Timothy Ricks Responded (Clarifies Everything)

Timothy Ricks has responded to us. Command AI There's two brilliant videos that we will we we think you should be watching right now if you're at at all in the community. Ran Segall's Web Design is changing and Timothy Ricks's I accepted a job at Webflow cuz if you didn't know, he accepted a job at Webflow and there was a lot of speculation. We speculated on the show which Timothy actually responded to so we know he's watched our video on it. Uh and it it clarified a few things but it also you know, it it left a few doors open for speculation which we'll we'll cover now. So so definitely stay tuned for it. But a few things he covers in this video is he's closed down his community and that was not something that Webflow asked him to do. He noticed that a lot of the designers went to Framer. A lot of the developers will go into AI to answer their questions a lot faster than he could get around to doing inside of his community. So it wasn't it his his audience his I don't know how many members there were in the community but it was a dwindling amount of people. And that wasn't a big source of income from him then and he's got a family and all the rest of it. So when he got the job from Webflow that was when he decided it to to close it down. Again, he really stresses a couple times Webflow didn't ask him to do anything. So in terms of his projects, Lumos uh for Webflow is going into maintenance only mode specially as Source come It might change. I I This is me speculating. This is not what he's saying in the video. Source might change his mind on that once he sees how it all integrates or something but anyway. So Lumos for Webflow is going into maintenance mode. Lumos for Astro he's still going to be working on and he believes that will definitely work very well with Source. So that's cool. Stacky he's basically leaving it he's giving it to us as an open as the open source community to contribute to to to bug fix and all the rest of it. So, if you want to get involved in that, you want to get your name on some open source projects that really help the community. Again, uh who was it that asked the question whether we would build our own tool? Get you know, if you want something just tweet Stack E to your needs. Modem, which I didn't know about. I'm guessing it's some sort of compute computer component library. Uh that's that's he's left it up because he thinks it might be helpful, but he's unsure of the future of that. Um I guess it's basically in the same maintenance mode as Lumos for Webflow is. And then he goes on to his thoughts and feelings about Source, which he hasn't had access to yet. He wanted to make this video before uh he had access to Source so he could come up with some speculations and thoughts and feelings. And he he thinks it's a bold move, and we'll get into Ran's video about all this. He thinks it's a bold move to release such a overhaul of a platform that's really well beloved by a lot of people, right? It is beloved by a lot of people. So, a lot of designers and whatever. So, um but he did he also mention the content he will be producing will be Astro focused. So, he'll be teaching developers how to step into the role of someone who can use Astro. So, by the looks of things, he's not going to be producing Webflow content, which is really interesting. Um and his role at Webflow is a forward deployed engineer and a small community facing role. So, really interesting. He thinks he thinks Source will open up to a new audience of Webflow users. And um he enjoys the flexibility that it gives people who build the they can give their clients a platform to manage the website that they build in Astro and things like that, and allows them to add a CMS or flexible CMS depending on uh well, obviously, you're not bound by the Webflow CMS anymore. So, and he really doesn't want to see the the no-code option falter in Webflow because of course they believe everyone's moving to agents, but he's and we said this as well, still want to be able to see this drag and drop UI. You know, he still wants to be He wants to see that it's you're you're still able to build inside of Webflow. Um Regardless of what they do for free drag and drop builder and all the rest of it. So, that's what he said. Well, we had like, you know, you our thoughts, but yeah, it it does make sense everything that he said. So, So, my take from this video really and that and it really brought back to the video that we made and something you said which was it you don't trust Webflow. And whilst he emphasized they never asked him to, you know, take anything down, stop producing anything, do this, do that. I would be very hard-pressed to imagine that it didn't cross Webflow's mind that if they took on Timothy Ricks, that they have removed a potential threat because he's so influential in the Webflow community. If Timothy Ricks jumps, so does the Webflow community. So, to that I would say That's my only thought. If we are a bit if we're like, you know, thinking, "Okay, Webflow's trying to plan this." Maybe, but he has already jumped. So, I maybe give maybe I would give Webflow the benefit of the doubt actually. Maybe saying that if Webflow is killing Webflow, if Webflow is killing Webflow, and Source is the future, so