You've seen the diagrams. They're clean, they're confident, and they're plastered on the walls of agencies, startups, and design schools around the world. A perfect, linear path: empathize, define, ideate, prototype, test. Or maybe it's the elegant loops of the double diamond, diverging and converging in a beautiful, predictable dance.
"The main thing I've realized after talking with dozens of designers in 2025 is that design can't be a cost center and hope to survive. In an uncertain economy, many organizations are looking to reduce costs. If you're seen as nothing but a cost with little benefit, your team may be on the chopping block. So if executive whims are throwing you around, don't just learn to follow orders or question them to the point of being seen as a roadblock."
Building SaaS products has traditionally been a lengthy process requiring extensive coding and collaboration with engineers. The evolution of AI and vibe-coding technologies has transformed this landscape, allowing for more agile product development and enabling individuals to create their own projects independently.
"While I already spend every waking hour on this app, I'll now be spending that time helping others unlock that same value. And we'll certainly be leveraging the power of Grok to create hyper-relevant timelines and help people understand everything that's happening."
Logan, who transitioned from psychology to IT, faced challenges when his ambitious dashboard redesign caused unexpected alerts, illustrating the risks of initiating changes without thorough consideration.
Flowstep fits our thesis around the future of creative and technical tools. They have built a platform that truly enhances how product design is done today, and their vision aligns with the growing demand for tools that embed intelligence into the creative process. We believe this team will play a critical role in shaping how digital products are built in the next decade.
First principles thinking is literally just breaking down complicated problems into their basic, underlying facts and rebuilding solutions afresh from scratch. Instead of analogizing solutions from one's own background (or worse, copying competitors), this process forces you to question assumptions, drill down, and generate true innovation.
