Today I’m bringing you Tristan L’Abbé, a product designer and Head of Design at Glide.
We talk about design tools, paradigms, the evolution of web and native, Tristan’s background in design and engineering, the role of constraint in creativity, how tools shape the way we think and work, and a deep look into the process and craft of product design.
Please reach out on X if you have comments, questions, or feedback. And as always, thanks for listening.
We talked about:
- Figma and its impact on how Tristan works and thinks
- How tools—particularly design tools—influence the way we design and approach problems
- Spatial computing and the different paradigms for designers: web, native, mobile, desktop, and VR
- The evolution of designing apps for the web, and the gap between web and native app design
- Tristan’s entry into product design — balancing design and engineering in software development
- The role of constraints in creativity—not just from tools, but how you intentionally build constraints into products to guide and empower users
- Design aesthetics and how to build trust through a design system
- The process of product design and how ideas are distilled into what actually gets built
- Tristan’s skillset and his approach to personal development
- And much more
I admire Tristan a lot—particularly his mindset. He’s calm, humble, and confident. Relaxed and impactful. I’m very grateful to have had this conversation and to share it with you.
