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
The best leaders I know aren’t the ones with all the answers. They’re the ones who know how to ask! I’ve spent the last several years coaching and maturing teams, and I’ve noticed something: leaders often communicate the same way regardless of who’s listening, their
Preamble I have worked with several agencies, consulted independently for 20 years, and held full-time roles at numerous organizations, big and small, creating and executing business and product strategies that have led to success and meaningful growth. What makes a good strategy? A good strategy clearly defines what would give
First off, welcome to the new newsletter! I've migrated from Substack, for reasons you can read there. Today, an allegory... Pygmalion had an unusual name. It was one of the many things he felt judged for, and had begun to think people may be right about. As he
We’ve all taken personality tests in some form or another. During my career, I’ve taken DiSC and Myers-Briggs more times than I can count, often multiple times within the same organization. Something I have prided myself on is that every time I take one of these tests, I
A choice
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I’m always learning something. Recently, I’ve been taking several drawing classes, as well as product management courses. What has surprised me is the amount of AI-slop responses that other students submit as answers to the optional group questions or peer-reviewed assignments. One of the platforms I use most
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How do you actually start to turn something into a project?
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I’ve been coaching a lot of teams and individuals the last few years, and I consistently come back to communication essentials. Whether unintentionally skewing toward command-and-control, lacking empathy, or simply ignorant to how their communication effects others, many aspiring leaders I speak to or hear about struggle to get
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Nothing is better for a shift in perspective than travelling and experiencing other cultures, approaches, and frames of thought. One of the most dangerous things in the world is certainty. To paraphrase Conclave: Certainty is the great enemy of unity, and certainty is the deadly enemy of tolerance. What have
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Intelligent arthropods rule the wasteland left by humans. 🦀 🐞 ⚔️
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Product maturity isn’t a list of frameworks you’ve heard of. It’s how honestly and effectively you use them.
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Hi █████, Thank you for reaching out. I need to be clear that I cannot and will not participate in buying or acquiring contact lists like the ones you’re offering. Practices like purchasing “verified net-new contacts” raise serious ethical, legal, and compliance concerns. In most jurisdictions (including under GDPR, CASL,
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Soup du jour
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The decision Three things led my wife and me to decide to boycott ordering things from Amazon: 1. We were creating far too much waste due to all the packaging. 2. Our local businesses were suffering, quite literally putting out a call for help, and the public was asked to
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And it isn't charity, either.
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Data privacy and security demands are growing in ways many of us didn’t see coming—and can’t always predict. Big Data, AI, ML, and other hot fields bring huge potential, but also huge responsibility. As product managers, designers, engineers, and security pros, we should ask: * ✅ Are we protecting
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I’ve had to go to real lengths to keep my personal phone number off the internet. I don’t want it on sales lists. I don’t want it in databases that exist to make me “reachable.” And yet companies make entire fortunes scraping and selling people's