Lenny RachitskyHost of Lenny's Podcast | Author of Lenny's Newsletter

Designers don't need to ship code

6 May 2026 · 1 min

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Designers should learn to code not to ship it, but to understand how their medium actually works. Writing code forces you to grapple with agent loops and system mechanics instead of just tweaking surfaces. A designer who understands these fundamentals is far more valuable than one who only adjusts styles.

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I actually don't care at all whether designers write code that lands in production. The reason I like thinking in code is because it forces you to consider the medium. If then all of that gets thrown out, great. So for example, I think the two extremes would be if a PM or designer knows how to tweak small details of the UI, but they don't understand how an agent loop works, I would much rather take the designer or PM that deeply has an affinity for understanding how agent loops work. And can design those than someone who can write the traditional software and tweak styles. And that's really hard because I think the only way that you can actually get to understanding agent loops is if you build them in the material that they're made of, which is currently code. I think that's why I care that people code, not because of the utility of shipping to production, but because it forces you to really interrogate the material that you're designing with.