Duologues: the conversations shaping Duolingo Design

Duologues: the conversations shaping Duolingo Design

A learning and development series driving design culture at Duolingo

At Duolingo, it's no secret that we're *pretty* passionate about learning - but not just when it comes to languages! Behind our playful green mascot and gamified lessons lies a design team that's equally committed to continuous growth and improvement. In an industry that's constantly iterating, we're always looking for ways to learn from each other. And when we don't have the answers? We venture out to find them.

What started as a grassroots initiative by Lokesh Fulfagar evolved into Duologues: a year-long speaker series bringing some of the most creative minds to our virtual doorstep. We chatted with leaders from OpenAI, Google, Figma, Shopify, and (of course) our very own Duos to discuss design excellence and opportunities for growth. Curious about the insights shaping Duolingo design? Keep reading to find out.

Table of contents:

1. What are the three pillars for design excellence?
2. How can one's career grow beyond the ladder?
3. How does leadership play a role?

Three pillars for design excellence

As design roles continue to shift and expand, it may feel like growth lies in a million directions. But throughout our conversations, three skillsets emerged as the most prominent: craft, strategy, and resilience.

Craft is at the center of what we do, and we should recognize the time it takes to improve it. Mick Champagne (Staff Designer, Google) emphasized that "Visual design comes down to time and patience." Strong craft emerges from a cumulation of tasks, projects, and pixels. In this process, it's also important to remain authentic. Outside of the pixels, embedding personality into our work also means paying close attention to the micro-interactions, copy, and sound of an experience. It's this nuance and human 'feel' that can't yet be replicated by AI, and what can separate your work from others.

While mastery of craft is important, pairing this with strategic thinking leads to impact. Noah Levin (VP of Design, Figma) believes that strategy is "not just a doc, but an evolving discussion." Designers should be trained as both executioners and strategic thinkers. At times, this means functioning similarly and at the same caliber with their product partners. Having a dual focus can be a learning curve, but will help designers build credibility and influence in the rooms that really matter.

We're just trying to make something cool and different, and even if it 'fails', no lives were necessarily lost.

At Duolingo, our senior designers made it clear that the soft skills are just as important. Being able to tell a story, getting close to the learner, and advocating for space in early exploration are all tactical ways to improve our work as designers. But even when plans fall short? Hoshi Ludwig (Director of Product Design, Duolingo) reminds us to stay resilient and keep perspective: "We're just trying to make something cool and different, and even if it 'fails', no lives were necessarily lost."

Career growth beyond the ladder

The days of a one-size-fits-all career progression are behind us. Sebastian Speier (Design Leader, Shopify) challenged conventionalism, noting that movement between management and IC roles should be normalized. A craft-specific framework recognizes that growth can happen in multiple directions, whether you're mastering your craft, mentoring others, or both. "Being a manager isn't the only path forward," Sebastian emphasized. "There should be no ceiling for ICs who want to grow in their careers as well."

Successful teams need both divergent thinkers who excel at exploring possibilities and convergent thinkers who thrive on narrowing down to the (most) perfect solution.

This flexibility extends to how we work and think. Noah Levin highlighted that successful teams need both divergent thinkers who excel at exploring possibilities and convergent thinkers who thrive on narrowing down to the (most) perfect solution. Understanding where you fall on this spectrum can help guide the areas you want to grow. Building on this, Jared Erondu (Senior VP of Design, Lattice) introduced an important distinction between career moves that require "progression" (doing what you do better) versus "inflection" (taking on fundamentally new challenges). Understanding what "type" of change you're experiencing can further help you define the right next steps in your career development.

Whatever your career goals are, navigating growth requires proactively building your support system. That's why at Duolingo, providing adequate resources and mentorship is seen as a priority. For the first time this past year, our design department partnered with Useful School - to provide our junior designers with 1:1 mentorship and weekly workshops. Outside of that, designers at all levels are encouraged to share work, seek feedback, and be a sounding board for each other.

At Duolingo, career ladders are always a WIP, just like any of our product features.

It's clear that today's design careers are becoming more fluid and personalized, shaped by individual strengths and interests rather than rigid requirements in a rubric. That's why at Duolingo, career ladders are always a WIP, just like any of our product features. Growth can look different for every designer, so providing a framework that reflects that is important to us.

Leadership plays a role, too

Anyone can initiate change, but support is needed to sustain it. Cat Noone (CEO, Stark) revealed how leadership can drive meaningful change through systematic approaches. "Culture is the habits of a system," she said, "not micro-kitchens and inspirational posters." In her case for proving the importance of accessibility, she advocated for concrete measures of accountability. For instance, KPIs and bonus structures should directly tie to goals around accessibility and inclusion. "It's leadership's responsibility to ensure that these goals are prioritized as a company-wide initiative."

Ian Silber (Head of Design, OpenAI) shared insights about leading a team through technological change, particularly with AI. He underscored the importance of maintaining "relentless curiosity and humility" while exploring new technologies. When designing for/with AI, focusing on the interaction is often more important than the interface. This means constantly questioning whether features could be simplified or removed entirely.

Culture is the habits of a system, not micro-kitchens and inspirational posters.

Duologues is another great example of this. With just a small team behind this initiative, Mig Reyes (Head of Product Design, Duolingo) made it a point to bolster the program with new ideas, opportunities, and proactive word of mouth. His support helped turn Duologues into a program that got designers thinking, listening, and talking (more) with each other (thank you, Mig).

Conversation builds community!

Duologues began as an idea from a new grad and quickly became a key part of our design culture, creating a space for designers to reflect and think about growth outside of their immediate product teams. It also became a way for us to expand our network and plant seeds for meaningful connections.

"I've really appreciated Duologues as someone who's been looking for more opportunities to connect to the broader design community," said one Duo, "It's helped create a natural bridge to build deeper relationships."

Within Duolingo, we believe not just in upholding a high bar for quality, but also investing in our people. After all, a strong design community makes for a strong design team, and a strong team allows us to build better learning experiences for our users.

Want to be a part of our learning journey? Check out career opportunities at Duolingo.

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