/https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshpaytonHollie Lubbock, Design Director at Wisehttps://www.hollielubbock.com/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hollielubbock/Podcast feedback: [email protected] Future workshop (Aug 13th): nearfuture.works/buildFind us at nearfuture.worksClick here to view the episode transcript.
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  Ep #8: Domingo Widen (Fin): Why Fin's designers now ship straight to production 16.07.2026 48min

  Tom and Jonny are joined by Domingo Widen, Staff Product Designer on the Front-End Infrastructure team at Fin (formerly Intercom)Domingo shares how designers at Fin have moved from prototyping in sandboxes to shipping directly to production, and unpacks his team's mission to build the platform and tools that let every team move from concept to production faster with AI.The conversation traces the story of getting designers into developer environments — from a top-down mandate and painful early setup sessions to a smoother, engineer-assisted process — and how that groundwork now lets designers self-serve with Claude. Domingo introduces "Surge Intelligence," an encoded knowledge base that powers design-system skills so AI can enforce front-end conventions without a human policing every decision, and describes the PR-style review process for designers who want to contribute their own skills.The back half explores where design is headed: the enduring value of human judgment and "taste" built through reps, the edge cases only builders learn from experience, and why Domingo believes AI will keep design work capped around 85% for a while. They close with quick-fire questions on tools he wishes existed (a home for aligning on live prototypes, since Figma hand-off has broken down), his favourite product (MyMind), and what he'd do with his free time in an AGI future.Chapters0:00 – Intro & welcoming Domingo Widen0:52 – How the Front-End Infrastructure team works today2:20 – Is Domingo still a "product designer"?3:49 – Splitting time between infra, design system, and product work4:22 – Getting designers into developer environments: the origin story9:45 – Optimizing the setup process with engineering14:20 – From constant support requests to a self-serve steady state11:29 – Claude as a fallback for technical hiccups12:14 – Enforcing design consistency without slowing the company down14:02 – Introducing Surge Intelligence and how design skills read from it15:57 – Serving both designers and engineers with shared knowledge18:13 – Do designers see AI codifying their instincts as a threat?20:09 – The 85% problem: where human judgment still wins23:52 – Codifying skills: the PR-and-review process for Team 2X25:11 – Human judgment vs. automated skill approval26:15 – Predictions for how the designer role evolves industry-wide28:20 – Foundational design knowledge that AI won't replace30:37 – On "taste," reps, and gut instinct32:38 – The superpower (and blind spots) of designing in code34:24 – Is Claude enough, or will tools fragment further?36:20 – The missing tool: aligning on live prototypes instead of Figma39:28 – Zooming out: is this a temporary infra push or years-long work?41:12 – Why this becomes "training the brain" rather than a one-off project42:56 – Optimizing for designers, engineers, and PMs alike43:56 – Quick-fire: coffee, drawing, and life after AGI45:37 – Quick-fire: the product Domingo wishes he'd designed (MyMind)Useful LinksDomingo’s website: https://www.domingowiden.com/Domingo on Linkedin: https://linkedin.com/in/domingowidenMymind: https://mymind.com/Podcast feedback: [email protected] Future workshop (Aug 13th): nearfuture.works/buildFind us at nearfuture.worksClick here to view the episode transcript.
