One Star Summit Review

‘One star, this wasn’t mostly working at all! It was… actually quite polished.’

I’m sorry, good sir, we’ll issue a refund immediately.

We did it, folks! This morning’s Mostly Working Summit was our biggest meetup to date: 70+ design leaders in a room, talking about what’s mostly working and what isn’t with AI in design right now.

Although this is quite literally a LinkedIn post, I’m convinced there’s nothing more professionally valuable right now than comparing notes with like-minded peers and getting a broader view of what AI is actually doing to each of our worlds.

That’s why we gave an hour at the summit to small, curated roundtables for connection and discussion, grouping tables by role, seniority or the leadership challenges they’re likely facing.

I was nervous people wouldn’t be up for it. But the opposite turned out to be true. Afterwards, several people told me it was the single most valuable part of any event they’d been to recently.

You can hear interesting people talk on a podcast any time (says the podcast host!). But connecting in person is hard to beat, especially when everyone’s working through the same changes at once.

The real sign it worked, though, was when we asked tables to wrap up. Most chose to keep talking, or got their phones out to swap details.

Some participants mentioned having ‘aha’ moments, seeing implications of designing with AI they hadn’t considered. Others talked about the feeling of calm on realising they weren’t alone.

That’s sort of what the whole morning was about. In our talk, Jonny and I said nobody really has the answers, least of all for what’s unique to your situation or organisation. We’re all figuring this out together, and we believe the best way to do that is in the same room, rather than passively consuming one ‘expert’s’ take.

Huge thanks to our wonderful fireside panellists: Steve Ruiz, Caitlin Rich, Jack Haslehurst, Lily Dart, 💥 Kate Pincott and Joel Miller, for sharing such deep wisdom and varied perspectives, and to Thomas Ruffle and Heldiney Pereira at Monzo for hosting us.

And to my fellow Mostly Working Summit co-conspirator, Jonny Burch 🫶

Catch you next time ✌️