LinkedIn Design

I am back with a bad hair day but more importantly, Part 2 of PMing for Designer Baddies!

🎉 Big milestone this week! I led two training sessions to onboard all 25 LMS designers to Cursor, and everyone successfully submitted their first PR! This unlocks a new way of working where designers can go from product to code, boosting efficiency and collaboration across the board. Along the way, I learned a few things worth sharing in case your team is also thinking about this: 1️⃣ 𝐁𝐫𝐢𝐝𝐠𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐮𝐚𝐠𝐞 𝐠𝐚𝐩 New coders face a wall of engineering terms: repo, branch, PR, merge, etc. In addition to explaining each concept long with screenshots, I found it helpful to explain them through design analogies: GitHub is like Figma projects; a PR is like a design review; Figma also has the concept of branch and merge. Making visual diagrams of the relationships also helps make it click. 2️⃣ 𝐇𝐞𝐥𝐩 𝐧𝐞𝐰 𝐜𝐨𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐝 𝐚𝐧𝐬𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐟𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫 & 𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐢𝐞𝐫 We created a Glean agent filled with step-by-step guides, FAQs, and troubleshooting tips so designers can ask questions naturally instead of digging through a 30-page doc. We first onboarded five core designers to pilot the materials and host working sessions, keeping our eng partners from being overloaded. 3️⃣ 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐯𝐢𝐝𝐞 𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐥 𝐬𝐚𝐟𝐞𝐭𝐲 Learning to code can feel intimidating. My biggest fear when I first started was that I bring campaign manager down and got fired. But learning that it's almost impossible and understanding the concept of a branch gives me a peace of mind to experiment and learn. So I made sure our team also has a the mental safety to freely explore the tools and try the new workflow. 4️⃣ 𝐅𝐫𝐚𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐬 𝐤𝐞𝐲 Not everyone will be stocked about coding. Expect strong resistance when onboarding the entire team. I’ve found it helps to acknowledge the frustration and reframe the experience as a learning adventure. Everyone’s curious about AI and wants to stay competitive, so lean into that shared motivation and make it exciting. 5️⃣ 𝐃𝐞𝐬𝐢𝐠𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐦𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐠𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭 𝐟𝐮𝐥𝐥-𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐜𝐤 𝐛𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬 Designers already understand the user problem and own the solution. With the right tools, we can boost the efficiency from static screens to live products, ensuring quality and freeing engineers to focus on deeper system challenges. The training and onboarding won’t go smoothly without the agents developed by Matthew Bice, Sparshith Rai, Ana Ignat, Beijuan Miao, Brendan McWeeney and the seamless collaboration on content with Jenna C. and Xuan Z..  It’s truly a team effort. Here's a quick video demo of how designers can leverage the agents to fix bugs and up-level our product quality. (of course there was a glitch playing this video in a big presentation)

