Marvin Schwaibold leads the product design studio at Shopify, where his team is rethinking some of the company’s most important products for the AI era. Before Shopify, he co-founded the design studio Molly, working with companies including Apple and Google and building a reputation for highly crafted, interactive design.

In this episode of Design Review, Marvin joins YC’s Aaron Epstein to show how AI has changed his process, from using Figma as a scratchpad to building working prototypes directly with tools like Codex. He explains why designers are becoming more like editors, how AI is making them more full-stack, and why taste and judgment matter even more when the tools can build almost anything.

Then they review viewer-submitted websites and break down how hierarchy, motion, typography, and restraint can make a product feel more intentional.

00:00 — Inside Shopify’s Design Studio
00:30 — Designing With AI
01:44 — Designers Are Becoming Editors
03:25 — How Design Works at Shopify
05:58 — From Molly to Shopify
08:55 — Designing for Exploration
10:22 — Why the Details Matter
11:33 — Designing the Future at Shopify
13:24 — Prototypes Beat PRDs
15:29 — Rethinking Shopify With Sidekick
17:52 — Designers Are Becoming Builders
21:58 — Recreating Reality
24:33 — Dialing In AI-Generated Design
28:31 — Raising the Bar
31:04 — Website Review: Endstack
35:02 — SkillSync
40:49 — Instaplay
45:34 — Mintlify
51:42 — Knowlify
58:34 — Instinct Space