Designers Need To Build Parallel Skills - Punit Chawla

Punit Chawla has been teaching design online since 2015, and today he runs Designwings, makes videos full time and hosts design events across India. He gave up client work about five years ago. We talk about what he calls parallel skills, the idea that a designer should add something next to their niche instead of branching away from it, and why that is not the same as giving up on specialising. We also get into what designers actually do with AI day to day, where Figma is heading and what the smaller tools are doing better, how the lines between designers, developers and product managers have thinned out, and why he thinks every designer is already a content creator. Near the end he explains how his events started, and how you could run one in your own town with 25 people and a small room. Check out Punit Chawla:   / punitweb     / punitchawlaofficial      / @punitchawla   https://designwings.in   / punitweb   https://www.behance.net/punitweb Also mentioned: Punit's ebook: https://punitchawla.gumroad.com/l/magnet https://www.figma.com https://lottiefiles.com https://maze.co https://zeplin.io https://codepen.io https://bubble.io https://www.sketch.com https://affinity.serif.com https://dribbble.com Timestamps: 00:00 Teaser 00:30 Parallel skills, and why one direction is a risk 02:57 Does that break your niche? 04:50 Intro 05:46 From a first meetup to giving up client work 09:21 What designers actually do with AI 13:55 Are clients asking for AI? 20:29 Where Figma is heading 26:45 Design tools that output production code 30:30 Motion, slides and no code 35:13 Designers, developers and product managers doing each other's jobs 38:30 Every tool now looks like Figma 43:11 Webflow, the alternatives and micro tools 45:18 Hate comments, and what is behind them 47:42 Should every designer make content? 52:20 Posting every small experiment 53:42 Choosing your first platform 59:16 Why he started running events 1:05:24 Starting an event in your own town 1:09:53 The Finnish Line --- 🎙️ Webflow and Friends A weekly conversation with the people who build for a living. Agency owners, designers, freelancers, and the occasional Webflow employee. Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id... Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1mmCk0w... --- 🙋‍♂️ About Janne I'm Janne, a freelance Webflow developer and podcast host based in Finland. On this channel, I talk to agency owners, award-winning designers, and experienced builders about the business and strategy side of Webflow work. I also try out new features and share what I learn from building with Webflow day to day. --- 🛠️ Tools I Use (Some might be affiliate links, but all are genuine recommendations.) Web Design Figma - https://www.figma.com/ Affinity Suite - https://affinity.serif.com/ Web Development Webflow - https://webflow.com/ Claude - https://claude.ai/ Podcasting Riverside - https://riverside.fm/ Productivity Todoist - https://www.todoist.com/ Rize - https://rize.io Claude - https://claude.ai/