A UI Kit Is Not a Design System
In 2026 the line between a “UI kit” and a “design system” is pretty firm. A Figma component library, even a strong one, is a UI kit. It is not a design system.
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Transferable Isn't the Same as Compatible
I've spoken at length before about the differences between different fields of design or product roles. Some folks may say, "So what, I can learn what I don't know?" And I would agree with you. If you recognize the differences, I am confident many
I never said the word
Last night, I was two drinks in when he said it. "DEI? I hate DEI. Diversity, equity, inclusion?! It's a scam!" He said this like he was reciting something memorized by heart and taught to react with. Probably because he was. Somebody sold him that line,
Let the training wheels come off
You want to help. You think you're teaching, modelling, holding the bar to a particular quality, and protecting your team from mistakes. You mean well, want to help your people, and see your team and mission succeed. There's nothing inherently wrong with any of that. In
Who and what are you?
I've been chatting with a lot of folks across industries lately who are afraid of losing their jobs or have already lost them. Meanwhile, I've also had interesting chats with folks new to their industry, with zero training, who are using tools like AI to fill
How do you ensure your research recommendations lead to real projects with impact?
I was recently asked exactly that by someone, and I thought I would share my answer broadly because I think it's a great question and one I've seen junior product and research folks struggle with. The truth is, there are several ways to ensure your research
Small isn't lean and large isn't bureaucratic.
"Lean" and "small" are different things, yet most people use the words interchangeably. If you aren't familiar with it, "Lean," as a framework and philosophy for business, was invented at Toyota, a company with hundreds of thousands of employees. It's
Why a product leader wrote an SEO book
I am a product leader. My first book is about Answer Engine Optimization, the practitioner's name for getting your content cited by ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and Google's AI Overviews, to name a few. On paper, that might sound like I'm doing a weird pivot.
AI coding tools are becoming inescapable. That’s why we need to use them better.
I use Claude Code for hours every day. Over the past two weeks I’ve run 176 sessions, made 265 commits, and hit an 88% achievement rate across tasks. A strange thing to admit when I’d still consider myself anti-AI in many respects. You see, I started to
We Need Better Guardrails On AI, Yesterday
"We'll use AI responsibly." Have you heard a statement like this from leadership or a colleague? Maybe you haven't even experienced those hollow words and were dismissed or ignored when trying to raise this topic. Worse, maybe you work for an AI company and
Good Design Is Iterative
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-
5 Down, 17 to Go: My March Product Madness
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
A font and two design hand-off templates
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,
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Reflection and Self-Improvement
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 Received Some Bad Advice
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
Patterns In Low-Design-Maturity Orgs
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
Start small, and don't overthink it
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
I Found Advice In A Strange Place
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
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How do you act when the spotlight is on you?
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
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Who enables the oligarchs?
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
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Every product decision is a moral one
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,
2025's Books
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
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You Can't Be A Leader Without Empathy
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
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What makes a good strategy?
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