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I don’t like to write because the writing process is agonizing for me but I do it anyway. I find that it is the best method and medium for some of my deeper thought exercises. It’s the way I’ve been able to discover some of my beliefs and philosophies about design, career, life and how all that intersects.
Below, laid bare, is the collection of those beliefs and philosophies.
It’s hard to separate this topic from deep personal values. Seeing the pursuit of passion as an excuse for laziness is disheartening, and I've been guilty of it. As a person of faith, I believe it’s most human to engage in work—the broadest definition of work—with diligence and resilience, using our God-given gifts, not just for worldly success but to fulfill a common good.
I have a box of small notebooks that I have collected over the years. It is hard to say they are journals because it contains just as many doodles, to-do lists, and random notes as it does letters to sir journal and recaps of my thoughts.
I always thought that creating a user guide to working with me was a creative and novel way of fostering better teamwork. I first read about it in the Management Manifesto by PatientPing CEO Jay Desai. I then read A User Guide to Working With You by Julie Zhuo, a design superhero of mine. The transparency and the authenticity of these declarations made a deep and lasting impression on me. It's one of the reasons why I decided to join PatientPing and consider a design leadership path.
I blindly copied what other businesses were doing. I had no idea if the signs actually worked. Much like I did, the stores I copied probably - without thinking - copied from other stores. The domino effect likely made the sign a “best practice” by default.
How can you truly do creative work if you have to worry about money? The first time I was faced with this question, I was approaching my senior year in high school and deciding between art school, culinary school, and business school.
Simplicity, as it relates to product development, is confusing. Most days I’m seemingly faced with the dilemma of designing something simple to use or simple to make. On the other days, I labor to resist the sirens of simple visuals that look great but doesn’t function well. I’m not sure what “simple” means anymore.
It seems unlikely, but I started to see many parallels between lawyers and designers and between the business of law and the business of design. In this post, I wanted to share one common practice in law that I believe designers should adopt for their work to have a deeper impact and to help progress the industry forward.
One of the most fascinating observations I've made from user testing is that users often say things that contradict what they actually do. It’s those times when...
During the nascent stages of my company's design system, my team had a debate about the right type of edit view for our users. There were a couple of different perspectives and no one willing to compromise on their position. I advocated for...
As we counted down the nine months, among the typical pregnancy pleasantries with family, friends, and strangers, we were often asked if we were getting a minivan. But the question is inextricably packaged with a light-hearted condolence and a tinge of pity.
I wasn’t entirely wrong but through many other endeavors that I pursued out of pure interest, I quickly realized that I came alive when I was creating/orchestrating, visualizing, hypothesizing and learning. When I was exercising these things, they gave me life...
Follow the money trail. I learned this during my time steeped in business, the world of high-stakes deals, investor presentations, client proposals and intense due diligence. I’ve watched some of the best professionals in the industry do it...
One of the most important lessons I’ve been learning and relearning as a UX professional is to not be legalistic about the UX design process. Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype, Test and Iterate….
Over the past year, I was able to leverage networking to transition from a career in business to doing user experience design at a startup and now at a large public company. This is strange for me to say because I hated networking with a passion...
I’m not exactly sure when it started but following your passion has been an anthem of my generation. At first, it seemed to make sense and easy to rally for but once I started to work and understand more about people...
