377: Future-Proof Designer

<p>This week, we talk about the skills and tools that designers can learn to become future-proof. In The Sidebar, we share our impressions, tips, and best practices for using Figma Variants.</p><hr /><h3><strong>Latest VIP Patrons:</strong></h3><ul><li>Jesper Andrell</li><li>David</li><li>Nikita Khapankov</li><li>Keyla Rodriguez</li><li>Tanner Woodworth</li><li>Josh</li><li>Miles</li><li>Jason Zurita</li><li>John Thachil</li><li>Katherine R</li><li>Ross PW</li><li>Timothy</li><li>Grady Congdon</li><li>Jon Wood</li></ul><hr /><h3><strong>The Sidebar:</strong></h3><p>The Sidebar is an exclusive weekly segment for our Patreon supporters. You can subscribe starting at $1 per month for access to full episodes going forward! Sign up at <a href="https://patreon.com/designdetails">https://patreon.com/designdetails</a>.</p><p>In this week's Sidebar, we do a deep dive into Figma's recent release of Variants. We talk about the interface itself, best practices, and tips for making the most of Variants.</p><ul><li>Followup: <a href="https://twitter.com/gabrielvaldivia/status/1338224397841154048">Gabe Valdivia's tweeted a thread</a> with more points about how to think about job tenure in tech.</li><li><a href="https://help.figma.com/hc/en-us/articles/360056440594">Figma Variants</a></li><li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cartesian_product">Cartesian product</a></li><li>Not yet live, but <a href="https://twitter.com/alexeinars/status/1335004062375415816">this preview of a Figma plugin to generate missing variants</a> looks fantastic.</li></ul><hr /><h3><strong>Follow up:</strong></h3><ul><li><a href="https://twitter.com/KRLyric/status/1338125820930514949?s=20">Katherine tweeted</a> some solid praise for our Patreon - thank you for supporting the show!</li></ul><hr /><h3><strong>Main topic:</strong></h3><p>This week's listener question comes from <a href="https://github.com/designdetails/designdetails/issues/486">Loucas Papantoniou on GitHub</a>: <i>Design has matured as a discipline, there are a lot of good people in th