Astro Tran

The 30-minute Figma mockup is dead. I just turned a 3-minute Loom transcript into a pixel-perfect UI prototype in under 60 seconds using V0. Here's why this matters for product teams: The old way: → Record explanation video → Developer asks clarifying questions → Spend 30+ minutes in Figma → Still get misunderstood requirements → Build wrong thing, iterate, repeat The new way: → Record explanation video → Copy transcript → Paste into V0: "Create an app from this transcript" → Share visual prototype → Developer builds exactly what you meant The result? Zero room for interpretation. I'm not saying AI replaces developers. I'm saying it eliminates the communication gap between product vision and technical execution. When you can turn any verbal concept into a visual reference in seconds, you stop avoiding the "quick mockup" that would actually save hours of back-and-forth. The barrier to clear communication just dropped to near zero. Product managers: Stop explaining with words when you can show with prototypes. Developers: Stop guessing what "something like this but different" means. The tools exist. The question is whether you'll use them. What's the biggest communication challenge you face between product and engineering? I'm curious how others are solving this.

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There’s a lot of tourists leaving healthcare right now in search of greener pastures, notably AI. If you’re looking for a quick path to riches, you’re probably in the wrong industry. In this week’s column for Second Opinion Media, I wrote about the patience required to succeed in healthtech where exits can take 10 years +. But I believe it’s worth it, not just from a financial returns POV. But also because it’s an opportunity to build the healthcare system we want and deserve. https://lnkd.in/eNwcP_AC

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I was just having a conversation with a product designer where I hammered home a point I’ve come to believe: you can’t A/B test your way to greatness. Reading Karri Saarinen's (founder of Linear) rules for crafting standout products only reinforced that conviction. Here’s how Linear builds great products—worth reading for anyone serious about product quality: - The more people you have, the more opinions and deliberation you introduce, which dilutes the quality of the execution. By contrast, small, high quality teams produce good work, quickly. So how do you build these small but mighty teams? Hire craft-oriented people who already produce great work. It’s not about measuring output; it’s about setting a standard. - At Linear, we have connected teams in which everyone is responsible for the quality. There’s no “handoff to dev.” You’re never off the hook. We’ve found that when everyone understands how designs are implemented and shares responsibility for the result, we’re far more likely to achieve high quality. - Today’s startup market, full of high-quality competitors, requires excellence to stand out. A great product requires someone—or many people—to put more care into it than necessary. You could always build something to spec. A door is a door, and if it opens, it technically functions. It’s easy to meet the spec. It’s harder to do the craft. For quality, you need a team that views the spec as the baseline, not the finish line. - You can only create a great product if you design for someone in particular. It’s nearly impossible to design a product for everyone. The more specific your product’s purpose, the better it will perform for its intended use. You can build a product that is flexible, open-ended, and kind of good—one that works fine for different use cases. But it won’t be great at anything specific. That’s a weaker position, because products need a clear value proposition to win a market and users’ trust. - At Linear, we don’t make decisions based on data or experiments—including A/B tests. To design with craft, you must develop and trust your intuition. Yes, you might make wrong choices, but those mistakes become thought experiments: Why did you go wrong? Did you talk to users? Did you listen to them? This approach puts more responsibility on the team without offering easy outs. --- Link to the interview in the comments.

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Too many digital health tools fail. Why? Because of usability paradox. We know involving users makes better health tech. We know nurses, doctors, and patients spot issues no developer can. We know user-centered design (UCD) reduces errors and increases adoption. But most businesses do not practice. Healthcare is messy. 3 a.m. shifts. Bright lights. Stress. Lives on the line. Every button out of reach, a screen that’s unreadable, a workflow with three extra steps are safety risks. And the only way to catch them? Involve real users. What real User-centered design looks like. 1️⃣ Start with context. Who’s using it, where, and under what conditions? 2️⃣ Co-design. Don’t test on users, design with them. 3️⃣ Test early. Low-fidelity prototypes save money and lives. 4️⃣ Keep feedback alive. Launch is the start. Great health tech isn’t defined by features. It’s defined by usefulness. And usefulness only happens when frontline staff get a seat at the table. If you’re building in healthcare: Stop guessing. Start involving. 🔔 Follow Artem Borysenko for more updates!

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Tomorrow, my limited series podcast AI Product Builders drops. Here’s what you can expect: - Ideas and inspiration to kickstart your own AI projects - Insights on the tools designers are using to build their AI stacks. - Real stories that reaffirm why designers are essential in this tech shift - How to spot diminishing returns when prototyping with AI - What happens when prototyping and production start to blur - Why design leaders need to reframe their approach—or risk falling behind Traveling to Config tomorrow? Make sure you’re subscribed to my newsletter. There’s over 5 hours of rich, free content ready for the trip. You can subscribe by hitting the ‘view my newsletter’ button on my profile.

