How to Design like OpenAI and Figma

52 snips

Apr 10, 2026

Guest

Ed Bayes

Guest

Gui Seiz

Ed Bayes, design staff at OpenAI who codes heavily, and Gui Seiz, Director of Product Design for AI at Figma who ships design PRs. They debate code versus canvas and when each wins. They demo importing running React screens into Figma and discuss design tokens, reliability of AI tools, and how teams enable designers to ship production code.

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INSIGHT

Code Versus Canvas Is A False Dichotomy

The code vs canvas split is largely a false dichotomy; designers should move fluidly between exploratory canvas work and deep code implementations.
Gui Seiz uses canvas for lateral exploration and code for making interactions real and testing responsive behavior.

ADVICE

Choose The Tool By What You Need To Learn

Pick the tool that best exposes the unknowns you need to learn, not the tool you're dogmatic about using.
Start in code for component finesse and interactions; start loose in canvas for whole-flow exploration and paradigm-breaking ideas.

ANECDOTE

Live React Screens Imported Into Figma

Ed demoed importing live React screens into Figma using Codex and the Figma MCP to produce editable, pixel-perfect Figma artifacts.
He copied a composer UI, edited strings in Figma, then pasted the component link back into Codex to update code.

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Today’s episode

The design process you learned is already dead.

Most teams still follow the same linear pipeline. Low fidelity to high fidelity to handoff. Sketch it. Spec it. Ship it over the wall. That pipeline was built around a constraint that no longer exists. High fidelity used to be expensive. It is not anymore.

I brought in two people who represent both sides of the new design infrastructure.

Ed Bayes is a member of the design staff at OpenAI. He leads design on Codex, which just crossed 2 million weekly users with usage surging 3X since the start of the year. He spends 70-80% of his time coding. He still calls himself a designer.

Gui Seiz is the Director of Product Design for AI at Figma. He leads design on all their AI features, including the Figma MCP server and Figma Make. His designers are now shipping PRs to production.

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Check out the conversation on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube.

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If you are trying to understand the new design workflow, this is the one episode to watch.

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I’m putting on a free webinar on Behavioral and AI PM interviews. Join me.

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Key Takeaways:

1. Code vs canvas is a false dichotomy - The best designers use both fluidly. Canvas for exploration, collaboration, and pixel-perfect craftsmanship. Code for interactions, responsive testing, and the last mile of polish. The question is what you are trying to learn, not which tool to commit to.

2. High fidelity is no longer expensive - The entire linear design process existed because building something interactive required engineering resources. That constraint is gone. A functional wireframe takes the same time as a paper sketch.

3. The Codex-Figma MCP makes handoff lossless - Import screens from a running React app into Figma with exact pixel values. Border radius, padding, shadows, all one to one. It is not a screenshot. It is a responsive, editable design artifact.

4. The reverse direction works seamlessly - Make changes in Figma, paste a component link into Codex, and it updates your code automatically. No redline spec, no handoff document.

5. Ed spends 70-80% of his time coding and still calls himself a designer - The medium changed but the mandate did not. Designers are still the voice of the user, still upholding craft. The tools expanded, the role stayed.

6. Figma designers are shipping PRs to production - Teams that six months ago were AI curious are now banging down the door. Monetization designers who never wrote code are building technically complex prototypes.

7. "Prototypes, not PRDs" is the emerging norm - PMs at OpenAI bring working prototypes to design reviews. They ship PRs to stress-test ideas before handing off to engineering.

8. You do not need permission to start - Someone from OpenAI's GTM team built an iOS app with zero experience. Download Codex and build something for yourself tonight.

9. Curiosity is the defining skill for this era - Not code proficiency, not design talent. The AI is an infinitely patient tutor. Ask questions. Build understanding alongside output.

10. Total football is the mental model - Every player can play every position. Roles still have natural spikes. But the tool constraints that enforced rigid boundaries are dissolving.

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Where to find Ed Bayes

* LinkedIn

* OpenAI

* X

Where to find Gui Seiz

* LinkedIn

* Figma

* X