Why he's the most trusted man in design

There's this breed of designer that is

so good at what they make. They

basically are the marketing for it.

>> Nelson, Noah,

>> Brodzky, Diago, Costa. I only know a

base dash because of Tom.

>> I call them tool benders. They'll push

whatever tools exist to their limits,

then immediately jump on the new ones

just to make something dope.

>> If it's just like lock in like I'm in

Figma, something like perplexity for

instance, I forgot to run granola. I'm

going through the loom and I literally

have raycast notes open. Dude, Tolen is

>> so good.

>> But Michael Rittering Rid has been

talking to the best designers,

interviewing them, digging into the

tools and workflows they use every day.

And while everyone's still processing

what's happening right now, dude's

already cataloging what's next. And this

whole time, he's been one of them. In

fact, Rid inspired me to try and spot

the next something. But I think that

next something is Rid. So, I flew to

Kalamazoo, Michigan to find out. Yeah,

Kalamazoo, population 73,000. I spent

two days just watching him work, sitting

in on how he finds patterns, designers,

tools, these dope little design details

before they're everywhere because Rid is

a trend spotter and I wanted to know how

is he always this early.

In one month, Rich and I went from

completely laughing at the idea of

moving to Calamazoo, Michigan, which we

had never heard of.

We looked at Zillow one time. We were

like, that's kind of interesting, you

know like

cuz this property was pretty overgrown

and you couldn't see it. So, we had no

idea the house was even here. And I

ignored it cuz I was like, that's crazy.

It looked like a massive project. And my

dad was the one who was like, "You

should go look at that house."

We went and looked at it and it was

like, "Oh my god." We walked past this

like 500 times. We had no idea that

there was even a house here.

>> Kalamazoo,

home of Western Michigan University,

Gibson Guitar, and apparently the first

outdoor strip mall. Not exactly your

typical tech hub. His family moved here

for work during co and then everyone

else followed.

>> My sister moved here. Then we had some

other family friends move here. wife's

parents moved from India. My

grandparents moved here from Colorado.

Like, we don't have a big family.

Everybody lives in Michigan now. Like,

everybody lives here for the first time.

Like, we haven't lived together since I

was a little kid. And now I'm like, I

think I live here. I think I live in

Michigan. Never thought I would say

that, but I think I live in Michigan.

So, he accidentally built roots here,

but that doesn't explain how he got so

good at spotting what's next.

To understand that, I had to actually

watch him work. He's built a couple

things. There's Dive Club, this design

podcast where he talks to some of the

best designers in the world.

>> My name is

>> about their work and their process. It's

basically a master class disguised as a

podcast.

>> We're going to talk about the

responsibility that designers have to

shape this.

>> And then there's Inflight, a tool that's

trying to fix how design teams

collaborate in this new future. And I

want to show you just how interesting

Rid's vision for this actually looks.

>> What if instead of reviewers making

their own LOMesque video, it felt a

little bit more like having a

conversation instead?

>> I thought I was going to watch him

grinding alone in Figma. He kind of

struck me as someone who just gets into

that flow state and goes.

>> He will incessantly tap. He will tap

with his feet, tap with his hands, but

specifically with his feet and he has

like ticks. There's always a rhythm in

his brain that he's tapping to. I'm

sitting down here and just like

like there's just a marching band coming

through the house. Oh, Michael's in his

flow state. Let's not interrupt him,

Josephine.

>> And he definitely gets into a flow

state, but he's not in it alone.

>> I'm Red. This is Kyle. We've been

designing products every day for 15

years.

>> We both just had very similar problems

in in our design careers and getting

feedback was at the top for both of us.

So, we we both had kind of different

perspectives on that, but it was very

clear that we were both interested in

the same problems.

>> Yeah, that's a whole other product in

itself.

>> Design feedback currently sucks. Like,

everyone knows that. What if we show it

after this really immersive

layout that shows like a prototype up

here and the flow chart and we have the

video cursor going or or it could say

like or it could say like no more blank

and then fill in the blank. Like if we

had a if we had a really clear one two

three value prop. What if this like slid

underneath into the dark mode and then

the project feed is below it and then

you see this card turn into an update

inside of the feed.

