AI Native Workflow of a Designer at Wealthsimple
Summary
Wealthsimple's design team uses an AI-native tool stack combining Cloud Design for high-fidelity prototypes and Conductor for multi-tasking workflows, replacing traditional tools like Figma artifacts. The key insight: design leaders who remain hands-on in craft while leading teams provide better feedback and foster stronger collaboration than traditional people managers.
Key Takeaways
- Cloud Design is replacing Figma artifacts for quick sketches by offering a better design interface specifically optimized for uploading design systems and generating wireframes or high-fidelity prototypes with AI assistance.
- Conductor terminal interface replaces traditional CLI workflows by providing better visual interfaces for viewing images, chatting, and editing multiple things simultaneously—improving on cumbersome work trees for multi-tasking.
- Design leaders who maintain hands-on involvement in craft while leading (like Paulie and Jen at Wealthsimple) provide more empathetic feedback and act as springboards for team exploration versus pure people managers.
- Slack channels structured for AI-driven explorations and collaborative concept sharing create a high-velocity culture where designers constantly source inspiration and celebrate shipped work in dedicated water cooler channels.
- Tool selection depends on use case: Cloud Design for dialing in details or shipping products; Cloud Code for terminal-based coding tasks—creating a spectrum approach rather than one-tool-fits-all.
Related topics
Transcript Excerpt
What does your tool stack look like as a fintech designer? >> So there's this spectrum I feel is probably the best way to think about the different tools that I use in my practice. I'll go through each one of these one by one. Cloud design is a real fun one that I've started to tinker with. And so in here, >> yeah, so you kind of get your catalog of projects. You can upload design systems and stuff. Let's say if we want to do chat UI design concept and we can even import our design system specify if we want a wireframe or high fidelity prototype. Let's go high fidelity. For me cloud design is replacing cloud artifacts which I would use to just do really quick sketches but it wasn't a great design interface whereas this feels like the evolution of cloud artifacts to a certain extent specifi…