State of Design - Insights, Panel and Build Sessions
We've been surveying designers across North America on the real state of design careers — the job market, how AI is landing in daily work, what's shifting in the craft, and where people feel stuck. The full report drops later this year. This is the first look.
Part 1: Early Insights + Panel
We'll share what's emerging from the data — the findings that surprised us and the ones that should concern you. Then three design leaders from across fintech react live:
Daniel Sanchez — Director of Product Design, Scotiabank
Jason Li — Director of Product Design, Ramp
Preet Singh — Head of Product Design, EQ Bank
Three companies. Three very different scales. One question: how is AI actually changing design work inside financial products — where the stakes are real, the constraints are heavy, and "move fast and break things" isn't an option? What tracks in the data, what doesn't, and what the survey isn't capturing.
Part 2: AI Build Session
Here's where it gets real. We're taking the biggest pain points surfacing in the survey — broken design critique, journey maps that die after one meeting, design systems nobody adopts, research that never reaches the people who need it — and turning them into build briefs. You'll break into small teams, pick a problem, and use AI tools to build a working solution in under an hour. Then you demo it to the room.
This isn't a hypothetical exercise. These are real problems from real designers. Come with your laptop and your tools.
In-person at Intuit Canada, Toronto. Space is limited.
Haven't taken the survey yet: https://designx.community/survey Do it before you come — your answers shape the briefs.