>> Turn into implies a lot of regulation,

but more just like trying to connect the

dots. We use language. We probably use

like similar language

>> where all of a sudden you see this and

now it becomes Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Um

sorry. I love when you know what it's

going to be and you like your brain like

I just stopped talking and jumped.

>> These are two designer co-founders and

some might say that could be a disaster.

>> Kyle was the exact person that I was

supposed to meet and collaborate with. I

kind of get initial thinking, push

things forward, create a bunch of

prototypes, get a bunch of bad ideas out

there. And then whenever I loop Kyle in,

I feel like we're really quickly able to

That's the part where collaborating with

another designer is huge. Oh my gosh,

it's amazing. The the ideation, the how

quickly we're able to get to the next

set of ideas has been really

life-giving.

>> And he's right, they move through ideas

very quickly, and they're not afraid to

ditch one, even if it's exciting.

>> We went down so many rabbit holes that

were really interesting, like really,

really cool versions of the product. How

much throwaway work have you guys

produced?

>> Oh, dude.

>> Stupid amounts. Yeah. So much.

>> It's our Figma is

>> We're on V8.

>> Really cool, actually. Oh, man. We had

the coolest designers. Like 15 of the

most respected designers in the entire

community were ready to go. I will be

your initial marketplace. Like it was

going to be the launch. the go to market

of that person was going to be, as Kyle

would probably put it, biblical.

>> Yeah,

>> it would have been so dope, dude. It

would have been so dope.

>> I still love like I hope someone does

that. R and I are constantly able to

kind of challenge each other and it

feels like an iron sharpens iron moment

where it's like never quite good enough.

>> I think that

>> I don't want to like lean on Slack.

>> I don't want to show I don't I don't

even want to show a Slack logo.

>> Okay, cool.

>> I want to design a component that is

very obvious. Every day the product gets

slightly better because we'll each push

each other in our own ways. Like he'll

push me on visual identity, I'll push

him on product and UX and it just keeps

leveling up day after day. Interesting.

Okay.

>> Rid has this inviting way of working

through ideas. And it seems like he's

kind of always been this way, designing

in public, pulling his viewers, working

through ideas with whoever will engage.

And not just friends, family, too. We

made the inflight launch video. He we

just sat down, did all the creative

direction. He's jamming it, bringing all

these ideas to the table. And within

uh six hours, we already had a lead

investor for a seed round because the

video that he made was so good.

>> My name is Jake Hayden. I am a I guess

you could say a freelance filmmaker,

content creator, videographer, who who

knows what the actual title is. I make

videos. I know Red because I married his

sister. I'm sort of the producer behind

a lot of the visuals of the dive club

brand. So, our in-house animations, I do

setting up the cameras. Uh, anything

that we do inhouse that is that's

visual, I'm sort of in charge of

>> recognizing what other people are

exceptional at and then getting out of

their way. I think that's part of it,

too.

>> Working with Rid is really, really fun.

Both of us are good at operating in that

chaotic startup kind of like what the

heck is happening this week and we text

all the time at like midnight and it's

like oh we need to change this for

tomorrow and we're both good at working

in that environment. I think

one thing that a lot of people don't

know about Rid is that he is a super

incredible musician which is really

frustrating cuz he's good at everything.

He can just sit down at a piano at a

family gathering and just start

absolutely shredding like it's nothing

and then get up and then go and join a

conversation about football like nothing

just happened.

>> I don't think he's motivated by money at

all. I think he's motivated

by helping and giving and doing stuff

that he really enjoys and being able to

pay the bills with it. This is going to

sound like a silly story, but it was

really impactful for me where I felt

very clearly that God told me to go get

on my computer. And at this time, I kid

you not, I'm designing a notification

screen for B2B SAS, which was my first

startup, you know, and I'm just

designing this notification component

system, just crying, like just crying at

my computer. I was taught in that moment

that moving pixels around on a computer

can be this act of worship and

connection. And that was a pretty big

deal for me. And I have adopted this

phrase that I've kind of taken with me

forever, which is like everything that

I'm trying to do is like with my

creator, for my creator, and through my

creator is kind of how I operate. I came

here to watch Rid's work unfold, but I

didn't expect to be so impacted by his

faith,

his family, because for Rid, purpose and

work, they're not separate things. I

think purpose is the filter he runs

everything through. But I needed to

understand where does it all come from.

