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Model Context Protocol is the open standard now used by Cursor, Claude and Figma to let AI agents read and write design files without bespoke integrations. It's moved past experimental status into everyday dev and design tooling in the past few weeks.
cursor.com (opens in a new tab)
Your move
read one plain-English explainer on MCP so you can talk about it in an interview without pretending you've built one.
Recent discussion around product and design hiring suggests employers increasingly expect candidates to show how they use AI tools in their process, alongside core UX fundamentals, rather than treating it as a bonus skill. This is a shift in expectation, not a confirmed universal requirement.
lennysnewsletter.com (opens in a new tab)
Your move
add one sentence to your CV or portfolio intro describing a specific AI tool you used and the decision it changed.
As AI agents speed up how quickly screens get produced, the risk is shipping untested assumptions faster than before. Core usability testing method hasn't changed — it's more necessary, not less.
nngroup.com (opens in a new tab)
Your move
before you ship your next AI-drafted screen, test it on 3 people who've never seen it — even informally.
Figma's MCP server exposes your actual components and tokens to connected AI agents, meaning generated screens and code are only as on-brand as your library is well-organised. Sloppy naming or orphaned styles now show up directly in AI output.
designsystems.news (opens in a new tab)
Your move
pick your messiest Figma or Penpot component, rename its layers and variants properly, and note the before/after for your portfolio.
Figma has shipped a native design agent that works directly on the canvas alongside you, plus an MCP server that pushes code onto canvas and pulls designs back into code. Both stay grounded in your existing components and tokens rather than generating from scratch.
figma.com (opens in a new tab)
Your move
open the Figma agent on one real file this week and ask it to tidy a messy layer — see how well it respects your existing components.