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  Ep #7: Going AI-first as a design org with Avi Ashkenazi, Senior Design Director at Deel 10.07.2026 58min

  Tom and Jonny sit down with Avi Ashkenazi, Senior Product Design Director at Deel, for the podcast's first-ever guest episode. Avi shares the story behind Vidit, an internal screen-recording tool he built (and vibe-codes on weekends) that now has 600 daily users and 10,000+ videos produced — and which he's now made free for anyone at viddit.video.The conversation dives deep into Deel's AI-forward culture: designers losing Figma seats after 30 days of disuse, "super users" burning through massive AI token budgets, twice-weekly AI showcase sessions, and how much of the design workflow has shifted from Figma into tools like Claude Code. Avi also discusses building internal tools like Links (an Obsidian-style knowledge brain) and an AI-powered portfolio screening tool for the ~300 daily design applications Deel receives.The back half covers hiring in the AI era — including why uniqueness and craft still matter more than ever, the tension between AI making collaboration seamless versus more isolating, and Avi's "spicy take" that no one should manage designers without being a staff-level practitioner themselves. They close on how AI-freed time should be spent: hunting for the next big cross-functional bet rather than busywork.Chapters0:00 – Intro & welcoming Avi Ashkenazi0:33 – Building Vidit: Deel's in-house Screen Studio alternative3:49 – 600 daily users and open-sourcing (for free) at viddit.video7:56 – How AI tools have changed ways of working at Deel10:25 – Deel's build culture, one-click dev onboarding, and losing Figma seats14:44 – Where the design industry is heading with AI (Shopify vs. Deel)18:44 – Token budgets, "super users," and adoption curves across the team23:54 – Scaling judgment: building "Links" and "Launchpad" brains35:23 – AI-assisted hiring: screening 300+ design applications a day43:28 – What AI gets wrong when judging portfolios (uniqueness & self-affirmation)50:18 – Where the freed-up time should go & Avi's spiciest take on AI and craft57:04 – Wrap-up & useful linksUseful LinksVidit (Avi's screen recording tool): viddit.videoAvi's personal site: superavi.comDeel careers: deel.com/careersPodcast feedback: [email protected] Future workshop (Aug 13th): nearfuture.works/buildFind us at nearfuture.worksClick here to view the episode transcript.
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  Ep#6: Figma Config, Source of Truth, and Craft in AI Adoption 03.07.2026 51min

  Tom and Jonny share updates from Tom’s Mostly Working meetup in London with Kate Pincot (Multiverse), focused on scaling design impact through tooling and agents, and preview upcoming podcast guests in July.They reflect on how the meetup format has evolved as more people have hands-on AI experience, shifting from first experiments to practical, scaled adoption inside teams, with more focus on token costs and measurable value.They discuss Figma Config releases (Motion, Figma Weave, Sites/Make, and upcoming code components), debating canvas-first vs code-first workflows and the “source of truth” question for enterprise teams.Jonny summarizes a Near Future Works post on AI transformation: set a coherent strategy, secure org-wide buy-in, and maintain craft/quality so AI speed doesn’t produce worse outcomes. They also touch on music ownership, a Claude Code World Cup calendar prompt, Anthropic “Fable” returning and Sonnet 5, Z.ai’s open-weights GLM model, a keyboard-shortcuts tool, and an open online workshop (Aug 13) to build design tools.00:00 Welcome and agenda00:12 Mostly Working recap00:52 Podcast updates and banter03:01 Meetup lessons so far07:13 Figma Config reactions12:39 Source of truth debate22:51 Jagged frontier and craft28:11 Quality Bar Cannot Drop28:47 Barbell Strategy for AI30:18 Craft Beyond Output32:37 Atrophy and Writing Muscle35:47 Craft Across Disciplines36:40 Music Ownership Stories41:22 Claude Calendar World Cup42:57 AI News Frontier Models45:27 Beautiful Shortcuts Tool46:57 Open Workshop Invite49:48 Signup Feedback and WrapLinks:Mostly Working: https://luma.com/mostly-workingNear Future blog post: https://nearfuture.works/updates/a-new-jagged-frontier-why-craft-still-mattersFigma's config keynote: https://config.figma.com/san-francisco/session/829e6ced-3257-4f5c-b675-aa72f4d1f98f/GLM5.2 by z.ai: https://z.ai/https://shrtcts.click/Our next workshop: https://nearfuture.works/buildAs always, feedback welcome at [email protected] us at nearfuture.worksClick here to view the episode transcript.