I built an agent in Cursor for designers to create Pull Requests (PRs) and JIRA tickets automagically. 🪄 Our design team kicked off an initiative to help designers get hands-on with code and fix small bugs in the product. Matthew Bice built five custom agents in Cursor that work together to investigate the bug and codebase, implement changes following our guidelines, review code, and generate a GitHub PR summary – a workflow that usually requires manual work across multiple platforms. Now, we can just run the agents autonomously. I was really inspired by how thoughtfully he connected everything. 🧩 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗴𝗮𝗽 𝗜 𝗻𝗼𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗲𝗱 When I used the PR agent, it generated a great PR summary. But I still had to manually: Commit the branch → Navigate to GitHub → Create the PR → Paste the summary → Add screenshots → Submit Each step felt unclear at first, so I had to stop, ask Cursor questions, share screenshots, and figure it out as I went. 🔧 𝗟𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗯𝘆 𝗯𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 (𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗯𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴…) Inspired by Matthew’s setup, I wanted to streamline the PR workflow further. Matthew and Brendan encouraged me to try. I explored the PR agent code, clarified edge cases with Cursor, integrated GitHub CLI and JIRA auth, mapped out a plan, and let Cursor execute. 🤖 The updated PR agent went live quickly, but my first iteration was far from perfect: it announced every step, cluttering the chat; didn’t follow branch naming conventions (my first PR auto-closed 😅); overwrote PR titles and summaries after each commit, losing the big picture; the agent file became messy and repetitive… 🔁 𝗥𝗲𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 So… back to iteration! I worked with Cursor to simplify logic, reduce noise, improve messaging, and add fallback instructions when automation wasn’t possible. Now, the PR agent creates and updates PRs with proper naming, auto-creates JIRA tickets when needed, works quietly (only announcing key milestones), and handling edge cases with smoother UX. There’s still room to improve, but like design — it’s all iterative. 💡 𝗧𝗮𝗸𝗲𝗮𝘄𝗮𝘆𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗱𝗲𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗻 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴𝘀:  • Plan before you build: Brainstorm with Cursor first, then take action.  • Keep the agent file clean: Ask the AI to flag logic flaws and simplify the code.  • Design the messages thoughtfully: Share only what users need to know and make it easy to act. Consider message length, formatting, order, font styles, and whether it even needs to be communicated.  • Bring design thinking to the agent creation process: Treat your agent like a product—understand users, define the journey, clarify edge cases, test assumptions, and iterate for clarity.  • Human handoff matters: If something can’t be automated, write clear fallback steps and test them with real cases. Huge thanks to Matthew for being an inspiring thought partner and giving me the space to explore. 🙏 If you’re experimenting with AI workflows as a designer or team, I hope this sparks some ideas!

For the past few months, I’ve been stepping into a Product role on my team at LinkedIn. I’m kicking off a video series to share what I’ve learned—along with tips and what other designers can expect if you're considering a similar move. Introducing PMing for Designer Baddies, Part 1!

Welp, another one for the books, and this year’s #Afrotech25 was nothing short of phenomenal. Heading into conference week, I knew I’d be surrounded by love, excitement, optimism, and community, but this year felt different. In a moment when the world feels heavy, intentionally immersing myself in the #BlackBoyJoy and #BlackGirlMagic was both humbling and needed. It was the energy boost I didn’t know I needed, and it became the common thread across so many incredible talks. In this unprecedented time, where AI is surpassing our wildest dreams and the political climate is... well, we won't go there (we can), it’s clear that we need to refocus on what truly matters: telling our stories, building community, and uplifting humanity as a whole. This week was a beautiful reminder that no matter what technological leaps or political regressions come our way, storytelling, inclusivity, and connection remain our superpowers. We hold the power to shape our collective future, to inform, teach, and strengthen our fight for humanity. A few of my favorite moments: Jidenna, the forever “Classic Man,” walked us through his creative reinvention and how he’s leveraging AI to explore new corners of his imagination. Watching him blend his past, present, and future through AI was mind-blowing (and that leather jacket? drop the plug!). His reminder to “Focus on the process, not the product” hit home — AI doesn’t have to be scary; it can be playful, exploratory, and fun!! Baratunde Thurston gave a masterclass on using AI intentionally, breaking it down into three pillars: Accelerate: Use AI to make us more efficient and expand our potential. Automate: Don’t look at it as a replacement, but as an enhancer that gives us time to focus on what we love. Accommodate: Use these tools to reset, reshape, and reimagine the future for ourselves and our communities. Stacey Abrams, my forever Governor (yeah, I said it!), delivered a powerful call to action about the intentional suppression of public engagement with AI. Her words stuck with me: “DEI is the DNA of America, and it’s a superpower we can automate through AI.” She reminded us that knowledge sharing and community building aren’t optional; they’re essential if we want a future that’s inclusive of everyone. Lastly, a huge shoutout to my #LinkedIn family (new and old). I’m grateful to work for a company that shows up in spaces others often overlook. From the Expo Hall to the Center Stage, our impact was undeniable.(Special shoutout to Khemi Cooper and Shaliniagarwal Agarwal for their Semantic Search demo, and Mohak Shroff for his discussion on Agency in AI!) I had the time of my life and can’t wait to see what next year brings. Until then, I’ll be chanting — “Hey LinkedIn, welcome to #Afrotech25!” ✊🏾

Design connected this week through Halloween crafts in each office, creating space for creativity, conversation, and the culture that keeps us united across locations. Happy Halloween!