065 - From Themes to SaaS: Anne Thomas on Cart to Cart, Design Packs, and Community

<p>In this episode of the Liquid Weekly Podcast, hosts Karl Meisterheim and Taylor Page are joined by Anne Thomas, co-founder of Design Packs. Anne shares her journey in the Shopify ecosystem, her recent foray into backend development with Supabase and Claude AI, and the launch of her new podcast, Cart to Cart.</p><p>The conversation dives into the nuances of building with Shopify's flexible theme blocks, managing design systems, and the realities of using AI for coding and QA. Anne also discusses her community-building efforts with "Women Unified in Commerce".</p><p><b>STAY CONNECTED</b><br />Subscribe to Liquid Weekly for more expert insights: <a href="https://liquidweekly.com/" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://liquidweekly.com/</a></p><p><b>EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS</b></p><ul> <li><b>Anne's Background &amp; Side Projects:</b> From starting with Shopify themes in 2014 to building a horse-riding tracking app.</li> <li><b>Cart to Cart Podcast:</b> Anne introduces her new podcast co-hosted with Trudy McNabb, Brenda Storer, and Diana Birsan.</li> <li><b>Women Unified in Commerce:</b> Insights into the grassroots community meetups Anne and Trudy host in Toronto.</li> <li><b>Developer vs. Merchant Feedback:</b> How the Design Packs team navigates and balances feedback.</li> <li><b>Theme Blocks &amp; Design Systems:</b> A deep dive into Shopify's flexible blocks, modern theme architecture, and CSS overrides.</li> <li><b>AI in the Dev Workflow:</b> The realities of using AI tools like Claude and Cursor's Bugbot for writing code and PR reviews.</li></ul><p><b>FIND ANNE ONLINE &amp; RESOURCES</b></p><ul> <li><b>LinkedIn:</b> <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/annethomas8/" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.linkedin.com/in/annethomas8/</a></li> <li><b>Twitter(X):</b> <a href="https://x.com/alfalfaanne" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://x.com/alfalfaanne</a></li> <li><b>Design Packs:</b> <a href="https://design-packs.com/" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://design-packs.com/</a></li> <li><b>Cart to Cart Podcast:</b> <a href="https://cart2cartpodcast.com" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://cart2cartpodcast.com</a></li> <li><b>Women Unified in Commerce:</b> <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/groups/14391025/">LinkedIn Group</a> </li></ul><p><b>TIMESTAMPS</b></p><p> 00:00 - Introduction &amp; Anne's Background<br /> 03:30 - Building with Supabase &amp; Claude AI<br /> 08:40 - The "Cart to Cart" Podcast<br /> 30:30 - "Women Unified in Commerce" Meetups<br /> 37:50 - Balancing Merchant and Developer Feedback<br /> 43:30 - Navigating Shopify's Flexible Theme Blocks<br /> 50:15 - Design Systems &amp; CSS Overrides in Themes<br /> 58:15 - AI Realities: Coding, QA, and Automated PR Reviews<br /> 01:09:40 - Dev Changelog Highlights<br /> 01:14:10 - Picks of the Week</p><p><b>DEV CHANGELOG</b></p><ul> <li>ActionBar removed on mobile: TitleBar primary action now renders as an icon button - <a href="https://shopify.dev/changelog/primary-action-icon-replaces-actionbar-on-mobile" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://shopify.dev/changelog/primary-action-icon-replaces-actionbar-on-mobile</a></li> <li>New CSS variable for mobile safe area insets - <a href="https://shopify.dev/changelog/new-css-variable-for-mobile-safe-area-insets" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://shopify.dev/changelog/new-css-variable-for-mobile-safe-area-insets</a></li> <li>Automated testing for Shopify UI extensions with @shopify/ui-extensions-tester - <a href="https://shopify.dev/changelog/automated-testing-for-shopify-ui-extensions-with-shopify-ui-extensions-tester" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://shopify.dev/changelog/automated-testing-for-shopify-ui-extensions-with-shopify-ui-extensions-tester</a></li> <li>New discount fields in the Storefront API's cart types - <a href="https://shopify.dev/changelog/new-discount-fields-in-the