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Context is everything when it comes to successful AI workflows. To achieve production-grade results, developers and agents need to be able to leverage existing design systems and codebases. The Figma MCP server brings that important design context directly into developer workflows. And as of today, the MCP server is available remotely to meet you anywhere you work. Figma was born on the browser, and now builders can access Figma context from browser-based AI models in addition to IDEs and AI coding agents. Whether you want to bridge live designs to your codebase, or even link a Figma Make file to extract real code from your prototype, this is another step to reduce the friction in your product development process. More launch details: https://lnkd.in/gEXkAHNG

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Figma just changed the game. Again. With the launch of Figma Sites and Figma Make, the gap between designing and shipping has almost disappeared. Your design tool is now your publishing tool...and your publishing tool just learned how to code. Figma Sites lets you create static websites directly in Figma, define responsive breakpoints, and publish—no code required. Think Webflow or Framer, but baked into the tool you’re already using. Figma Make goes even further. It brings in Claude AI as your coding copilot, translating your design into interactive prototypes with logic and behavior that update as your design evolves. This isn’t just a technical upgrade, it’s a complete shift in mindset. Design isn’t just a phase anymore—it’s the beginning, middle, and end of the product. Speed to launch, speed to iterate, speed to learn—it all sounds like progress. But is it? Because if everything becomes frictionless, what happens to the friction that used to teach us? Design used to be a conversation—between intention and execution, between ideas and limitations. That conversation taught us. It slowed us down just enough to ask better questions, to discover things we didn’t expect. When the entire process is compressed into a single tool, we risk losing that space to reflect, to rethink, to revise. Don’t get me wrong: velocity matters. In the business of software, speed is often survival. But design isn’t just a tool for shipping—it’s a tool for understanding. And if we lose that, we risk trading depth for convenience. The tools are evolving fast. That’s not the problem. The real challenge is making sure we don’t lose our curiosity along the way.

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Designers, there’s a lot of hyperbole out there. Ignore the messages about how you need to become a designer founder, own the entire stack, or any other nonsense messaging that’s only catering to social media engagement. Keep your growth mentality and be open to learning, always. Try out AI prototyping, coding, etc. If you do this, you will learn how new tools can improve *your* design process, and that’s incredibly valuable. Don’t worry about the version of designer others are telling you to be, focus on being the best version of yourself, with your unique perspective, experience, and talents. Always be learning, open to improving, and curious for what’s around the corner. It will pay off, I promise.

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The Spacing & Sizing Bible Every Designer Needs!📏 Nailing those perfect proportions can make or break your UI. After years of pixel-pushing, I'm sharing my go-to spacing blueprint that'll level up your design game instantly! Key measurements to memorize: - Micro spacing: 4-8px (tiny details) - Default spacing: 16px (your best friend) - Section spacing: 24-32px (breathing room) - Page margins: 16-24px (keep it contained) Pro Tip: Work in multiples of 8 for that crisp, balanced look that screams "professional designer"! Important note: These guides aren't rigid rules - adapt them to your project while maintaining a consistent grid system. Perfect for beginners still developing their eye for spacing! Save this one for reference! #DesignFundamentals #SpacingGuide #UIBasics #DesignPrinciples #BeginnerDesignTips

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🏆 Top Prototyping Tools for Product Teams 🏆 🎉 Figma  🎉 Balsamiq 🎉 Justinmind  🎉 UXPin  🎉 PROTOIO INC Prototyping products offer tools for designing and simulating user interfaces and experiences, enabling product teams to create interactive prototypes with ease. These platforms are revolutionizing design with features that empower rapid prototyping, seamless collaboration, and the ability to iterate faster than ever. Explore all the #ProddyAwards winners across 13 categories here: https://lnkd.in/gwKTWRHJ! #Proddys #productmanagement 

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UX is no longer the advantage. AX is. John Maeda’s 2025 report nailed it. The future of design isn’t for humans. It’s for AI agents. Because here’s the thing— AI doesn’t click. AI doesn’t tap. AI reads. AI executes. Most UX today is built for human confusion. AX demands machine precision. Not pretty interfaces. Clear APIs. Not endless user flows. Structured data. Not creative exploration. Predictable outputs. The best products of tomorrow? They won’t just be user-friendly. They’ll be agent-optimized. Clear interface for the machine. Invisible interface for the human. Want to see what AX looks like? Swipe through the slides.

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