>> By the time he was 11, I just asked him

one time, "So, what do you want to do

when you grow up?" "Well, I'm I'm going

to play football." I said, "Yeah, I

know. Besides that, I mean, uh I just

wanted what are you going to do when you

grow up?" He said, "What do you mean? I

want to be an NFL quarterback like John

Elway." But he was serious. he wanted to

be this NFL quarterback. And then by the

time he's a senior, he's thinking

they're going to rule the world. He

rolls out at a quarter quarterback

keeper and the the opposition broke his

bones and he was out for the season

where it was supposed to all come

together for him.

Not only did he lose his scholarship, he

also lost his dream.

You know, he comes out of college. We

always thought, you know, he's going to

be able to do anything maybe, but but

now we realize we don't know his future.

He felt rescued by God, like he didn't

deserve it, but he was rescued by God.

And after that, something changed. His

his life became one of giving and

investing and and building up other

people.

>> He has all this clarity, but he came

with a cost. That was my identity for my

early and mid20s was I am a founder and

I worked incredibly hard. All I did was

just grind and figure out how to make

this thing happen. But it was quite a

dark place to have a company go to zero

hurts. To have it go to zero after

you've basically given your entire early

20s to it and had nothing to show. 1

hour before the rehearsal dinner for my

wedding, our lead engineer asked to have

a Zoom call and told me he was quitting.

The company basically failed on my

honeymoon. That's how I started being

married. That's the filter. He knows

what it costs to bet on the wrong thing,

to give everything and end up with

nothing to show for it. So I think now

when he champions something, whether

it's a designer, a new tool, a design

pattern, it's not casual. He has

considered it and that conviction born

through his failures and grounded in his

faith. I think that's what makes his

lens different.

>> Super tired of the whole taste and craft

thing. It is the fact that we keep

talking about it. It's like there's

obviously something there.

>> It comes down to taste.

>> It's taste.

>> The issues of taste.

>> I define taste as

>> It's funny. This designer I used to work

with, he was probably my mentor in a lot

of ways. Like we'd go on walks all the

time together and his thing would just

like every house we passed you'd have to

say something you liked and disliked

about it.

>> Mhm.

>> And I thought it was awesome cuz like

when everyone talks about taste like

it's like having an opinion on nearly

everything. Like the best designers I

feel like you could ask them their

opinion on a chair, cars, like they'll

just say why they like or dislike

things.

>> Having an answer to the question why

more than others

>> totally why is this like cuz the taste

is understanding what you think should

exist, right? And then being able to

repeatedly answer why. And then the

craft is executing against that taste.

>> Yeah.

>> Why is this the way that it is? Why is

this here? Why does this move this way?

And then having the answer to why

repeatedly.

>> Yeah.

>> What should exist? That's his filter,

not what's trending or what looks cool.

It seems kind of obvious when I say it

out loud, but I think it's his

conviction that allows him to keep it

front and center. What should exist?

That's a very good question. The art of

asking questions is really fascinating.

How does a professional UX designer

differentiate themselves? There's a lot

of alpha to be had in going super nerdy

into how to ask questions because you

understand how to tap into the thing

that someone's interested in talking

about and how to ask good follow-up

questions. What are some of the north

stars that you're aiming at right now?

>> He treats asking why like a skill he can

practice. And if there's one thing an

athlete knows, it's how to put in the

reps. Every week on Dive Club, he's

doing reps, asking questions, asking

better questions. And when you practice

asking why for years,

>> I literally like dog food my own podcast

and I pay attention to when is my when

is my attention slipping? What did I not

like about that question? Like I've it's

become a craft in itself.

>> He's not guessing who's good. He can

tell you exactly why someone is worth

spotlighting.

>> Well, you you know who's kind of like

the one that really woke me up to

shaders and and dithering this year?

>> Tom.

>> Tom. Tom.

>> I only know a base stash because of Tom.

>> Yeah. Yes.

>> There's like every once in a while you

see someone and you go to their page and

you're like, "Wo, I've individually

saved like your last three things of

work." Like I saw our portfolio and I

was like, "Dang, this is really good."

And then later I saw something else that

she made and I was like, "Dang, that's

really good." And then I was one of the

judges for the Jitter Contra hackathon

and I'm looking through this animation

and I'm like, "Wow, that's really good."

