The emergence of AI is an existential threat and existential opportunity for designers and other product professionals. This calls for a recalibration of professional skills. This calls for a new rhythm of working. This calls for solving problems with new capabilities. You and me? We can thrive. Or we can fade away. Recalibration The way …
Author Archives: David Panarelli
AI impact at different Levels
This is a collection of rough thoughts regarding how AI will impact different levels of designers. We’re going to talk about the impact on design teams at each level. I’m also looking at this as two major categories of change. First, the impact on the individual designer. Then, the impact to the design process. I’ll …
Careers Getting Murdered as AI Takes on Tasks
AI is significantly impacting product development job roles, but will do so differently at different organizations. Ok, so… you’re a product designer… you heard that AI is coming for all our jobs. But is it coming for your job, your co-worker’s job, and your other co-worker’s job the same way? AI tech will impact many …
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AI Product Design as Risk Management: Workday Edition
When designing human-in-the-loop automations and AI workflows, you have to figure out how much human should be in the loop. It looks like Workday is finding this out the hard way. Workday has a set of powerful human-in-the-loop workflows that accept, screen, evaluate and accept or reject candidates–they save a ton of time in an …
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Feedback: the POINT method
As we are disrupted by AI, this practice assures the team has high-value insight into their performance and processes. The Critique practice is where the team hones their ability to identify and apply feedback. I think of it as the atomic unit of the Design process and it can help elevate the function and performance …
Delta cracks Dynamic Pricing
More questions than answers: looks like a new day is dawning in e-commerce. Delta Airlines has successfully executed dynamic, personalized pricing on 3% of its sales. https://fortune.com/2025/07/16/delta-moves-toward-eliminating-set-prices-in-favor-of-ai-that-determines-how-much-you-personally-will-pay-for-a-ticket Its, shall we say… concerning. Displaying different prices on the same goods to different customers has an elevated risk of Price Discrimination. Amazon took the brunt of it …
How I Run 1:1s With My Design Team
As a design leader, I see 1:1s as one of the most important tools I have for supporting growth, building trust, and making space for honest conversations. The frameworks below are devoid of subject matter, individual nuances, or changes based on job level within the IC or Manager roles. Those are applied quickly as I …
The impact of Generative AI on Generative Research
Attacking Weaknesses in the Research Process In many ways, AI-drive tools are what researchers have ben waiting for. Agents to find and schedule your participants? Amazing. Quick organization, tagging, and summarization of interview data? Fantastic. Desk Research Before starting, before venturing to start, it’s important to assemble some initial level of context. Compiling a range …
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Design Process is (going to be) New All Over Again
It’s the end of design as we know it, and I feel fine… Design is changing fast. AI tools such as LLMs, Agents, and other automation tools perform some tasks remarkably well. As such, Designers can be empowered to execute parts of the workflow with greater speed, fluency, and accuracy. Here’s a summary of some …
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AI Basics: Prompt Design
Like everyone else, I have been learning how to use and abuse AI. Also like everyone else, I have found it to be compelling in its strengths and weaknesses. Here are some notes that helped me get my head around what’s possible and useful when working with AI. These notes are rough, but I find …