Vincent van der Meuelen - The story of Figma’s big AI pivot

If you watched last week’s episode, then you heard Jordan Singer say how visual search was actually the “killer feature” (not generative AI). What’s interesting is that this feature was actually a mid-project pivot.

So in this episode we get the full behind-the-scenes of visual search from design engineer Vincent van der Meulen:

• Why they decided to pivot
• How Vincent went cowboy mode
• A look at the future of design engineering
• What good design looks like in an AI world
• Why visual search is a big deal for future AI tools
• How Vincent used video to get Figmates excited about his idea
• a lot more

• Marco and Jordan from the old Diagram team
• Matt Dailey was the engineer that proved designs can be represented as images
• 2024 Config Keynote showing Vincent’s Uber example for visual search