Mig Reyes is the VP of Product Experience at Duolingo (and a design director at Instagram before that).
In this episode he shared a behind-the-scenes of how design operates at Duolingo (as well as some harsh truths designers need to hear).
- Common portfolio review mistakes
- How communication skills build influence
- Mig’s strategy behind hiring junior designers
- How to succeed in executive product reviews
- Mig’s mandate to raise the design bar at Duolingo
- How Mig revamped design management at Duolingo
- Why Duolingo changed from “UX” to “Product Experience”
- + a *lot* more
- Jacob Nielsen (commented on LinkedIn post)(https://www.linkedin.com/in/jakobnielsenphd?utm_source=share&utm_campaign=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=ios_app)
- Brett Westervelt (VP of Design at Instagram) (https://x.com/westervelt?lang=en)
- Ryan Sims (Chief Design Officer at Duolingo) (https://x.com/simmy?lang=en)
- Luis (CEO of Duolingo) (https://x.com/LuisvonAhn)
- Companies mentioned: Instagram, Airbnb, Coinbase, Meta, OpenAI, Figma
Chapters
0:00 Intro
1:41 Why Duolingo went away from the label "UX"
11:08 The mandate leadership gave Miggi
13:52 Reshaping design management at Duolingo
17:52 What it looks like to be an exceptional design manager
22:00 Duolingo's strategy of hiring lots of junior talent
26:03 How early career designers grow at Duolingo
30:18 What makes for a great design community
34:24 How to succeed in product reviews
37:22 How Mig has evolved the way he gives feedback
43:19 How to get really good at communication
49:06 What designers need to hear about hiring
52:15 Where designers go wrong in portfolio reviews
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