As we step into an era of increasingly powerful AI, the way we work is undergoing a quiet but seismic shift. The skills of prompting and verifying, once seen as marginal or niche, are now fast becoming essential. Especially for product designers. There’s a framing I like, attributed to Balaji Srinivasan: AI handles tasks “middle to middle.” The in-between parts get automated. The messy, ambiguous edges – the brief, the constraints, the intent, the emotion – still need a human touch. That’s where product designers come in. And that’s where prompting shows up, not as a technical trick, but as a creative craft.
AI isn’t replacing the product designers. It’s replacing the blank canvas. And what you do with that is still very much up to you.
At Mobbin, we’ve always believed in giving product teams the best references, patterns, and real-world workflows to learn from. Prompting is simply another kind of reference. A well-crafted prompt is just a better starting point. It gets you to a baseline faster, so you can iterate on what matters.
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This issue of DesignWhine explores prompt engineering from multiple angles, and not just the usual ones. From the rise of lazy prompting and prompt marketplaces, to questions around intellectual property, gender representation, and whether AI has already disrupted UX writing careers, the articles uncover how wide and unresolved this space really is. Even visual prompting is beginning to take shape as a serious design skill. The field is evolving in real time, and we’re all learning as we go which makes it the perfect moment to pause and think.
My hope is that this issue inspires you to lean in, explore, question, and experiment. Don’t dismiss this as hype. Billions in investment are fueling a real wave, and ignoring it wouldn’t change that reality. Instead, embrace AI as a collaborator. Use it to push boundaries.
Thanks to the DesignWhine team for curating such thoughtful set of articles. And thank you for reading. Wherever this journey takes us, I’m excited to see what we build together.
Jovin
Co‑founder & Head of Growth,
Mobbin
