One of the most important skills of a designer is the ability to break down a problem into coherent building blocks. Unfortunately, I find most designers struggle with this task. It seems that there is an expectation that breaking a problem down is a PM or Engineering thing to do.…
Right now, AI seems to fall into a few camps. One is add-ons to existing products. Seems every SaaS provider is adding AI to its offerings. Salesforce is trying to resurrect their flagging growth numbers this way. Another is pure chat like ChatGPT. These are open ended systems. Google Gemini,…
I always find it cathartic to review the year and make 10 predictions for the next year. Also, I look back at 2024 and see how accurate my predictions were. 2024 Prediction Grade: 60% 2024 was a tumultuous year, especially in politics. At work, things have been good, but also…
Not exactly a bucket list, but these are things I can imagine myself doing later in life. Educating product design I think Seth Godin’s altMBA is a great example of how you can gather a small group of students and teach them high quality skills. I could imagine doing my…
WordPress has been my blogging software since 2006. I installed version 2,0 and have been a fan ever since. I have been blogging since March 1996. (Wow, 28 years flies by so fast!) I used to blog nearly every day and now its just a few times a month. I…
I heard this phrase on the news from a Kamala Harris advisor. I kind of love how it captures the feeling I often have, not just about the current political situation. Over the years, I have worked on many big projects. At least a half dozen times over the years,…
Many PMs love to play the feature checklist game. It’s a strategy to win against the competition by having the highest number of features. Many salespeople convince themselves that they lost a deal solely because of a missing feature. In my opinion, this can sometimes work, but often omits more…
Imagine living a thousand years ago. Your life would have been much simpler. Probably one town, maybe a couple of kings in power. Predictions of the future were more about love and health. Most people did not change their class or social position. Your life would have been mostly about…
Apologies for the extra long post. I see a strong similarity between AI 2024 and the Web of 1995-1997. It’s hard to conceive now, with the internet being so ubiquitous and full-featured, but in 1996 you could barely do anything with the HTML. Netscape 1.0 had no CSS, no JavaScript,…
Im scheduled to be a speaker at the upcoming BeMore Festival. The festival is put on my ADPList. It’s a free service for designers to get mentorship. I have been an active mentor on that platform since Feb 2022. My talk is specifically for designers in the beginning of their…
Exactly 10 years ago, we got a red foot tortoise as a pet. Ningami was a friendly creature who liked to have his shell rubbed and would do a little dance when he was happy. He roamed around my floor and patio eating lettuce and hiding in cardboard boxes. He…
Joe Biden gave a speech the other night at the DNC convention in Chicago. I can not exaggerate how much I think this speech was a lost opportunity for him to cement his legacy as one of the best presidents ever. I imagined a better speech for him. This is…
I made a presentation recently of the evolution of software. From desktop applications (from way back like VisiCalc and XTreeGold) to modern web applications. The thing I find interesting was the split in designers who make applications look like “websites” (with a sitemap) and those that make the application look…
I recently heard someone say that using a design system took all of the creativity away from the designer. I found this point of view troubling and ultimately think it leads to unhappy designers and poor software. Many designers get into design as a career because as children they liked…