Config23 notes and reflections

This article was initially published in Algoramus, my Substack Newsletter.

# SkyNetNotYet

"Are you scared of generative AI?" and "You're the hero you've been waiting for!" - Ovetta Patrice Sampson

The talk I enjoyed most was, hands down, Generative AI and creative arms race by Ovetta Patrice Sampson. I rarely re-watch conference talks, but I already re-watched this one.

Ovetta was energising, funny, informative and timely. In essence, she reminded us of (some) human qualities and argued for a future the power of computing meets unique humanity.

A few notes:

• Ovetta mentioned pattern recognition. In his book?Bounce, Matthew Syed describes how pattern recognition plays a huge role in attaining mastery (e.g. in sports).
• drawing releases serotonin and dopamine, which makes you happy
• humans are capable of taking risks and breaking the rules, something computers notoriously struggle with

Navigating uncertainty

"The fear of looking foolish might keep us from doing things that we would love." - Haraldur Thorleiffson

Halli was really powerful, authentic and vulnerable. I felt he spoke directly to me when he said this quote above. His path to building Ueno is inspirational, almost like his?initiative to build the 1500 ramps across Iceland.

A design-led company

If one person at Config23 stirred much controversy, it was Brian Chesky.

• Brian restructured AirBnB from a business unit-led to a functional org company, essentially creating a single design department that sees the entire product
• Created immense focus via a single shared roadmap and choosing to assign the best people to 10% most impactful work
• A/B tests without hypothesis abdicate responsibility to users
• Ship only things you're proud of
• You cannot develop products unless you know how to talk about products (PMM is an essential function)
• Design is so much more than moving pixels on a screen; it's a way of seeing the world

Other stuff I loved

Friction Logging ritual of reviewing product in cross-functional walk-throughs mentioned by Katie Dill and David Singleton from Stripe

I love a good framework, and I love to experiment with productivity. The Cadence/Catalyst/Content framework discussed in Rituals of modern product teams was my cup of tea.

Adobe's focus on artists and AI and their work on metadata credentials in assets to track attribution, as mentioned by Scott Belsky.

I enjoyed Slack's Ethan Eismann's talk. What stood up was the Utility Curve and what to build to unleash non-linear returns.

Figma product launches

Of course, there were a few product launches announced at Config23. Let's talk about Variables.

During my time with Fortune Cookie between 2011 and 2012, AxureRP was my go-to prototyping tool. At one point, I build the entire National Rail Enquiries' shopping basket in Axure, using variables. Some gnarly interactions needed validation, so I had to prototype all the interactivity for adding train tickets to the basket, updating the basket, checkout and more. Through today's lens, building prototypes like this sounds like a waste of time. After all, designers and engineers closely pair to bring an experience to life quickly. There is also an omnipresent iterative cycle to course-correct from customer feedback. But at the time and in that context, Axure prototypes were the fastest way to get the design in the hands of customers.

Is bringing rich Variables the right path forward for Figma, though? Is this level of complexity a solid addition to the tool, or is it making Figma unnecessarily bloated?

I would much rather see an AI-powered code-first prototyping tool that can manipulate the design on the screen directly. Think about Framer on steroids.

Closing thoughts

While some talks were focused on tools and craft, others felt way more inspirational and thought-provoking. Config23 didn't manage to glue those two areas together for me. It felt like two different events mushed into one. Config (and Figma itself?) needs to find its identity. That feeling may have been very different for those who could have joined in person. Still, I saw a ton of valuable and thought-provoking content. Big thanks to the speakers and organisers. Will I be dialling into the next one? Definitely!

What were *your* top takeaways?