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 pivotHow Vincent went cowboy modeA look at the future of design engineeringWhat good design looks like in an AI worldWhy visual search is a big deal for future AI toolsHow Vincent used video to get Figmates excited about his ideaa lot moreMarco and Jordan from the old Diagram teamMatt Dailey was the engineer that proved designs can be represented as images2024 Config Keynote showing Vincent’s Uber example for visual search