Uploaded August 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
This week's episode is with Andy Zhang (https://x.com/andyzg3/) who was the lead design engineer at [Windsurf](windsurf.com/). So we're going to shine a light on all of the ways you can make an impact as a design engineer including:
- Owning more of the frontend polish
- Thinking through design patterns and packaging features
- Bridging the gap between technical features and intuitive UX
- Saying “no” to features to preserve the simplicity of the system
He also shares some great stories and advice including:
- What it was like working as an intern at Figma with less than 10 people
- How designers can start to get more comfortable with code
- How he taps into his experience as a PM at Uber while selecting the right design process
- + a *lot* more
- Rasmus Andersson (https://x.com/rsms) - Designer/engineer at Figma, mentor to Andy
- Kevin Hou (https://x.com/kevinhou22?lang=en) - Lead product engineering at Windsurf, Andy’s basketball teammate who helped him get the job
Chapters
0:00 Intro
1:10 Andy's internship at Figma
10:35 Finding a role as a generalist
16:22 Moving needles with design patterns
21:24 Systems thinking in a world that's changing so fast
23:20 Andy's creative process as a design engineer
26:38 Andy's process for working on new features
31:03 What happens when there are so many new workflows
34:34 How much coding Andy is doing
40:26 How Andy wants to position his career moving forward
42:16 Andy's favorite part about the Windsurf culture
43:57 Advice for people interested in design engineering
Dive is where the best designers never stop learning 🤿
🌐 dive.club
🐦 twitter.com/joindiveclub
Now you can join advanced courses taught by the top designers to help you take a huge leap forward in your career 💪
This week's episode is with Andy Zhang (https://x.com/andyzg3/) who was the lead design engineer at [Windsurf](windsurf.com/). So we're going to shine a light on all of the ways you can make an impact as a design engineer including:
- Owning more of the frontend polish
- Thinking through design patterns and packaging features
- Bridging the gap between technical features and intuitive UX
- Saying “no” to features to preserve the simplicity of the system
He also shares some great stories and advice including:
- What it was like working as an intern at Figma with less than 10 people
- How designers can start to get more comfortable with code
- How he taps into his experience as a PM at Uber while selecting the right design process
- + a *lot* more
- Rasmus Andersson (https://x.com/rsms) - Designer/engineer at Figma, mentor to Andy
- Kevin Hou (https://x.com/kevinhou22?lang=en) - Lead product engineering at Windsurf, Andy’s basketball teammate who helped him get the job
Chapters
0:00 Intro
1:10 Andy's internship at Figma
10:35 Finding a role as a generalist
16:22 Moving needles with design patterns
21:24 Systems thinking in a world that's changing so fast
23:20 Andy's creative process as a design engineer
26:38 Andy's process for working on new features
31:03 What happens when there are so many new workflows
34:34 How much coding Andy is doing
40:26 How Andy wants to position his career moving forward
42:16 Andy's favorite part about the Windsurf culture
43:57 Advice for people interested in design engineering
Dive is where the best designers never stop learning 🤿
🌐 dive.club
🐦 twitter.com/joindiveclub
Now you can join advanced courses taught by the top designers to help you take a huge leap forward in your career 💪