maybe having one of if not the biggest, you know, community leader in the space on their side is a good idea. Having him build with Astro, but imported into source, is in their best interest, right? So, maybe it is also an investment Webflow like seeing, okay, in the future there won't be the Webflow, you know, designer won't be the main focus. It will be all source. So, why not have this guy um bringing whatever he builds into that platform. Absolutely 100%. And and I know our video will get watched by a bunch of people, and I know we are quite, let's call it an influence on the Webflow community. So, I'm just going to say it here. I'm saying I'd be hard-pressed if it didn't cross their mind. It wasn't the reason why they hired him. He's a great developer. He's a great asset. And they're very lucky to have such a great guy working for them. It was absolutely That was the reason. But they they they got scared a little bit. And I think that probably just, you know, we What what can we do about this? And then it's like, yeah, but ultimately they're going to be paying him probably good money to to to do what he does best. My business brain, this is a This is against This is my side thing. My business brain tells me that I'm uncertain of the future. Was it a Was it a good move for him career-wise to go to Webflow? I'm not sure. I'm just because I'm uncertain of the future of Webflow right now. I don't I don't think they met the bar that was expecting and we'll get into Ran's video really quickly in a bit. My specific feelings on that. If I was a mate of his, I would have been like, are you sure you want to be joining a company when their future is so uncertain? Yeah. He's got 6 months probation. He can hand in his notice at any time. He's feeding his wife. He's feeding his family. You cannot fault the guy for taking a a job offer from a company that he's loved for so long. So, Yeah. Yeah. I I fully agree. Even Webflow being at I don't want to call that shipping sink, but I'm saying this for the lack of better words. Sinking ship, buddy. [clears throat] What did I say? Shipping sink. They're shipping a sink across the country to Because I was thinking of a better word because that's not true. I don't think they a sinking ship. I don't think so. But like a company at least in the community, like the community is not super happy. The community is like a bit heartbroken. You we see this in our comments, by the way, to the on the video on Webflow about Webflow Conf. People are literally saying they are heartbroken. [snorts] They they don't feel like Webflow is talking to them anymore because Webflow is talking to marketers. We are not marketers, right? Anyway, we are builders. Um Yeah. So, We'll get into that. to your point to your point, Timothy, he joined because it it it's still even even if they are moving away from the company, it's the it's the company that we've been engaging with for so long. Uh they most definitely needed uh Timothy Ricks to keep the designer relevant if Source doesn't get the adoption they think it will. They need a plan B. And I I kind of agree with this. Like it does make sense to me. Why is Timothy is not working on Source? Why is he working on the current designer? That's because he's an expert there. And if Source doesn't get the adoption or as, you know, fast as Webflow thinks, they still want to keep the designer, you know, something that they can continuously work on and like push up updates. And who's better than Timothy. And maybe that's a plan B as well. And this comment was also interesting like two other points. The whole marketer plus AI is as good as a developer AI needs to stop. And kind of I agree on that as well. Like no hate on marketers, but I don't think like a marketer with AI is necessarily as good as a developer with AI. Like these are different things. Just just to make it clear. Like a marketer with AI can probably make a better converting landing page, but a developer can create a better dashboard, a better CRM. Like we are building CRM left and right for you know, custom stuff for clients. So um I don't think like everybody can do this. It's something that you know, you're focused in one area, not on every area. So Well, just on that real quick is that you've compared building websites which a marketer would do to building CRMs which you which is a dashboard which is totally internal which is a web app which marketers wouldn't touch with a barge pole. So from a from a perspective of building a marketing website, I I don't know. I think marketers are well equipped to build a decent marketer website. Like it's so it you know, no disrespect to anyone building marketing websites, but they are they're very easy especially for AI to do. There's no complexity in just hooking up a CMS having a page display the data. You know, the effort comes into the copy, to the UX, to the design. So that's that's all I'll say there. For for a baseline, for a simple thing, yes. But when you are talking about you know, an Apple web an Apple website page like you know, for their product. That is that a marketing page? I would argue so, yes. It is a marketing page, yeah. Can a marketer build that? Hell no. Like, no way. But they But they they're going to Yeah. They're going to They're going to But this is talking about all potentially like marketers. 