By the time most of us see a trend on our feed, it s already "dead." Using it makes you look out of touch. But as a founder/small team, you don't have 8 hours a day to rot on TikTok or $10k for a trend consultant
How I try to stay ahead (the manual way):
Ignore brands, follow creators: I track specific photographers/creative directors. They are the ones actually creating the aesthetic everyone else will copy in 6 months.
Deep-dive guides & niche resources: Using things like the Reddit 2026 Seasonal Moments map to prep months in advance.
Today, I came across an article on TechCrunch: The great computer science exodus (and where students are going instead).
It shows that UC campuses saw a drop in computer science enrollment for the first time since the dot-com crash (6% in 2025, 3% in 2024), but students are shifting to AI-focused programs.
AI visuals are suddenly everywhere and much easier to make. I m curious what s been the real impact for makers .
Has it actually affected your team and budget? Did you hire fewer designers, work with freelancers less, or did it mostly just speed up and improve the same process?
I am trying to do something a little bonkers - I want to build an app when I am a bit of a technophobe! I am a product designer - so it's not entirely crazy but social media, online forums is all really alien to me. I'm looking to put the feelers out there to understand the demand for the idea - any tips or tricks? The vague idea - without giving the game away.... People are incredible at tracking workouts, steps, sleep, macros
but somehow still stare at a single mug in the sink like it s a moral dilemma.
I m exploring an idea around why everyday maintenance tasks feel heavier than they are, and how the same psychology that keeps people hooked on fitness tracking might work for real-world chores.
Since I haven't been able to meet my work goals very well in the last few quarters, I now plan to approach them more systematically and not push myself too hard on work goals, as that ultimately led to problems that made my plan less sustainable.