figma·Jul 9, 2026·2 min readCurated summary

How to Lead Design Teams Through the AI Era | Figma Blog

Jen Dunnam argues that design leaders should respond to AI-driven change with calm, deliberate experimentation rather than panic. The fundamentals of design remain human-centered, so teams should prioritize clear thinking, strong principles, and the ability to turn insights into products. Her approach emphasizes investing in emerging talent while hiring and developing designers who can challenge assumptions. ## Lead with Calm - Leaders should steady their teams instead of adding to the urgency already felt by ambitious designers. - Break AI-related change into manageable steps: - Choose an approach. - Experiment with appropriate tools. - Refine design principles. - Learn from the results. - Designers should avoid chasing every new capability simply because it is novel or impressive. - AI may transform workflows, but designing for human needs remains the central responsibility. ## Hire for Critical Thinking - Dunnam would invest more heavily in designers fresh out of school, many of whom are disadvantaged by today’s pressure to ship quickly. - Pair early-career designers with experienced practitioners who can help turn ideas into shippable products. - Look for researchers who can move beyond gathering insights and contribute decisively to product direction. - Critical thinking has become especially valuable as AI tools make polished but potentially shallow solutions easier to produce. - Interviewers should ask candidates: - Where did they disagree with a stakeholder? - How did they push back? - What product decision still bothers them? - These questions reveal whether candidates can challenge attractive but poorly reasoned solutions. Dunnam’s practical recommendation is to keep teams grounded in human-centered design, combine emerging and experienced talent, and hire people with the judgment to question what appears easy, polished, or technologically exciting.

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grammarly·Apr 30, 2026·2 min readCurated summary

Educator of the Year

Grammarly’s inaugural Educator of the Year Award honors teachers nominated directly by their students. The first winner, Dr. Humberto López Castillo of the University of Central Florida, is recognized for teaching precise, accessible communication and applying it to public health, technology, and community engagement. His approach combines audience-aware writing, responsible AI use, and hands-on research. ## Student-Led Recognition - Students nominate educators through short videos describing their impact on academic and professional development. - UCF student Vardhan Avaradi nominated Dr. López Castillo for encouraging students to make their language “precise yet accessible.” - López Castillo is a pediatrician, public health researcher, translator, and four-language polyglot from Panama. - His teaching emphasizes collaboration and the connection between individual health and broader communities. ## Communicating With Different Audiences - Students translate complex public health topics for audiences outside academia. - Assignments have included: - Storybooks about mosquitoes for kindergarteners - Monopoly-style games about living with HIV - Rap songs explaining tuberculosis - Podcasts that personalize epidemiology - His medical experience informs this approach: communication must change depending on whether the audience is a child, parent, or professional researcher. ## AI Requires Human Judgment - López Castillo permits students to use AI for drafting but expects them to verify and critically evaluate its output. - When AI-generated citations referenced nonexistent research, he treated the error as a lesson rather than a punishment. - He compares AI to a calculator: useful and powerful, but dependent on the judgment of the person using it. - He and Vardhan are developing a machine learning project using the NIH All of Us dataset, which contains nearly one million de-identified health records. - Their research explores using AI to classify populations and predict health risks. ## Preparing Students for Broader Impact - Students leave with stronger writing, critical-thinking, collaboration, and communication skills. - López Castillo’s teaching focuses not just on adopting new tools, but on using them responsibly and communicating with purpose. - His students learn to reach people beyond academic audiences while keeping human needs at the center of technology and research. The post’s central recommendation is to pair emerging technologies with critical thinking, audience awareness, and a strong sense of social responsibility.

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