Shopify CDO Carl Rivera bans slideshows and pre-reads in design reviews
Carl Rivera · 20Product: How AI Changes Product Design | Does the Design Phase Become Irrelevant in a World of Vibe Coding | The Five Pillars of Truly Great Product Design with Carl Rivera, Chief Design Officer at Shopify · Nov 14, 2025 · at 49:20
Carl Rivera is the Chief Design Officer at Shopify. He explains his policy banning decks and narrative summaries in favor of reviewing functional code and live prototypes.
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“And so what I enforce with Teams is that I never want to see a presentation, a slideshow in any of the meetings. I never want to receive a pre-read. I don't want any of the storytelling at the start. I'm basically of the view that every abstraction, every insert of narratives that confuse the story brings us further away from the truth.”
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