Ep#6: Figma Config, Source of Truth, and Craft in AI Adoption

Tom and Jonny share updates from Tom’s Mostly Working meetup in London with Kate Pincot (Multiverse), focused on scaling design impact through tooling and agents, and preview upcoming podcast guests in July.

They reflect on how the meetup format has evolved as more people have hands-on AI experience, shifting from first experiments to practical, scaled adoption inside teams, with more focus on token costs and measurable value.

They discuss Figma Config releases (Motion, Figma Weave, Sites/Make, and upcoming code components), debating canvas-first vs code-first workflows and the “source of truth” question for enterprise teams.

Jonny summarizes a Near Future Works post on AI transformation: set a coherent strategy, secure org-wide buy-in, and maintain craft/quality so AI speed doesn’t produce worse outcomes. They also touch on music ownership, a Claude Code World Cup calendar prompt, Anthropic “Fable” returning and Sonnet 5, Z.ai’s open-weights GLM model, a keyboard-shortcuts tool, and an open online workshop (Aug 13) to build design tools.

00:00 Welcome and agenda
00:12 Mostly Working recap
00:52 Podcast updates and banter
03:01 Meetup lessons so far
07:13 Figma Config reactions
12:39 Source of truth debate
22:51 Jagged frontier and craft
28:11 Quality Bar Cannot Drop
28:47 Barbell Strategy for AI
30:18 Craft Beyond Output
32:37 Atrophy and Writing Muscle
35:47 Craft Across Disciplines
36:40 Music Ownership Stories
41:22 Claude Calendar World Cup
42:57 AI News Frontier Models
45:27 Beautiful Shortcuts Tool
46:57 Open Workshop Invite
49:48 Signup Feedback and Wrap

Links:
Mostly Working: https://luma.com/mostly-working
Near Future blog post: https://nearfuture.works/updates/a-new-jagged-frontier-why-craft-still-matters
Figma's config keynote: https://config.figma.com/san-francisco/session/829e6ced-3257-4f5c-b675-aa72f4d1f98f/
GLM5.2 by z.ai: https://z.ai/
https://shrtcts.click/
Our next workshop: https://nearfuture.works/build

As always, feedback welcome at [email protected]

Find us at nearfuture.works

Click here to view the episode transcript.