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  Ep#5: Are middle managers actually finished? Plus: personal software, Ideogram & Midjourney goes medical 26.06.2026 50min

  Tom and Jonny are back for another wide-ranging episode. Jonny starts by recapping his golf trip to Mallorca — where a non-technical friend used Lovable to vibe-code a fully functional scoring app for their annual 16-man Ryder Cup-style tournament, the Stryder Cup. It's a perfect case study in personal software.From there, Tom brings a meaty topic: the "death of the middle manager" narrative gaining steam in the press. Drawing on his five years as Director of Product Design at Monzo, Tom and Jonny debate whether this is a real structural shift or a post-ZIRP overcorrection — and what managers should actually do to stay relevant.In the quick-fire round, Jonny introduces Ideogram, a small but opinionated image model that excels at visual design and can be self-hosted and fine-tuned on your own work. Tom follows up with Midjourney's unexpected pivot into health and wellness medical devices — and what it says about where AI companies might be headed.They close by testing themselves on "In the Weights" — a site that checks if your name appears in AI training data. Jonny is in (top 25% British product designer). Tom is not.Finally, they tease an upcoming half-day AI design workshop open to individuals — coming late July/early August. Email [email protected] with feedback, ideas, or complaints.Chapters0:00 — Welcome & podcast updatesNew email address: [email protected]:23 — Guests & format chatGuests are coming — but this pod isn't going guest-only2:00 — Jonny's golf trip to Mallorca16-man Ryder Cup-style tournament, Mallorca, 35-degree heat4:06 — The Strider Cup app — vibe coded on LovableHow a non-technical friend built a live scoring app with AI — and why personal software is the perfect use case8:59 — Can AI improve your golf game?Spoiler: Jonny is a lost cause10:49 — Are middle managers finished?Tom introduces the "Middle Managers in the Firing Line" article and his Monzo perspective18:36 — Tom's take: the functions matter, not the titleIs Jack Dorsey right? Tom's nuanced answer on direction, psychological safety, and player-coaches22:02 — Jonny's take: I don't buy itManager-to-report ratios, the pastoral role, swanning around looking busy, and the market doesn't care what you enjoy32:56 — Quick fire: IdeogramA small, opinionated image model built for visual design — and why it points toward personal, self-hostable AI tools38:27 — Quick fire: Midjourney's wild pivotFrom sci-fi image generation to… health and wellness medical devices43:50 — In the Weights — are you in the training data?Tom and Jonny test themselves live. Results are humbling for one of them.47:55 — Upcoming AI design workshopHalf-day, ticketed, late July/early August — build your own AI design tools---## Links:- https://www.linkedin.com/news/story/middle-managers-in-the-firing-line-8966722/- https://ideogram.ai- https://www.midjourney.com/medical- https://intheweights.comFind us at nearfuture.works or email the pod at [email protected] with suggestions and ideas for content or guests.Click here to view the episode transcript.
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  Ep4: Who Controls Your AI? Europe's Sovereignty Crisis and the Race to Build Independent Tools 17.06.2026 42min

  Jonny and Tom dig into the uncomfortable reality of Europe's dependence on US-controlled AI — sparked by Anthropic's Fable 5 being banned outside America days after launch. They explore what the dystopian narrative Europe 2031 predicts for the continent, debate London's surprising rise as an AI talent hub, wrestle with what it means to build a business in the age of AI, and Tom reveals his open-source design tooling project, Kazam.0:00 — Introduction & the content pipelineJonny and Tom kick off the episode and share their very low-tech approach to collecting topics throughout the week — a Slack thread — which immediately surfaced the biggest AI story of the moment.1:27 — Fable 5, banned in minutes: the sovereignty wake-up callAnthropic's most powerful model yet was blocked for all non-US citizens within four days of launch. What does it mean when critical infrastructure can be switched off by a foreign government overnight?4:42 — Europe 2031: a cautionary taleJonny breaks down the 18,000-word narrative podcast europe2031.ai — a near-future story of Europe's failure to build sovereign AI capability, its dependence on open models that eventually disappear, and the grim choice between American and Chinese technology.9:53 — What does this actually mean for you?Tom pushes for practical takeaways. If AI vanished tomorrow it'd probably be fine — but the longer dependency grows, the harder it becomes to function without it. From job market effects to information control, the risks are subtle but compounding.13:21 — Practical steps: diversify your AI dietRather than avoiding AI, Jonny argues for being intentional about where you get it from. Use open-weight models, try Mistral, explore