80% of marketers will be able to do cuz very few websites need that at that Apple level, you know, inter- interaction stuff. I think it's becoming They are exceptions. I agree. I agree that there are exceptions, but as we will talk about with the video from Run, the brand really matters. And as the baseline, as like everyone is pushing towards like this average, it's more important than ever to stand out. And to do that, you probably want to do things even more crazy than Apple. It It doesn't mean to be 3D, uh just to be clear on that. But there are just things that you can do with like very simple lightweight shaders that I don't think a marketer necessarily knows about. And these are not I'm not talking about the technicality of shaders. I'm talking about the brand that you can nurture with like these type of like custom shaders and image pipelines and essentially like brand assets, right? So, my point being, a developer with AI is always more technical than a marketer with AI, and I don't think anyone would disagree with that. And it's just a point that Webflow shouldn't present themselves as a marketer-only platform. It is it has been a platform for builders, and I find [snorts] it quite sad that they are moving away from this builder story, and they are moving towards marketers, which doesn't speak to me at all, doesn't speak to any of my clients. Like, it's just not the space that I operate in, and I do understand they exist, but it's just not where I've been. Maybe maybe I need to change my own website slogan to like uh I don't know, operating your marketing operating system for marketing teams or whatever, like full of marketing and marketers. Anyway, still in the same wheelhouse, we'll talk about the bulk of Ran's video in just a second, but there's a point I wanted to pick up on which had me thinking about Source. And uh Ran says it really clearly in the and we all knew this, but I think he just says it very very clearly that the the presentation Webflow Conf Source is not the development tool that we really wanted. I think it's a marketing tool. Uh we all know this. I don't think we're all I'm teaching you anything. I'm not teaching you to suck eggs here, but like it it was it was a tool geared towards marketers, not a tool geared towards developers. And I felt the pain of that when we first reported of it, and it wasn't until I watched um Ran's video that I was like I I think it's I I've got to use my words carefully here, guys, cuz it's like I think it was the right choice for Webflow to do this, because again, as we've just talked about, the marketer plus AI can actually get an awful lot done, but it wasn't the tool that we wanted. I think we all wanted Webflow to come at us with a whole new paradigm of how we build websites based on the fact that Webflow was just such a killer piece of software. It it's a solved problem. We're using cloud code. We're using a lot of these agentic apps to build websites already. We don't need another tool. Again, going back to that person's comment or question at the beginning of the show, asking us if we thought about building these any sort of tool. A lot of us don't need another tool to add to the equation. Doesn't mean to say the audience is zero, but to Ran's point, we've we've known this transition from Webflow for a couple of years now where it's becoming more of an enterprise platform, less of a design tool, and they've just put the cherry on the top of that decision by saying, "Look, we built this tool. Yes, you can use your agents to build the website, but we're not going to we're not going to touch the development work because it's a solved problem. Unfortunately, we didn't want that, but it makes sense." I was a bit sort of angry on our last video and I was like, "They should have built a development tool." But, they didn't need to. They made the right move. It's just whether this is going to succeed. Back to the point of whether Timothy has gone to the right company, whether they're going to be around in 6 months. That's a whole 'nother question all in of itself. Like, they've they've they went the right way, but was it beneficial Was it the right way in the grand scheme of things in their business and all the rest of it? And yeah, that was my reflection after watching the the first third of Ran's video talking about how he thinks it Source is a very good tool. It's the right tool. Honestly, I don't think the people who it's built for, I don't think they care. I don't think they're going to use Source. I don't I think it's too complicated. I think whatever. But, what do I know? I'm not a marketing person. I'm not part of a marketing team. Webflow have a lot more data on that than me, but that was just me putting a bow on the fact that I think I've changed my tune on what Webflow should have built cuz I was saying, "You should have built build tool." But, no, no. I think they built the I think they built the right tool. It's just whether it's a good tool or not. We don't know at this point. This is part of a larger conversation on my show, Command AI, which we stream live every single week. We discuss the news and all things related to AI in the world of design and web. Catch us next week and join in the banter. Command AI.