And I didn't even connect the dots. It

was all the same person. And at that

point, I'm like, "This person's amazing

at design." Like Gunner Gray did the

shaders for the voice animation. That's

enough for me where it's like, I don't

have to see his Figma files. I see that

thing in Prada. I use it every day. It's

dope. You know, like that's a really

cool thing. And there's probably even a

story about it because he didn't even

write code before making that.

>> I like this uh this guy Gabriel Fulan.

We've worked with him a little bit at

Inflight, too. But his motion stuff is

like I just like his style. Like I'm not

going to it's not experimental, but it's

just like very utility and like

beautiful. I think um he has a very like

subtle way of adding like joy to like

small things that probably shouldn't be

joyful.

>> You know, it's like one of my favorite

things to do is to find a designer and

at least to me feel like I was kind of

early, you know? Oh, look at this

person. And then to take whatever my

little mini Twitter spotlight is and put

it on someone just feels good.

>> And for him, it's not a popularity

contest either.

>> It's not all about virality, but the

fact is virality is a pretty good

signal man.

>> It is a good signal,

>> you know? Like if something pops off,

it's probably pretty good.

>> Yeah.

>> And I think actually if you don't

understand why it's good, you should

probably take a little bit of time to

figure out why people liked it so much,

you know?

>> Yeah.

>> I think this is just how he shows up in

the communities he's part of.

>> I don't 100% understand him. I don't

know exactly what he's doing. I I don't

know if he's uh in trouble or if he's on

the verge of something amazing because I

can never really tell because he has the

same mood during all of the wins and

losses of his life. All the things and

the dreams and everything, it's all put

in some sort of perspective and all I

get from him is kindness and acceptance

and love.

>> Being a father is hard. You know, I

mean, you know, if I have two hours of

time on a Saturday, I'm going to work on

inflight. You know, it's amazing.

There's what else would I possibly be

doing? It's so much fun for me to just

be designing and making things. That's a

slippery slope because

I fit every little chunk of time that I

have into what it looks like for me to

be creative on the internet. I'm always

moving pieces and running simulations in

my brain constantly. And that's tricky

to be a father because I I mean gosh

people ask about work life balance. I'm

like what? Like I don't there's no line,

you know, like what's the line? I have

no idea. I tell myself this story of how

I'm doing the investment now where like

when I think about what I want the rest

of, you know, the next couple decades to

look like. I'm 33 now. Dude, I would

love to be in my 40s and be a full-time

dad. I would love it. My wife's a

genius. PhD, statistician, all kinds of

different companies that she wants to

build to get to the point where we could

switch and I could just be a dad and

probably do some type of homeschooling,

be involved in my kids' education in a

way that's really hands-on. Like that's

the kind of stuff that I fantasize about

for the next decade of my life. So then

it's easy for me to say this season is

heads down season. I definitely don't

want it to come across like I'm doing it

well basically cuz it's really hard

actually. He wants to check the box,

build the thing that actually works this

time and then maybe maybe he can stop.

That's the tastemakaker's dilemma.

What it is like as a spouse to get

married and then have your partner

basically just go into depression

immediately.

That's what happened. Man, she's been a

rock. I don't there's just no way that I

could have done any of this without her.

Like doing Empire was a big decision. We

had it good, dude. Like I was working 20

hours a week just talking to people on

the internet, making enough money to pay

bills, and just being a dad. For the

first year of Jos's life, I had

basically no schedule. I was just a dad,

just chilling. Year and a half. I also

think she knew how much it meant to me

to have another shot. So, we were

talking in the kitchen. I was trying to

be really clear like what this means. I

think she just wanted to make sure that

this was going to be healthy for me and

Kyle provided a lot of security for her.

It was definitely a

gear up and get ready cuz it's coming.

She's a freaking champion.

I thought I was going to learn all about

curation, how he spots designers early,

sees trends months ahead. And yeah, he

does that. But after watching him work,

what makes him different?

It's not just his technique.

I think it's his filter. And I think

it's because when you know who you're

serving,

your faith, your family,

the community of designers,

I think you see things a little

differently, things other people miss.

You notice people solving real problems,

not just the ones with good engagement,

when you have a reason that's bigger

than clout.

You don't need San Francisco for that.

You don't need funding or followers. You

just need to know who it's for.