Is anyone writing about how incredible AI is? I feel like all I read is people
plugging their ears and boycotting anything related to “AI”. People are so
focused on the concerns that they’re ignoring the massive advancement
in human knowledge and productivity we’re living through. Ignoring it
feels disingenuous to the time we’re in.
On one hand, you want to respect stakeholder feedback because you know
they often have valuable insights. On the other hand, their feedback
can sometimes feel like a never-ending list of demands that can derail
your design vision. 🌠 Well, here are some things that worked for me.
When onboarding designers to a new team, making them feel welcome and
fully prepared to do their job can dramatically improve their
performance and feeling about their new job. This is my checklist.
For most of my career, I’ve believed that Design Sprints were a
bullshit way of getting a bunch of people in a room and doing a bunch
of talking and exercises that lead to nothing. I think I thought of
them this way because everything I read about them online, or saw on
YouTube was masturbatory Silicon Valley jargon.
It’s a struggle joining a new team, especially when you’re meant to
lead it. I documented my ideal first year as a design team lead for my
own reference and thought I’d share it for yours.
The more I’ve worked in product design with startups, the more I’ve
realized there’s no real process to follow. Every challenge is
different and you really never know what’s around the corner. But if I
were to define my rough process for effectively shipping quality
products, this would be it.
I haven’t reflected on the digital products I’m using in a little
while. (In the last few years I’ve been super focused on the physical
things I own, on My Collection of Things) I sat down to write a little
bit about my three favorite digital products that are a part of my
daily life, Figma, Google Photos, and Telegram.
In 2014 I started my first managerial role, managing the design team
at Fuzzco. I always felt like I could be a good boss, but it really
tested my limits emotionally and surprised me with the amount of work
involved. Here are some things I’ve learned managing small teams of
designers.
Slippery gooey slick shiny UI is everywhere and I hate it. If “flat
design” is good enough for mid century graphic design heavyweights
it’s good enough for digital design.