For most of my career, I’ve had ideas I couldn’t fully bring to life.

Not because I didn’t care enough. Not because I lacked vision. But because I couldn’t write the code.

As a design leader, I’ve been fortunate to work with incredibly talented teams, often leading 80+ people across organisations. I’ve helped shape processes, grow capability and deliver meaningful outcomes. But I’ve always been on the design side of the fence, leaning on others to help ship the final build.

That’s changed.

In the last year, I’ve experienced a shift. A creative unlock that I didn’t see coming. AI tools like Cursor and Replit paired with platforms like Sanity and Clerk, Supbase and more have given me the ability to go from idea to execution, solo. What once required a team now requires curiosity and persistence.

It’s not about becoming a developer. It’s about reducing the friction between imagination and creation.

The first time I shipped something end-to-end using these tools, it felt like a cheat code. For the first time in years, I wasn’t just imagining a product—I was building it. Fast. Imperfect. Real.

This is vibe coding.

Vibe coding is more than a trend, it’s a mindset. It’s the space between design and dev where experimentation, exploration and intuition thrive. It’s where you stop waiting for a developer’s time and start building with what you have.

Some of the tools are clunky. Some of the outputs are rough. But the creative energy? It’s unmatched.

We’re not just talking about efficiency here. We’re talking about freedom. The freedom to test an idea quickly. The freedom to fail in the open. The freedom to go from sketch to site in hours, not weeks.

And the way we interact with this technology is about to leap again.

Typing will soon feel quaint. Mouse clicks? Obsolete. Even talking to ChatGPT like I am now will eventually feel mechanical. The next interface is voice, vision, presence—your tone, your movement, your context.

It won’t be about using a tool. It’ll be about the tool understanding you.

I think we’re closer to that future than most realise. And I’m more excited now than I was when I first started writing about this stuff back in 2016.

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So here’s my message to any designer sitting on an idea:

This is your moment. The tools have changed. The blockers are gone.
Build the thing.

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Originally inspired by my blog post from 2016: A Letter from the Future