OpenRouter — don't build critical dependency on US big tech whose incentives may not align with yours.15:36 — The acceleration problem and European incentivesTom reflects on how the structural incentives driving US and Chinese AI development will naturally widen the gap with Europe — even without any bad intentions from the US side.17:18 — London rising: DeepMind, Cursor, and the talent storyCursor just announced a 200-person London office. Tom traces how Demis Hassabis's insistence on keeping a London team when Google acquired DeepMind seeded a generation of AI talent — now paying dividends for the whole city.19:14 — Nuance: AI isn't just bad or just goodJonny argues for holding the tension — concentration of power is genuinely worrying, but the potential benefits to humanity (drug discovery, scientific breakthroughs) are also real. The podcast's purpose is navigation, not evangelism.22:51 — Building a business in the AI eraThe guys get into the meta-question: what is the right business model for an AI consultancy? Training vs. capability delivery, day rates vs. outcome-based pricing, what to give away free vs. what to keep — and why neither of them really has the answer yet.35:24 — Tom's open-source project: KazamTom reveals what he's been building — a lightweight open-source design framework for creating portable, lo-fi design micro-tools as single HTML files. No npm, no server, no dependencies. Inspired by a workshop where 60 designers built 60 tools in 3 hours.Linkseurope2031.aiJacob Heftmann grillitype.comOur 1 page HTML tool example: https://dither-shape-p.ooda.run/Find us at nearfuture.works
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  Episode #3: Kazam! From 15 minute etch-a-sketch to 70 years of Eames 12.06.2026 53min

  Tom and Jonny reflect on their live workshop at Product Unleashed in London, explore the history of designers building their own tools, and dig into how AI can be used as a counterbalance to your own working style — not just an amplifier.ChaptersBuilding a Design Tool in 15 Minutes at Product UnleashedTom and Jonny recap the workshop they ran at Product Unleashed, where they built retro design tools (Etch A Sketch, MS Paint) live in front of an audience — twice. They discuss how the challenge evolved, why they pivoted from serious tools to fun ones, and how they got the final result live on the internet using a QR code.Why Designers Building Their Own Tools MattersJonny shares the narrative from the workshop's opening slides — a Gutenberg-moment argument for why designers are now able to build hyper-personalized tools for the first time, referencing Adobe, Figma, and the growing landscape of AI-native design tools.Historical Examples: Eames, Lennon & the Apple CalculatorTom walks through three historical examples of makers building tools to unlock their own creativity: Chris Espinoza's Calculator Construction Set for Steve Jobs, Ken Townsend inventing automatic double tracking for John Lennon, and Charles and Ray Eames creating the Kazam machine to bend plywood into new furniture forms.The Value of Craft in the Age of AIJonny reflects on Karri Saaranen (founder of Linear) and his view that design is the thinking — and there's no shortcut to it. The conversation explores whether something made quickly can ever be truly iconic, and why craft still has real, felt value even as AI capabilities grow.AI as Amplifier or Counterbalance: Knowing Your Working StyleTom introduces the idea that AI shouldn't just universally amplify — for some people (perfectionists who stall), it should act as a counterbalance, nudging them to ship. For others (fast movers who skip deliberation), the opposite. Both share personal examples of how they've tuned their own AI workflows around their personality types.Ooda: Instantly Sharing Internal PrototypesJonny shares an update on Ooda, his tool that lets teams publish prototypes, tools, and documents to a private, secure link in seconds — just by asking Claude. He explains the pivot from "run your dev server in the cloud" to "don't let your team's work disappear," and why the response from a handful of people last week convinced him the problem is real.Building a Calculator with a 5-Year-OldTom shares a heartwarming weekend story of building a calculator with his five-year-old son Waltie — complete with a car button, a horse button, and a Lego-themed interface — and reflects on what it means to grow up in an era where building software is as natural as playing. Jonny draws parallels to how touchscreens changed children's expectations of interaction.(00:00) - Episode #3: (00:04) - Building a Design Tool in 15 Minutes at Product Unleashed (07:45) - Why Designers Building Their Own Tools Matters (12:13) - Historical Examples: Eames, Lennon & the Apple Calculator (19:57) - The Value of Craft in the Age of AI (22:45) - AI as Amplifier or Counterbalance: Knowing Your Working Style (34:32) - Ooda: Instantly Sharing Internal Prototypes (43:59) - Building a Calculator with a 5-Year-Old Find us at nearfuture.worksClick here to view the episode transcript.
