Dean Kakridas
38.9K posts

Dean Kakridas
@ATX
Most organizations commit to the work before they're clear on the problem. I help fix that. Brand, product, innovation. frog alum. Austin.
Austin, TX Entrou em Ocak 2007
1.3K Seguindo3.2K Seguidores

Upstream: Running with Scissors
Most design and product leaders I'm talking to right now are in a similar spot.
They know AI changes how the work gets done. They want to move. But their security team hasn't approved the tooling. The budget hasn't caught up. The team is already running at capacity. And there's a leadership team expecting results without much patience for what it actually takes.
So they're caught between knowing they should act and not having the time and space to do it.
John Maeda said something at SXSW last week that's worth repeating. He talks about AI as a pair of scissors — two blades. One is cognition (the model). The other is context (the environment): the constraints, the real data, the judgment you bring to the problem. Either blade alone is useless. Without context, AI just predicts. Pair it with someone who actually understands the problem, and it cuts. With someone who cares as much as you do, like butter.
The tool stack is the easy part. Knowing what you're trying to cut is harder.
Maeda also talked about designers being tree-shaped. Not T-shaped, where you're broad with one deep skill. Tree-shaped: roots that go in multiple directions, a trunk that holds it all together. The leaders building that kind of depth right now aren't doing it alone. For a lot of the teams we work with, one of those roots is external — not as a workaround, but as a genuine source of the context that makes everything else sharper.
The anti-fragile play isn't to bolt on AI tools and hope for the best. It's to build the judgment to use them well. Some of that comes from inside. Some of it you reach for.
I got my copy of Could, Should, Might, Don't signed by Nick Foster at SXSW. His whole practice is about imagining futures instead of just forecasting them. A good reminder that knowing where you're going isn't the same as being able to picture it.
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@Oliviacoder1 Nobody needs another noisy AI generated LinkedIn profile. Click bait.
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bro, it's so over for designers
google stitch is insane. 🤯

Stitch by Google@stitchbygoogle
Meet the new Stitch, your vibe design partner. Here are 5 major upgrades to help you create, iterate and collaborate: 🎨 AI-Native Canvas 🧠 Smarter Design Agent 🎙️ Voice ⚡️ Instant Prototypes 📐 Design Systems and DESIGN.md Rolling out now. Details and product walkthrough video in 🧵
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I think the entire country of Brazil is here at #SXSW2026 #sambanerds
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Call me crazy but I think Mikey Romero could be an solid piece of this 2026 Boston Red Sox team
Tyler Milliken@tylermilliken_
Mikey Romero. Missed a bit of time with back tightness, now he's back showing off the hops at second base.
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@BostonStrong_34 He's probably just working on new pitches. It's ST. Y'all don't know ball.
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Demi Moore looks stunning with her new short hair 🤩 Rocking a full leather getup for the Gucci show at Milan Fashion Week, the actress, 63, wowed everyone with her new look, her dog Pilaf by her side 💖
📽️ : #DemiMoore #BradGoreski
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@BOSSportsGordo I didn’t want to lose him for Ketel marte, but at the same time if they feel this way about him he shouldn’t have been what held them up from making that trade
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Alex Cora made it clear today that Marcelo Mayer has to earn his job on the roster:
"With Marcelo, like I said yesterday or two days ago, we'll give him the baton, but he has to run. You know, if he wants to be the starting second baseman in Cincinnati, there's a lot of work to do. It's not a given that he's second baseman or third baseman for this team. There's a lot of things that he needs to show us this spring, and we expect him to do that because he's that talented, but at the same time, there's a lot of guys here that can do the job."
(via @IanMBrowne)

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@ggeiss_mlb Marcelo is the one going nuclear, not light hitting Gogbout
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Who else is sick of the lame Olympic-themed @TedLorenz ads on auto-repeat? 🤮
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@mattblively Eldridge at 1B and Devers DH is the not-too-distant future IF
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The newly built #SFGiants infield. Devers at first, Arraez at second, Adames at short, Chapman at third.
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