How to present your designs and get buy-in for your ideas - Alex Cornell (Dive Club S6 | E8)

When you think about storytelling in design Alex Cornell is often the person that comes to mind. And that's a big reason why he's one of the most requested guests on the show. So this episode is a deep dive into the finer details of communication. We talk about:
- The story behind his startup Cocoon
- How Alex leverages his background in video
- Alex’s precision and obsession with language
- Why Alex left linear to work on generative AI at Meta
- Why getting buy-in for your ideas is kind of like a math proof
- Behind-the-scenes of the wild videos Alex made at Facebook
- Lessons learned designing the Substack and Linear mobile apps
- The mental models Alex uses to construct compelling narratives
- + a lot more
- Alex’s startup (Cocoon) - www.alexcornell.com/cocoon/
- Alex’s famous (Chevron vs. 3 Dot video) - x.com/alexcornell/status/1611... from Facebook
- Alex’s favorite monospace font is (Jet Brains) - www.jetbrains.com/lp/mono/ and his favorite serif font is Tiempos - klim.co.nz/retail-fonts/tiemp...
- Klim - klim.co.nz/ (is Alex’s favorite type foundry)
- We discussed the dual-panel approach in the (Amie mobile app)(amie.so/)
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Chapters
0:00 Framer
0:33 Intro
1:47 How Alex got his start in video
7:29 How Alex thinks about storytelling as a designer
8:04 Alex's precision and obsession with language
13:51 Alex's approach to Loom videos
15:50 Other examples of wild videos that Alex has made
20:43 How to know what to focus on when selling an idea
25:21 Alex's startup Cocoon
30:44 What it was like designing the Substack mobile app
34:15 The subjective nature of typography
37:25 Comparing designing the Substack and Linear mobile apps
40:49 How Alex presented his work for feedback at Linear
44:54 Why Alex left Linear to return to Meta
49:00 How Alex grew as a designer while away from Facebook
51:13 How Alex invests in his taste palette
#productdesign #podcast #uiux

[@h1brd]

Excellent guest, keep making these 🔥

[@joindiveclub]

That's the plan!

[@mikeagonz]

this is a masterclass

[@joindiveclub]

so glad you liked it!

[@greham]

I didn't pay full attention but it seems that for a product designer (for the most part of his trade), I've not heard user research or tests once but graphic design a million times.

[@joindiveclub]

pretty intentional. wanted to go deep into what his super powers :) there's a whole episode on user research if you're interested - www.dive.club/deep-dives/noam-segal