Good design is iterative. Yes, I made a blanket statement, and yes, I am standing by it. What do I mean? Iterative design builds better products through repeated cycles of prototyping, testing, and refining based on feedback. The success of a design is also contextual, based on the current end-users,
I'm challenging myself to ship 22 MVPs this March—one every weekday—fueled by my love for TTRPGs, design systems, and rapid prototyping. While I do allow myself to work on some of them for multiple days, at least two a week I am trying to start and
Design hand-off I used to do a lot of freelance/consulting work. I had a system down for negotiating contracts, aligning on final agreements, and ensuring clients understood what they were receiving and what to do with it next. I took several years off from that type of work, but
Recently, during a group product discussion, several folks asked me to elaborate on how I approach retrospectives and reflection. What they didn't expect was that part of what has led to a pretty successful career is less about my professional nature than about how I approach reflection and
I was dealing with a difficult leader. Erratic, dismissive, controlling, and careless with the well-being of others. This person had considerable power over me and others, and it felt unsafe for any of us to push back. And this is when I received multiple batches of advice from a friend.
Lately, as I've been giving or forming new industry talks, continuing to coach folks, and interviewing at various orgs, I’ve been chatting with UX and Product Designers across the board: individual contributors, leads, heads of design. The whole gamut! There’s a pattern emerging. Common struggles I
A few years ago, I started building several small habits. I want to make things, you see, like fiction and games, but I don't have a lot of spare time. I'd heard that advice, "Just get started," so many times, but knew my real
It's 9:40 AM on Tuesday, the 20th of January, as I write this. I have a job interview in 20 minutes. Last night, I had the mother of all migraines keep me awake. I was sweating, had intense neck and temple pain, sensitive to light and the
You join a big team meeting. It’s meant to be an inclusive place for the entire team to shine and their accomplishments to be brought into the open. And then someone starts cutting people off. You try to speak, and they take over, changing the narrative. What do you
Recently, Elon Musk was approved for a $1 trillion compensation package at Tesla. I’d say “Let that sink in,” but I don’t think a number like 1 trillion can sink in. It’s not a dollar amount any of us can even imagine. It’s a number that
Most teams frame ethics as a box to check or a feature to add. But ethics isn’t a feature... It’s embedded in how we approach every choice. Many times, I have been redesigning a user flow, and a teammate has asked: “Why does this matter?” It sounds simple,
My reading goal this year was 24 books. I read almost double that, which sounds impressive (even to me), until I remind myself that I was alternating between reading some very short Young Adult (YA) novels and other things. This is a practice I highly recommend if you're