Design Garden

Most designers know what they should be working on. They’re just doing it alone, at night, after a day job. Design Garden gives them one partner, four weeks, a weekly check in, and a showcase night at the end. I designed it, built it, and I run it.

1. 01The program: four week sprints, the schedule, showcase night, 4 crews so far
2. 02The matching: six signals scored in code, then a live speed round
3. 03The app: designed and built by me, with AI as my build partner

I moved matching into code. Every possible pair gets a score on six things: goals, experience, skills, discipline, timezone, and how each person gives and wants feedback.

Skills was the interesting one. Partners don’t work on the same project, and two people with the same skills don’t teach each other much. So the score peaks at about 25 to 50% overlap, not 100%.

Then the summer 2026 surveys said people wanted to meet before committing. The live workflow swap mid sprint already gave people a boost, so I added a speed round before pairs lock. Now the code makes the shortlist and the designers make the pick.

Robin Smith

midProduct DesignDesign Systems

🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱

Great fit

Product designer moving into design systems. Looking for a partner who keeps a weekly deadline.

Goal:

Add a new case study

See compatibility breakdown ↓

Commitment

Experience

Skills

Sprint TrackPortfolio Building✓match

TimezoneAmerica/Chicago✕no match

Gives feedbackSupportive✓match

Wants feedbackDirect✓match

Tap to see the score

A task list only grows. Nobody prunes it, and it feels like homework. I wanted check ins to be a two player mode, so every pair shares a whimsy garden. Each check in plants something. By week four, the pair can see what they built together.

BeforeAfter

Warm-up

1. Warm-up
2. Wins
3. Obstacles
4. Takeaway

1 of 4

YYou’re leading today.Leading the check-inYou keep the check-in moving.Let Robin share first each round.When you move on, both screens move. Wait until you’ve both shared.More in the leader guide.

Just talk, nothing to type yet.

1. What surprised you this week?

2. What’s one thing you’re proud of that isn’t on your task list?

Take turns sharing your screen so your partner can see what you shipped this week.

Ok, let’s start our wins

Week 3 of 4

Seedling — ready to grow.

⤢Expand

The garden took most of the screen. The questions were small text squeezed into a bar under it.

1. 1SpaceThe garden is smaller and the question card gets about half the screen. Questions are bigger and both answers have room. The garden still sits beside it, so you watch your plant grow as you share.
2. 2Who leadsThe card says who leads. Only the leader moves you both to the next step, and only after you both share. An info button explains the role when you need it and stays out of the way when you don’t.
3. 3TasksAt the last step, your task list takes the garden’s place, so you plan next week with your tasks right there.

After summer 2026, all 8 designers who answered the survey said their project wouldn’t have gotten as far without Design Garden. One of them put it like this:

See the full Almanac ↗ (opens in a new tab)

Since January, I built for function: make it work and get real crews using it. Now I’m giving Design Garden a proper design pass. The check in and the garden went first, and the before and after above shows what changed. The rest of the app is next.

Sprintfolio ran on me. In 2023, AI couldn’t read a spreadsheet, so I paired people by hand and waited for the tools to catch up. I watched self serve products make money and kept ours low cost, since access was the mission. It wore me down.

What I believe now: cheap made it too easy to skip. Fall 2026 is $50, and I’m watching whether paying turns into showing up. And the more AI can do, the more people miss building next to each other. That’s the part I’m not handing to the code.