The design process is dead. Here’s what’s replacing it. | Jenny Wen (head of design at Claude)
3/1/20261 hr 17 min
Jenny Wen leads design for Claude at Anthropic. Prior to this, she was Director of Design at Figma, where she led the teams behind FigJam and Slides. Before that, she was a designer at Dropbox, Square, and Shopify.
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We discuss:
1. Why the classic discovery → mock → iterate design process is becoming obsolete
2. What a day in the life of a designer at Anthropic looks like, including her AI tool stack
3. Whether AI will eventually surpass humans in taste and judgment
4. Why Jenny left a director role at Figma to return to IC work at Anthropic
5. The three archetypes Jenny is hiring for now
6. Why chatbot interfaces may be more durable than most people expect
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Episode transcript: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/the-design-process-is-dead
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Archive of all Lenny's Podcast transcripts: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/yxi4s2w998p1gvtpu4193/AMdNPR8AOw0lMklwtnC0TrQ?rlkey=j06x0nipoti519e0xgm23zsn9&st=ahz0fj11&dl=0
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Where to find Jenny Wen:
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennywen
• Substack: https://jennywen.substack.com
• Website: https://jennywen.ca
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Where to find Lenny:
• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com
• X: https://twitter.com/lennysan
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/
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In this episode, we cover:
(00:00) Introduction to Jenny Wen
(04:23) Why the traditional design process is dead
(06:33) The two new types of design work
(10:00) How widespread this shift will be
(13:00) Day-to-day life as a designer at Anthropic
(18:45) Jenny’s AI stack
(20:03) Why Figma still matters for exploration
(22:25) Advice for working with engineers
(24:19) How to maintain craft, quality, and trust in the AI era
(27:35) Will AI ever have “taste”?
(31:38) The future of chatbot interfaces
(35:33) Moving from director back to IC
(41:00) The 10-day build of Claude Cowork
(46:06) Hiring: the three archetypes
(50:44) Advice for new and senior designers
(54:42) The value of “low leverage” tasks for managers
(57:52) Why the best teams roast each other
(01:01:45) The legibility framework
(01:07:22) Lightning round and final thoughts
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Referenced:
• Figma: https://www.figma.com
• Anthropic: https://www.anthropic.com
• v0: https://v0.app
• Navigating a Design Career with Jenny Wen | Figma at Waterloo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHcBPMh2ivk
• Claude Cowork: https://claude.com/product/cowork
• Use Claude Code in VS Code: https://code.claude.com/docs/en/vs-code
• Claude Code in Slack: https://code.claude.com/docs/en/slack
• Lex Fridman’s website: https://lexfridman.com
• Head of Claude Code: What happens after coding is solved | Boris Cherny: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/head-of-claude-code-what-happens
• OpenClaw: https://openclaw.ai
• OpenAI’s CPO on how AI changes must-have skills, moats, coding, startup playbooks, more | Kevin Weil (CPO at OpenAI, ex-Instagram, Twitter): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/kevin-weil-open-ai
• Marc Andreessen: The real AI boom hasn’t even started yet: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/marc-andreessen-the-real-ai-boom
• Socratica: https://www.socratica.info
• Anthropic’s CPO on what comes next | Mike Krieger (co-founder of Instagram): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/anthropics-cpo-heres-what-comes-next
• Radical Candor: From theory to practice with author Kim Scott: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/radical-candor-from-theory-to-practice
• Evan Tana’s ‘legibility matrix’ on X: https://x.com/evantana/status/1927404374252269667
• How to spot a top 1% startup early: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/how-to-spot-a-top-1-startup-early
• Palantir: https://www.palantir.com
• Stripe: https://stripe.com
• Linear: https://linear.app
• Notion: https://www.notion.com
• Julie Zhuo’s website: https://www.juliezhuo.com
• Sentimental Value: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt27714581
• The Pitt on Prime Video: https://www.amazon.com/The-Pitt-Season-1/dp/B0DNRR8QWD
• Noah Wyle: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noah_Wyle
• ER on Prime Video: https://www.amazon.com/gp/video/detail/B0FWZSDYRP
• Retro: https://retro.app
• Granola: https://www.granola.ai
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Recommended books:
• Radical Candor: Be a Kick-Ass Boss Without Losing Your Humanity: https://www.amazon.com/Radical-Candor-Kick-Ass-Without-Humanity/dp/1250103509
• The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York: https://www.amazon.com/Power-Broker-Robert-Moses-Fall/dp/0394480767
• Insomniac City: New York, Oliver Sacks, and Me: https://www.amazon.com/Insomniac-City-New-York-Oliver/dp/162040494X
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Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com.
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Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed.
To hear more, visit www.lennysnewsletter.com
Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsJenny Wen· Guest0:00
This design process that designers have been taught, we sort of treat it as gospel, that's basically dead. You as a designer actually, like, do not have the time to make these beautiful mocks anymore.
Lenny Rachitsky· Host0:09
A big part of the design role now is helping engineers and teams execute, not just telling them, "Here's the design."
Jenny Wen· Guest0:15
A few years ago, 60 to 70% of it was mocking and prototyping, but now I feel the mocking up part of it is 30 to 40%.
Lenny Rachitsky· Host0:23
You're better off not blocking that, letting them cook.
Jenny Wen· Guest0:26
It's not just designers who are feeling like, "Oh yeah, we have to keep up with engineers." I think even engineers are like, "How do we keep up with ourselves?"
Lenny Rachitsky· Host0:32
How to keep up with all our agents. There are seven agents we're constantly running.
Jenny Wen· Guest0:35
The results of engineering changing a bunch is that designers sort of force a change. We used to go off and make this two-year, five-year, 10-year vision even. Now, it becomes a vision that's three to six months out, and isn't necessarily creating this beautiful deck. It's sometimes just creating a prototype that points people in the right direction.
Lenny Rachitsky· Host0:51
Boris on the podcast recently was saying Claude Code is now helping him come up with ideas.
Jenny Wen· Guest0:55
And we'll get better at taste and judgment and design. We might be holding onto that a little bit too much.
Lenny Rachitsky· Host1:01
Where will human brains continue to be valuable?
Jenny Wen· Guest1:03
At the end of the day, someone has to decide what is actually going to get built and what actually matters. Someone still needs to be accountable for the decision.
Lenny Rachitsky· Host1:10
What do you now look for when you're hiring designers?
Jenny Wen· Guest1:13
There's probably three archetypes of folks that are really interesting to me right now.
Lenny Rachitsky· Host1:19
Today's guest is Jenny Wen. Jenny was head of design for Claude, is now leading design for Claude Cowork. Prior to that, she was director of design at Figma, where she led the design