Double Diamond is back for our first interview of 2026, featuring Carl Rivera, Chief Design Officer at Shopify. Rivera leads design for one of the world's largest commerce platforms and developing a distinct vision for how design teams navigate the AI era.

About Carl Rivera

Carl Rivera is Chief Design Officer at Shopify, where he's reimagining how design works in the age of AI. As a former startup founder, he brings an entrepreneurial lens to leading one of tech's largest design teams through this transformation.

Rivera has developed a clear philosophy about AI and design. In 2025, he eliminated "UX Designer" and "Content Designer" titles at Shopify. "If you design, you're a Designer. If you write, you're a Writer," he declared. Rivera believes AI will make baseline design skills ubiquitous, forcing human designers to focus on what algorithms can't replicate. "We hire for taste. For aesthetics. For a point-of-view. It's the difference between utility and affinity," he explains. He's currently experimenting with interfaces where users can "shift between talking, typing, clicking, and even drawing" with AI that anticipates needs "like the most brilliant partner you could dream of."

Audience & Curation

Every Double Diamond event is intentionally curated. We're prioritizing product builders and design leaders who are actively working with AI in their practice, whether that's incorporating AI tools into their workflow, designing AI-native experiences, or managing teams through this transition.

In the case of this event with Carl, we're going to give particular priority to people managers and those currently tasked with overseeing the creation of AI-driven experiences and the implementation of AI-assisted design practices at scale.

Recording & Sharing

This conversation will be professionally recorded and attendees will receive a link to the full recording in the days following the event. Feel free to use clips however you'd like - on social, in presentations, or for team discussions. We always appreciate you tagging Double Diamond when you share!

Agenda

6:00 - 7:00 Arrivals and mingling
7:00- ~7:45 Conversation with Carl Rivera
7:45 - Late Open mingling

Sponsors

Double Diamond events are produced with the support of 28th&Park, who helps founders, VCs, musicians, artists, and community builders create content effortlessly by owning all production and post-production from their studio in Flatiron or on location.

Double Diamond

This event is hosted by Double Diamond, a live-in-NYC event and content series for product and design practitioners building with AI right now. Double Diamond curates intimate, long-form conversations with the builders shaping these novel experiences, and pairs these conversations with a carefully selected audience of peers who ask the right questions and often are wrestling with the same ones.

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Double Diamond ft. Carl Rivera, Chief Design Officer at Shopify