Polymet (YC S24)

We’re likely getting closer to a time when Figma will be displaced by the next big tool the industry shifts to. Five years ago when I began advising the leadership team at Desquared, the Design org was fully entrenched in Sketch which was still considered the incumbent at the time. One of my first recommendations was to transition the team to Figma instead. We’re now at a point where the next major shift could happen sometime in the next 12-24 months. One of the candidates vying for Next Big Design Tool could be?Paper*?which has been generating some buzz lately (private beta currently). However there's also a pool of AI-powered candidates vying to be the next incumbent, aiming to displace all/most/some of the development too. Another one popped up on my radar this week:?Play**?which claims to make it easy to ship directly to the App Store by handling all the Xcode for you. tl;dr the next big design tool is likely just around the corner and it may be powered by AI partly or wholly. For now, carry on in Figma. But stay curious. — * Paper: https://paper.design ** Play: https://createwithplay.com

I’m demo’ing our new Infinite Canvas to our existing and potential customers these days and hearing the same question a couple of times, "Are we in Figma now, or is this Polymet?" I smile every time hear this question because it validates our approach: -- Build on what works, -- Respect designers' existing workflows, -- Innovate in ways that feel intuitive rather than intrusive. If you want to see Polymet Canvas in action or want to join beta for the next couple of days, please DM me - you don’t need to be a paid customer to do it :)

ETA 48 hours...

New update will land in the next 72 hours. Not much to say, we're literally building the future of design... Watch it for yourself, and let me know if you want beta access!

Interesting pattern we've noticed: our power users (those spending 2-3 hours daily in Polymet) barely use long prompts, but consistently get PERFECT designs from Polymet. We finally discovered their way: 1/ They start simple - just defining what the product is, who the customer is, and what they're building (dashboard, landing page, app). 2/ Then they set clear design parameters - selecting colors and establishing design language with specific keywords like "notion-like design," "spotify-like UI," or "use only #FFF/#000 with opacity variations instead of colors," "neobrutalist design," "flat design." 3/ Finally, they iterate through targeted tweaks until reaching the final version. Instead of one exhaustive prompt, they're sending concise, trackable prompts in sequence - essentially directing the design rather than letting AI make all decisions. It's like having a conversation with the AI instead of giving it a monologue. We're doubling down on this workflow in our next updates.