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  Episode #2: AI, Figma's Future, and Why Design Teams Need to Find Their Own Path 12.06.2026 42min

  Tom and Jonny dig into the outcomes of Tom's Mostly Working event featuring James Storer from Monzo, unpacking how leading design teams are using AI not to ship faster, but to learn faster — and why the language of "design vs. product" is getting in the way. They get into the state of Figma: is it losing its grip on the design workflow, or is it actually thriving? And they draw an unexpected parallel to the smartphone camera era to ask whether AI will democratise design the same way. Plus: upcoming events, what they're each building, and some honest holiday parenting failure.0:04 — Mostly Working: AI in Design at Monzo — Tom recaps the event with James Storer, prototyping at Monzo, and why the team focuses on learning speed over shipping speed6:11 — Three Use Cases for AI in Design Workflows — Jonny breaks down the emerging buckets: shipping production code, faster prototyping, and building internal tools13:12 — Is Figma Losing Its Grip? — Jonny's spicy take on Figma overreaching, seat cancellation stats from a 90-person design org, and the Adobe comparison18:17 — Figma's Growth vs. The Designer Exodus — Two things can be true: enterprise growth numbers and a slow professional exodus21:29 — The Smartphone Camera Analogy — Did smartphones kill professional photography? And will AI do the same to design?25:52 — Upcoming Events: Berlin, Shoreditch & Brighton — Jonny's "Tools That Shape Us" talk at Hatch Berlin (Sep 18), the live build session at Product Unleashed Shoreditch, and the Brighton workshop35:37 — What We're Building — Jonny's prototype hosting tool, a Notion CRM, and Tom's AI-powered family holiday journal ideaFind us at nearfuture.worksClick here to view the episode transcript.
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  Pilot: Tom and Jonny find their feet (and microphones) 12.06.2026 51min

  Near Future Podcast – Pilot EpisodeWelcome to the Near Future Podcast, where Tom and Jonny explore what they're building, learning, and experimenting with as AI reshapes how we work.In this episode:Agentic Murder MysteryJonny walks through his experiment building a six-agent murder mystery game using NanoClaw. He created a cast of AI suspects — each with their own secrets, personalities, and email inboxes — and ran a live session with a group of exited startup founders. The conversation covers what makes agents distinct from standard LLMs (triggers, tools, memory, collaboration), and the surprisingly playful emergent behaviour that unfolded when participants tried to interrogate and social-engineer the AI suspects.The Near Future Logo InstrumentTom shares his experiment turning the Near Future logo into an interactive, playable design tool — built in Claude Code — that generates ambient generative music as the logo animates. The conversation explores what it means to treat a brand asset as a toy, and how ephemeral software experiments fuel deeper craft practice.Craft, Design, and What LastsJonny reflects on receiving his long-awaited Poem Clock — a piece of hardware by Matt Webb that displays AI-generated rhyming couplets telling the time — as a lens for thinking about what makes design feel timeless. The duo discuss Dieter Rams' principles, the difference between craft as polish vs. craft as practice, and what that means for designers navigating the AI era.Hiring Designers in the Age of AITom shares observations from a recent head of design hiring process — how AI is adding noise on both sides, what strong portfolios look like right now, and the balance between deep foundations and pushing the frontier.Design Engineering & the Future of the Design TeamA candid discussion on whether every designer needs to become a design engineer, the role of different archetypes within a team, and how to close the gap between Figma and code without putting everyone in an IDE.Tools We're Excited AboutTom: Flora AI (visual asset generation with reference images), Notion's new agent capabilitiesJonny: UK-built sovereign design tools — Dawn Labs, Superhands, and Dessn(00:00) - Pilot episode (00:04) - Introduction (01:07) - Agentic Murder Mystery (15:17) - The Near Future Logo Instrument (22:27) - Craft, Design & What Lasts (29:03) - Hiring Designers in the Age of AI (33:30) - Design Engineering & the Future of Design Teams (45:56) - Tools We're Excited About Find us at nearfuture.works